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Atkins diets and standing desks aren't going to fix more fundamental issues with a pervasively unhealthy culture.
by davedx 15y ago
Atkins diets and standing desks aren't going to fix more fundamental issues with a pervasively unhealthy culture.
- astrofinch 15y agoI agree, our culture's unhealthiness is such that no incremental improvement in our lifestyle can make us incrementally healthier.
- fullmoon 15y agoHow can an incremental improvement in our lifestyle NOT make us incrementally healthier?
- ed 15y agoI suspect that was the joke.
- ramchip 15y agoI think he may have been saying this sarcastically.
- AlexC04 15y agoI too thought he was being sarcastic, but then I noticed there was a complete lack of smilies and rejected the notion as absurd.
- St-Clock 15y agoMaybe linear would be more appropriate than incremental as in: not all improvements in our lifestyle will have the same impact on our health. If you stand up and move every 20-30 minutes but you eat sugary and fatty food all the time, the improvement of your small breaks will be marginal in the long run compared to all the other problems you'll get. On the other hand, if you sit down all day but eat healthier food (good fat, more proteins, less calories, fibers), the benefits of this lifestyle will be greater. Stress management and reduction also comes to mind (of course taking a small break and moving around can help that).
- jsherer 15y agoI agree. Balanced nutrition is essential for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, not just a sit-stand desk, and "walking around". I would argue that the effects of a sit-stand desk only mask the true, underlying problem of overall poor health choices.
- astrofinch 15y agoI find that if I restate someone's argument absurdly and preface my statement with "I agree", people are less likely to see me as an antagonist and more likely laugh at themselves. (This is actually one of my favorite tactics for productive disagreement.)
- jonnathanson 15y agoTrue. Instead of obsessing over whether we should sit in place for 10 hours straight, or stand in place for 10 hours straight, we should think about moving around a bit. Walk around the office floor every now and then. Trade a few emails for in-person stop-bys. Keep a refillable coffee cup or glass of water, and walk to the farthest kitchen or breakroom for refills each time. Pace the halls like a crazy person when brainstorming. Etc. To a large degree, sedentary is sedentary, no matter how you dress it up. Our bodies did not evolve to sit (or stand) in a fixed location for most of the waking day. And our brain's health is highly correlated with cardiovascular health.
- saturdaysaint 15y agoThis is a bit of a broadside against two really positive trends. -The Atkins diet has some serious flaws (in short: not enough vegetables, not enough warning against harmful fats/oils/processing) but deserves real credit for the ongoing movement away from processed carbohydrates. He exposed the fallacy of associating dietary fat with body fat. He probably had more right than the 80's and 90's health establishment (that food pyramid was an abomination). -The modern white-collar workplace is an absolutely bizarre environment for a species that's been without anything resembling a "building" for something like %99 of its history, let alone artificial light, computing metaphors or office chairs - experimentation with ergonomics and the whole enterprise of spending our waking hours indoors should be encouraged, not treated dismissively.
- achompas 15y agoThese "sitting studies" condition on a person's lifestyle, i.e. given two people who are both active outside of work, the person who sits more has a greater risk of problems than the one who doesn't. I'm sorry I don't have a citation (nor am I going to dig for one) but this has been mentioned ad nauseam in prior threads. You should check those out (as well as the studies they discuss).