 The other night my husband Phil and I were watching Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" segment on television. If you're not familiar with Jaywalking, it' s where Leno will ask people on the street questions that most of us mature citizens in the U.S. were forced to learn back in grammar school. I say " forced” with a great deal of gratitude and respect for the teachers who pounded government, geography, history, etc. into our brains until we screamed for mercy ... wondering why we needed to know this "stuff", only to find out later that we actually used the information as we continued to grow "more mature", plus making us feel like we could be the top contestant on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" when answering most all of the questions correctly from our armchair.
As we were watching the younger generations, between the age of late teens and forty (oh yes, forty looks young to me) unable to answer 99% of the easiest questions Jay asked about our country … such as who is the Vice President of the United States … I became increasing concerned that they were doing the same thing with their health ... learning absolutely NOTHING that could possibly encourage a long healthy life. How did I know they were doing nothing? They were right there on the television screen … overweight and oblivious to how their deficient bodies will affect their lifestyle and their families in a few short years. What caused me to sit down and write about this is due to over hearing a conversation between a young woman in her early twenties and her hairstylist about how she got her daily vitamins. I perked up hoping to hear good news … it didn' t happen. The young woman expressed that she didn' t take vitamins because she got all she needed in her cereal bar each morning. Of course, I sat there looking at this young woman, the picture of what she considered to be healthy … approximately 75 pounds overweight and a complexion problem of a 14 year old. She commented with confidence that she was getting 100% of the RDA from that ONE cereal bar and needed nothing more in the line of nutrition each day. I wanted to ask her if she knew what the RDA meant, but I decided not to mess with her head. My philosophy is if you' re asked a nutritional question, answer … if not, just shake your head back and forth and sigh. So … was she getting her Recommended DAILY Allowance or her Recommended DIETARY Allowance? It was quite obvious the young woman wanted to believe that she was getting all she needed in nutritional supplementation, but was totally clueless regarding what her body really needed on a daily basis. Aren' t most of us guilty of wanting to believe and do whatever keeps us in OUR comfort zone? We' re all looking for an easy life, but life is work. We get out of it what we put into it … the same applies to our bodies. Many people accept the RDA as all they need for good health, but have you ever really wondered how the RDA was established? Probably not, so if you care to know let' s move on and take a look. Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) - the average daily dietary intake of a nutrient that is sufficient to meet the requirement of nearly all (97-98%) healthy persons. This is the number to be used as a goal for individuals. It is calculated from the EAR. What is the EAR … it' s certainly not what' s stuck on each side of our heads. The Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) - the amount of a nutrient that is estimated to meet the requirement of half of all healthy individuals in a given age and gender group. How many healthy people are we talking about … five? Fifty thousand? Fifty million? I give up … where is the group who established the RDA hiding this 97-98% per cent of healthy persons? The young woman in the hair salon certainly wasn' t in that group; if she was then I' m in the wrong business. I should market a cereal bar. As I continued to eavesdrop on the enlightening conversation between the girl and her stylist I noticed a sign of encouragement on the wall above her head. It read "Always accept yourself as self-employed and look upon every single thing you accomplish or don' t accomplish as your own responsibility." In my mind I kept going over the last three words … "your own responsibility." Scary, huh? How many times in our lives do we let someone else take responsibility for something we should be doing ourselves? Then when it runs amok we' re quick to point the finger at them and not ourselves. Duh! You will be an informed person if you read and ask questions, but you' ll be a wise person if you seek out the truth in the information you are given. When it comes to your health … know all you can because like it or not it "your health really is your responsibility". Until later; 
|