Week 1 Post 3

 The way I and many others have approached a healthy lifestyle is all wrong. It really should not be about a weight on the scale, every body is different, but should be about, simply, having healthy practices that reduce risk of illness and injury. A person could eat healthy and exercise twice a day, and still not be seeing the results that they want because there are four steps to a healthy life: diet, exercise, sleep, and not smoking. What most Americans will miss is the sleep and relaxation portion. I am in a state of fairly constant stress. When someones cortisol levels are always elevated though, it has detrimental effects on all parts of their functions and processes. And if you are not sleeping or relaxing, your body effectively halts successful digestion (leptin is replaced with ghrelin). I have seen myself and others approach a healthier lifestyle using diets such as the keto diet, veganism, and carb-free/low fat. Really, the most damaging thing most of my peers are doing is spending 9 hours per day on their phone and finding 4 hours of sleep adequate. This drastically reduces a persons ability to function but especially makes depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses more prevalent. I may focus on the aspect that the American lifestyle has on our brains. But, I am shocked at just how prevalent hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses are and this would combine what I am interested in doing in the long term. When I think about what I want my career to be, I want to do something that will help people who need it the most. Those who are traditionally most targeted by the health care system and the American diet are those living in low-income neighborhoods with little access to healthy foods or information on how to take care of their bodies. Especially children who cannot control what foods they are supplied with. It infuriates me that the American government has intentionally lowered the life expectancy of Americans particularly for low income Americans and the only person who tried to combat it is Michelle Obama. 

From here, I would like to learn more about the effects of the American diet on our mental health. Why hasn't America taken more steps to combat the obvious effects of our current lifestyle? What can children do to combat these effects and better their health? What is being done right now? How did we get to this point? I would also love to learn and hear stories about people and doctors that have tried to combat the system.