There has been an abundance of information written about all the benefits of exercise and healthy diet for people. Some research writes about the prevention of certain diseases that exercise can help with. A few actually mention some health problems that can be cured with exercise. Health problems that are associated with obesity can be prevented, and in some cases, cured, with exercise. High blood pressure and arthritis are two more health problems that benefit from a person being active. While these health problems are actual diseases, or impairments that people that are sedentary tend to have more than an active person there is one more advantage that I became aware of from this latest cold and freezing weather.
When there are disasters, people often tend to overreact. One time it will be a shortage of toilet paper. Another time will be a shortage of water. The cold weather caught many people short of food and essentials for comfort. Trips to the grocery store for food often found the shelves of food empty. The problem was made more critical when the trucks that supply the stores with supplies were not able to travel because of the road conditions. Lines to get into the store were long, and even when the people were allowed in the store, they were met with very limited access to food, or empty shelves.
One observation I noted on a recent trip to the grocery store is that a healthy person has a slight advantage in shopping. Much of this advantage comes from most of the population being overweight and obese from eating what is classified as ‘unhealthy’ diet choices. A few examples from my shopping experience are as follows. I like to drink ‘fat free’ milk. All the whole milk, 2% milk, and 1% milk, was gone. The only milk left was the fat free milk. That preference to drink milk with no fat paid off on the shopping trip. I like to put fresh fruit on my breakfast cereal. The blueberries and blackberry containers were no problem finding a way into my shopping cart. The trail mix, yogurt covered raisons, berry mix, etc. were also adequate choices. Finding a certain type of potato chips and other flavored types of chips was a real search to find. I like 100% whole wheat bread and there were loafs of my choice on the shelf. The white bread shelves were almost empty. For dessert I like a small bowl of yogurt. The choices of tapioca pudding and rice pudding were empty. For cereal I usually choose large biscuit shredded wheat, raison bran, fruit museli mix, and plain cheerios. I had no problem finding these brands for breakfast. The Trix, Fruit Loops, Chocolate Cheerios, etc., sugar cereal was in short supply.
The trip to the grocery store and not having a problem finding what I wanted, and seeing the ‘fast food’ or sugared treats in short supply, and the empty shelves, made me realize why we have such a large population of overweight people. When a person is mostly sedentary, and eating poor calorie rich food, the possibility of gaining excess weight becomes an easy result from unhealthy choices. The positive outcome of this is that when the poor choices of food are gone, the only option is to eat the healthy food choices. It will probably be for a few meals, but every little bit helps. And there is always the chance that once the person eats the healthy choices they may find out that it is good tasting and continue to buy it. I know that drinking fat free milk made drinking whole milk, or even 2% milk, taste like drinking fat. Tough to go back after fat free milk becomes a standard. My first try at fat free milk had me thinking it was white colored water. Now I can’t drink any other percentage of fat milk without tasting the fat content. When you realize the even 1% milk is 25% fat in calories you can understand. The 1% is the volume of fat in the milk, not the calorie content.
It was a nice realization that being active and trying to eat healthy has benefits other than health problems. I never realized that shopping for groceries was another benefit to add to the reason for a healthy diet and exercise.
