Redefining Healthy

I absolutely call this healthy behavior.

If you’re new here… welcome! As the rest of you may know, I am completing a Masters in Human Nutrition and studying to become a Registered Dietitian. I am excited about it. I am frustrated with it. I am burdened by it. But mostly… I’m fascinated by it.

Yesterday an RD at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control spoke to my class. I thought she was brilliant. She was radiant and intelligent and passionate. She told us that now is one of the best times to be entering the field of dietetics. After all, we are facing a major obesity epidemic [if you do nothing else with this post, look at that link], and the cost of sustaining this way of life is, according to one of my professors, “enormous.”

Obesity-related diseases are a force to be reckoned with, and we (new, bright-eyed dietitians-to-be) are charged with tackling some pretty massive (no pun intended) problems. Like ensuring that this generation of children live longer lives than their parents (even though the odds are against us right now). And working to make healthcare costs for obesity-related diseases drop. But we’re also entering into this battle with a culture that wants a quick fix with a pill or surgery.

People seem to have the wrong idea about healthy. They seem to think it’s too hard… too restrictive… too expensive… too time-consuming. According to the dietitian that spoke to us, the solution to our problem is to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

But how do we do this? How do we make healthy easier than fast food? Easier than microwave meals? Easier than drive through windows? Easier than a pill? Easier than surgery?

Redefine healthy.

The first question I get when I tell people I’m studying to be a dietitian: “Oh! So you can help me lose weight?”

Yes, I can. But let’s not equate weight loss with health. It’s important, yes… hugely important. But if you want my honest opinion, weight loss alone will not end the obesity epidemic. Why? Because it’s a symptom of a bigger problem. Our collective weight gain as a nation (the fattest nation in the world, mind you) is a product of our lifestyle–our work ethic, our stress level, our cars, our technology–and unless we change this way we’re living, we will not put an end to this way we’re dying.

Right now, diet is a four-letter word. It’s a punishment, a prison sentence.

Redefine healthy.

People consider “healthy” to be diet food, discipline and no desserts. “Healthy” doesn’t fit the American lifestyle. It’s too slow (we’re busy!)… too expensive (we’re frugal!)… too little (we want more!). Does it make sense to solve the problem by fighting the American way of life? No! No one wants to feel like they’re being punished.

The word “diet” comes from the Greek word “diata,” or prescribed way of living. I don’t know when it came to be synonymous with restriction and punishment. But if we can get people to see health and diets as a way to live, what an easier job we hopeful young dietitians would have.

How do you make the healthy choice the easy choice in your own life? What kinds of things hold you back? How can we get our new definition of healthy to work around those roadblocks and fit the way we live?