In regards to our health habits…
It’s not OK to serve funnel cake, french toast, and waffles as a school breakfast.
It’s not OK to line the hospital cafeteria with soda machines and serve pizza and wings for lunch.
It’s not OK to serve burgers and fries and other “fast foods” on a regular basis as school lunches.
It’s not OK to eat out several times per week, fast food or otherwise.
It’s not OK to feed your young kids fast food on a regular basis (1X per month is even excessive).
It’s not OK to let your kids drink soda or juice or other sweet drink on a daily basis.
It’s not OK to not eat at least 6 servings of fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.
It’s not OK to serve donuts and coffee at every staff meeting.
It’s not OK for doctors to ignore expanding waistlines and poor nutritional status.
It’s not OK to take medications for lifestyle related illness without a plan to eventually one day get off them.
It’s not OK for our kids to be obese.
It’s not OK for our doctors and nurses to be morbidly obese (or anyone else for that manner).
It’s not OK for men’s waists to be greater than 35 inches and women’s to be over 33 inches.
It’s not OK to regularly fry food in butter and/or oil (any oil).
It’s not OK for kids to sell candy for fundraising.
It’s not OK to put down others for trying to eat and live a more healthy lifestyle.
It’s not OK to ignore signs of poor health and continue disease promoting behaviors.
It’s not OK to (please comment and add your own here)
No one’s perfect. It is OK to treat yourself from time to time. But it is not OK for us to be satisfied with our current poor state of health. Learn to recognize the signs of poor health. More importantly, do something once you recognize it.
Stay tuned for an upcoming post that will list the early warning signs of poor health…
Dr. Touchinsky, Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County 
Wow! That was a great post. I eat and live a healthy lifestyle for health reasons. Once in a while I treat myself to something that isn’t healthy and I feel ill for at least a day after doing it. I think my body is so used to healthy food , that is just reacts to unhealthy food.
Thank you for that post! It was wonderful! We need to be reminded of those things from time to time.
Thanks for the comment! Just to be clear because I know some people will complain, it’s OK to have a treat here and there. Our problem though is that most people treat themselves all the time. Like you say though, now when I ‘splurge’, I just feel ill. Not that I didn’t feel ill before, but since I felt like that all the time, I didn’t know the difference. I think this is how most people live unfortunately.
It’s not okay to put down others for trying to eat healthy but it is okay to put down others for eating how they want to eat?? You eat healthy because it’s your choice to. You want to. Good for you. People don’t eat healthy because of the same reason’s. It’s their choice. They want to. So who are you to put them down because they don’t eat how you think they’re supposed to? Who are you to say any of this? The kids at school aren’t forced to eat those things. They have every option to pack their own healthy lunch. I think I understand what you’re trying to do by writing this article but you went about it the wrong way.
Where did I put down anyone? I did not insult anyone in this post. I did not say anyone is a bad person in this post. I just said the above activities are not OK. This is a blog, so I will remind you that it is implied that this is all in my opinion of course.
Regarding the school children… We should not be using tax payers money to feed our kids foods that most would consider poor food choices and/or “fast food”. We are teaching kids poor habits for 12 years of their life, then expecting them to eat correctly once they become adults. I think that is a sin. Plus, not all kids have the option to pack a lunch due to finances at home or parents that just won’t do that.
And who am I? I am a health care practitioner that deals with people that make poor health choices that are suffering because of it. I deal with organizations that work to improve the health of our public. I see the impact it has on themselves and those around them. I feel it is my duty to promote more healthful behaviors and challenge people to think about doing things differently. It’s almost as if our culture has accepted that poor diet, lack of physical activity, and poor health is the norm. The result of that speaks for itself by looking at our obesity rates, incidence of lifestyle related diseases, and the amount of money we spend on health care as a nation (yet are ranked 37th in the world in health stats). Not sure where you live, but our county was 4th to last in the state in health when I wrote this a few years ago.
So, I think more people need to get this message out there. If that offends you, I’m sorry. I’m more worried about the other 100 people that I hope to challenge to think a different way.
I don’t think it was your intention to put anyone down, but as someone on the other end of this I can tell you reading this article didn’t make me feel good about myself. I felt put down. Saying because i don’t eat 6 servings of fruits or vegies everyday is not okay put me down. Again i don’t think that was your intention but it’s what happened. I don’t eat healthy. I eat what i crave and I’m happy.
When I was in school, it was cheaper to pack a lunch than to eat at the school. That might have changed but i doubt it. Saying it’s a sin to teach such bad health habits in school is a bit of an exaggeration don’t you think? I could think of a lot of things that are much worse.
What it boils down to is opinion. You’re right. This is you’re opinion. Feel free to express it. In the future though I would go about it in a different way.
I hear ya. You have some valid points. The post was meant to challenge peoples’ current thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors, and that can make some people feel uncomfortable. This isn’t a commentary on a person’s worth, morals, etc. This is just simply saying that the above things are not OK from the perspective of promoting optimal health. I certainly don’t always do all of the above, but I don’t fool myself by saying it’s perfectly fine without any negative consequences.
This is an extreme example, but is it not appropriate to counsel an alcoholic that excessive drinking is damaging to their health and their life?
The school issue is very important in my opinion. I don’t think I’m overstating it at all. It’s the job of the schools to help cultivate productive adults that contribute to society. Part of that is teaching them to be a healthy individual. Days missed from work due to illness, productivity loss due to obesity, poor physical fitness, etc. is killing small and large businesses. There is no better chance to teach good nutrition, personal hygiene, etc. and instill good habits than throughout the time our kids are in school.
Again, if we look at the health stats of our nation (and my local area), they are abysmal. Something needs to change. Accepting mediocrity is no longer acceptable.