Derrick Coyle
If you know what is good for you – you may be interested in a couple of recent news releases on health matters that have been generating some discussion. Health warnings are not particularly unique – you can hardly watch an evening newscast or flip through a daily newspaper without being served up the latest indictment of something we do, don’t do, or haplessly ingest. The relentless barrage of public health advisories can also be found bundled in entertainment programs, like The Doctors (tattoos gone terribly wrong) or Doctor Oz (smoking alcohol is not particularly good for you).
Two separate – but somewhat related – reports caught my attention last week. In response to recent studies raising heart health concerns, the World Health Organization (WHO) has introduced new draft guidelines calling for significantly curtailed sugar consumption. Another study indicates the number of obese Canadians has tripled since the mid-1980’s. Projecting forward at this rate, one in five Canadians, it suggests, will be obese by the year 2019.
The WHO guideline is not yet finalized, still having to undergo the public consultation process, and Health Canada has not taken a position on safe sugar levels. But on the strength of the draft as it stands, one gets thinking about the sugar content in products routinely consumed now, and for people of my generation, over the course of a lifetime. WHO proposes that the ‘ideal’ daily limit for sugar is up to 5% of total calorie intake. For a healthy adult, this reportedly equates to just 25 grams per day.
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An informal survey of product labels over breakfast this morning was discouraging. A small glass of Tropicana orange juice (250 ml) racked up 23 grams (110 calories) on its own. With the Blue Menu Cranberry / Raspberry alternative, the sugar load was just 8 grams (40 calories). Here’s a link to check for sugar levels in some standard products (which I would caution against doing over a soft drink and chocolate bar).
Ever-evolving science generates countless reports telling us what we should eat and avoid in the interest of health. It likely doesn’t require a new study for most Canadians to recognize the direction obesity has taken over the past couple of decades and that sugar-laden products play a contributory role. If the WHO sugar recommendation settles at 5% of total daily calories, or even at the currently published guide level of 10%, any chance of compliance will clearly require some meaningful adjustments to the grocery lists of many families. But as with many personal initiatives, it may not be as much about achieving the end goal as it is reaping the incremental rewards of moving in the direction of it. Eliminating that tall vanilla latte from the morning routine cuts 27 grams of sugar per day.
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All this causes me to reflect on a few generational considerations – in terms of diet and exercise – that may factor into how we got here. When I was growing up, people didn’t seem to spend a lot of time fussing about food ingredients. Parents seemed intuitively savvy on the fundamentals of nutrition, but were largely oblivious to the latent dangers of salt, fats, and sugar. Fruit and vegetables were good for you, Sweet Tarts – not so much. The first order of business, for many households, was to whip up enough supply to feed the larger families of the era.
In our house we were well fed for the times. Potatoes and white bread served as the filler component. Red meats trumped fish or chicken in those days. Usually, roast beef or ham on Sundays, with mashed potatoes and gravy. Ground beef based creations incorporating leftovers were not uncommon. The occasional slab of liver was billed as a health supplement, but seemed to fall in mysterious succession to poor behaviour. Fortunately, ketchup was a condiment in ample supply, enhancing the palatability of unsavoury things lying beneath it. Lots of homemade soup filled our childhood years and bellies, albeit with generous applications of salt during production.
But these were also days of fresh fruits and vegetables, rather than the preservative-laden offerings – processed and packaged for maximum freezer life, pervasive in today’s marketplace. It was always butter, rather than margarine, and homogenized milk in our house, but rarely a trace of trans fats. Fast food outlets had scarcely made an appearance in the earlier days of my youth. Apart from the odd A&W, there weren’t many junk food dispensaries to offer that allure of convenience we have now.
Sugar products? Absolutely! Beyond the risk of tooth decay, which was dutifully battled with toothpaste and vigilant brushing, we really didn’t consider sweets as much of a health threat. I can remember gulping down multiple bottles of pop to quench a thirst on hot summer days, without the slightest inkling that it could be causing personal harm (though we did marvel at how a Coke could shine up a quarter in a matter of seconds). Packaged cake treats didn’t stand a chance. A single ice-cream sandwich just wouldn’t cut it. Two or three was more in order. Cream-filled donuts, chocolate eclairs, candy bars, or sugar-nuked candies, were well-earned treats. There was really no interest in what actually went into the creation of creamy nugget. It clearly made for a more pleasant taste experience. Orange juice in those days was considered a health food and was often guzzled by the litre. Yes, in hindsight, our generation grew up with plenty of sugar.
The beginning of the turnaround in our household may have been in 1974, when the cost of sugar spiked to heights never seen before, or since matched. It was a product for which we had been faithful consumers, in regular 4kg bag installments. In a show of solidarity – and likely not unrelated to the compulsions of our proud Irish-Scottish heritage – our family of seven staged a boycott (that I uphold to this day) by eliminating the two-three heaping teaspoons of sugar formerly piled into each cup of tea or coffee.
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On balance, my guess is the nutritional quality of my generation’s diet is not far off that of families today. There was likely enough fresh and healthy foods, back then, to offset the intake of sugars, salts, and fats that conspired against us in ways we didn’t fully understand. Today we are far better educated on dietary risk, but shamelessly seduced by the undeniable convenience of neatly processed, preserved, and packaged microwave meals cycling through our freezers. Or, we are insidiously lured by fast food outlets peppering the route home from a hard days work, subliminally reminding us it’s soccer night for the kids. Alas, the complete and effective exploitation of the disposable wherewithal and irreconcilable life schedules of weary, double-income parents.
What may be different between the generations is the relative level of exercise for children, on average. There are clearly all kinds of examples where kids are involved in organized team sports, or individual activities such as: gymnastics, swimming, and dance. Based on what I witnessed living in London and Oakville, soccer has become a huge growth area for recreational sport. What seems different to me, is what I’d characterize as spontaneous recreational pursuits.
I don’t remember much physical downtime for kids in my neighbourhood. Perhaps it was in partial relationship to the sugar high, but if we weren’t in school, eating, or sleeping, we were invariably outdoors doing something active. My family and friends were very much into sports. While we played organized hockey, baseball, and soccer, we were likely more active with informal pastimes like, street hockey, park football, schoolyard basketball, and cross-country skiing. The Rhodes Avenue Rangers would regularly compete for bragging rights against the teams assembled by other streets in the neighbourhood. There were also the makeshift activities like, burby, running bases, public pool swimming, Frisbee, and lots of bicycle riding.
While in Whitehorse, I noticed a few kids slapping a ball around with hockey sticks and was pleased to learn the universal cry of, “Time!” brought them to a freeze, allowing our group to walk safely past. Had that not worked, I was fully prepare to try, “Car!” or … “COPS!!” These days, however, street hockey seems more an oddity than the living postcard of Canada it once was.
I was horrified to hear of a dispute festering in my sister-in-law’s Etobicoke neighbourhood over the winter. After acquiring proper permits, a neighbour constructed an ice rink on their property on their lot behind the home, complete with boards and lighting. They had generously welcomed neighbourhood kids to use the rink. A childhood dream and great exercise, all in one. Apparently a group of neighbours filed a petition with the city, calling for the closure of the rink on account of noise. Say WHAT? This is the sweet noise of fun! The sound of health and fitness! The clamour of classic Canadiana! Happily, the petition seems to have been defeated as the games continue under the ideal conditions of an old-style winter.
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Also at play is the competing distraction of technology that keeps more kids (and grown-ups) indoors and idle. High-tech alternatives like Xbox, PlayStation, IPads, and social media are occupying recreational hours formerly spent on physical activity concocted with a few friends, a prop or two, and a little imagination. Now handhelds and video screens supply the reliable and entertaining playmate for sedentary kids, and provide exhausted parents the spin-off benefit of a few hours relief from the madness.
Home Gym (aka – the torture chamber)
While there may be no denying the trends reported, there are always exceptions. I see many examples of middle-aged men and women vigilantly countering increasingly lethargic metabolisms, with careful diets and regular exercise. And there are numerous examples of young parents managing nutrition and building exercise and activity into the family lifestyle. But in the face of convenience meals, dangerous ingredients, busy schedules, and couch accessible toys – it does seem to require a conscious commitment and the knowledge, planning, and discipline, to pull it off.
The way I see it, great strides start with small steps in the right direction. A little more attention to food labels, a little more resistance to the seduction of convenience, a little more effort to plan and prepare healthy meals, and a little more time on the strength and aerobic equipment currently lying dormant in the basement torture chamber.
Game on. Ten pounds, a 10K run, and a belt size by June.
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