Americans in Denial About Health
That’s the conclusion of a recent survey by Mintel, a global marketing research company. According to their data:
- only 25% of respondents think they’re overweight or obese (while Mintel’s own data from a separate report on obesity indicates 65% of respondents fall into this category).
- 70% think they should exercise more… but evidently don’t (only 37% say they exercise “regularly”, while 48% work out twice/wk or less).
- 65% say they “try to eat healthier food these days” but 59% say they eat the foods they like “regardless of calories” and 45% feel they often overeat.
The survey respondents clearly indicate that the vast majority (90%) think it’s “very important” or at least “somewhat important” to live a healthy lifestyle, but are evidently not following up. It’s not as if the messages aren’t getting through, but it seems that they’re not being taken seriously.
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Makster on 09 Sep 2009 at 9:00 am #
I think most people are unable to make the choice to change their lifestyle to make it healthier on their own. It seems like there needs to be a drastic health issue before they try a different path.
I don’t know how many times people in my own family have said they were going to “go on a diet” or “start working out”, but still have’nt, or did it only for a short time.
Just last week a friend of mine asked me to help him try to get in better shape.He wanted to be able to help his son practice for sports. I asked him a few questions about his goals. He was very insistant about how important this was.
I asked him to keep a food log for the rest of the week and we would get together and see what changes he could make. Well he stopped in yesterday and never said a word about the log or the change in lifestyle.
I guess like most people talk is easy, change is hard.
Elissa on 09 Sep 2009 at 3:49 pm #
A couple of weeks ago, I had a chat with an older, overweight man at the gym. He was a Type 2 diabetic and just starting to exercise (he was doing a PT session with one of the trainers). He asked me about what I thought of Nutrisystem. I pointed out the limitations, and tried to encourage him to work on eating whole foods (you know the drill: lean protein, veggies/fruits, healthy fats). He shrugged it off, saying: “I don’t want to cook.” As we talked, it was clear that he was quite reluctant to make any lifestyle changes at all, and wanted to do only the bare minimum.
That blew me away. He was a sick man, yet he didn’t seem particularly motivated to improve. It was as if his disease was an inconvenience, rather than a wake up call.
Go figure…
dennis on 10 Sep 2009 at 4:48 am #
i really think this lack of wanting to get fit has to do with it being “hard to do.” when somebody wants to do the bare minimum, what else can you say? people realize how hard it is and then decide it is not for them. people tend to obey one of newton’s laws. an object at rest tends to stay at rest until acted upon by an external force. likewise for an object already in motion. self motivation is a very hard thing for certain people.
Elissa on 10 Sep 2009 at 5:17 am #
Change is definitely hard: no doubt about that. And there’s nothing wrong with taking it in smaller steps, vs. trying to make a lot of radical changes across the board.
But attitude makes all the difference. If they see each small step as making progress towards a larger goal, then it’s all good. If – on the other hand – they resent having to take steps at all, and do so only with extreme reluctance, then I don’t see a whole lot of hope.