The likeliness of fellow Virginian following the example of the Blue Zones depends on multiple complicated factors. As a society drenched in desire for immediate satisfaction and a need for constant work to fill in that satisfaction I find it unreasonable say adopting the habits of the Blue Zones that Dan Buettner describes is simple. This doesn’t mean it’s not impossible to be inspired by the Blue Zones residents. We could all strive for eating healthy and maintain healthier relationships within our lives. However to be able to completely gain the health benefits and longevity that the people within the Blue Zones enjoy we’d have to be born into a society that is similar to the people on the Blue Zone. Dan Buettner is not wrong in stating that we as Americans aren’t the …show more content…
Life expectancy is only 78 when it the capacity is about 90 or so. “So somewhere along the line, we’re leaving about 12 good years on the table.” (Buettner par. 10). In a way it almost feels like we can’t even treasure the 78 years we approximately have, much less the added 12 years we could potentially have. Most of our life seems to be spent on instant needs and desires being fulfilled, leaving little satisfaction or enjoyment. If we want communication and companionship we text them and move on. If we’re hungry we buy fast food or eat anything in front of us and move on. If we feel we need to lose weight we go on a diet, start a training regime, finish it and move on. We spend so much time using short-term solutions that we rarely find the time to consider long-term enjoyment. 2 The Blue Zones on the other hand live in a society where nothing is short-term. The healthy diets the people of the Blue Zones have been on have been diets they’ve maintained their whole lives. The friendships in the Blue Zone Okinawa can be forged straight from birth and are maintained for decades (Buettner par. 20). The lifestyle Adventist people from the Blue
know that each day the level of sick and obese people are increasing more and more. We need to
People in lower classes are more likely to get sicker more often and to die quicker. People in metro Louisville reveal 5- and 10-year gaps in life expectancy between the city’s rich, middle- and working-class neighborhoods. Those who live in the working class neighborhood face more stressors like unpaid bills, jobs that pay little to nothing, unsafe living conditions, and the fewest resources available to help them, all of these contribute to the health issues.
addition, more recently we have experience even greater change. There is now about ten to
live in. Whoever is proud of what we have advanced to, and is unwilling to
Prior to taking it, I was unaware that the greatest difference in life expectancy observed between counties in the U.S. was 15 years. I was amazed that simply being born in a different zip code could affect life expectancy so greatly. This profoundly supports the conclusion environment affects health. Health expert Michael Marmot realized that a subway ride from an impoverished African American neighborhood to an affluent white suburb in Washington D.C. saw an average increased life expectancy of a year and a half for every mile traveled, totaling up to twenty years. We cannot control the neighborhood we are born into, and to see that such an uncontrollable factor can affect longevity so greatly in an industrialized nation, like the U.S., is astonishing (“Health equity quiz”, 2008). I was particularly amazed that in west Los Angeles, white neighborhoods have nearly 19 times as much green space as Black and Latino neighborhoods. The white neighborhoods have nearly 31.8 acres of park space for every 1,000 people, while the minority neighborhoods only have 1.7 acres of park space (“Health equity quiz”, 2008). Traveling in Las Vegas, parks can be found in nearly every area. Although there are probably more parks in wealthier areas, we do not see such a great discrepancy in our numbers-- or so it appears. To see that such a heavily populated city, like Los Angeles, treats residents so disproportionately was
I’ll use a metaphor for example. During the Great Depression, people lost tons of money. They were poor and struggling. Once the Great Depression was over and they had sufficient money, they were still scared of losing it again, so they didn’t want to spend it. This is how your metabolism works!
fulfillment of his desires, yet with every demand met, he soon finds dissatisfaction. The longer a
In society today, everything is about the “now”. Everyone wants something instantaneously. Because of the desire for instant gratification, people are overcome by what they desire which causes them to quench their yearnings by obtaining what they want. For example, an individual that has just graduated from high school and he wants money, so he gets a job at a fast-food chain instead of pursuing a college degree. He wants money now and does not want to pay for college even though he would be making more money over his lifetime in his profession than he does at the fast food-chain.
How often do we text? Text messaging is a very useful way to communicate; but, there are occasions where texting is unnecessary, for example in meetings, watching movies, interacting with family, and even in the shower. However, while texting can be overused, it can also help us get to know one another in easier and faster ways. In Natalie Y. Moore’s article “The Rule of Thumbs: Love in the Age of Texting," she explains how the use of texting it is slowly destroying the love between two people (Moore, 1). Although, some people might agree with Moore points of view, when she argues that texting is killing romance and it should be reserved for some notifications, such as “I’m running late;” others might disagree with this idea
Lack of satisfaction not only hampers the overall growth and development of an individual from a wellbeing point of view but also adversely stresses the interpersonal and societal functioning of the individual. Its severe deficit in today’s world drives us to explore
Throughout history people of color have been designated for and isolated to communities that repeat the cycles of poverty by way of poor schools, lack of employment, poor housing opportunities, and lack of adequate healthcare. It is for this reason that poor health outcomes exist. Often times due to economic situations there is no option of choosing what type of lifestyle that you live. Thus, most often times you simply become a product of the environment by circumstance.
...uller-Thompson et al., 2000). In general, it is assumed that people living in a well - developed environment are more likely in better health condition since they could be more active outside of their residence (Kuo et al., 1998); while poor housing condition could increase the risks of physical health problem (Dunn, 2000).
As time goes by, a person must care for themselves. As a child begins to grow up their health can be affected by their families race economic status, and even a person 's gender. Since a person cannot control what economic class they are born into, it can cause hardships in regards to an economic standard.
People think that by being comfortable and living one’s life according to a predictable schedule, that they are safe - content, things are not going to get worse. That while they can't go forward anymore there is also no going backwards. But really by doing nothing new, by remaining solitary in your own way of predictable being, regardless of comfort, you are still doing the same things you did back when you decided to keep things going the same way, hence you are actually moving backwards. Many times people mistakenly compare contentment to a glass of water. 100% full would mean all your needs and desires will be met so you'll be content. The problem with this way of thinking is, if some of the water evaporates you're stuck thinking “fuck
... satisfied with life. Through the ‘focusing illusion’ we convince ourselves that satisfaction equals happiness. Unfortunately it doesn’t. Even though we appear to have everything, we are left feeling that something is missing, but are unable to identify what that thing is.