Hi Everyone,
I found the essay by J. Metzel very interesting, for many different reasons. It made me delve deeper into the meaning of what health actually is, how it surrounds us in our everyday lives and how we make moral assumptions on a daily basis. I found the read challenging at times and had to read it over a few times to get what the authors were arguing. Health is a complex issue and I feel that their is no concrete definition when discussing the concept of health.
In his first essay, author Jonathan Metzel talks about the assumption we make based on our morals. Metzel discusses what assumptions we make when we see people smoking, when we see someone who is obese or when we see a lady breastfeeding. The breastfeeding assumption hits home for me as my wife just gave birth to our son Jack, 9 months ago. Of course everyone in my family and people in my everyday life had their input on how we should parent, sleep train and feed our baby. Many people, including both my grandparents explained to us that we should be solely breastfeeding our son and that bottle feeding would not be sufficient, they explained that back in their day everyone breastfed. Breastfeeding is was healthier and our baby won’t get what he needs from solely formula feeding him. This was frustrating for us as new parents and a prime example of a social pressure that we faced. Metzel discusses that exact assumption in his findings. I am guilty of making moral assumptions on a daily basis. One of my favourite hobbies is going to the gym and working out. After reading the article I had a lot of “wow” moments. When I see an obese person I jump to many different conclusions, ultimately thinking to myself how unhealthy that person is, how they must overeat and how their overall health has to be terrible. After the reading it challenged my thoughts and I will now put myself in check when I go to make these assumption again.
Social pressures to become fit and ultimately be “healthy” surround us everywhere we go. From billboards, tv commercials, to magazines like Men’s/Women’s Health we are blanketed with pressures to be “healthy”. I taught grade 10 English 3 years ago and media literacy was always a popular unit that we covered. Here you see a cigarette article from a company who uses a slim, good looking female to promote smoking their brand.
This always made me shake my head. I know that we are surrounded by advertisements of good looking people but from this advertisement one assumes that you can look like a model and smoke these brand of cigarettes. This challenged my thinking many times over, is she really healthy? She looks healthy on the outside, she’s in fact very attractive but is she in fact healthy? The cliche line of “Sex Sells” is true. Companies don’t use obese, acne filled models to promote their product, they use sexy, fit, tanned models. I am an avid Men’s Health reader but I don’t believe a lot of what they are trying to promote/sell. After reading the essay it makes me look past the cover and ask myself, is he or she really healthy? They sure do look like it. 
PS- If you want to “fast track your six-pack” all you have to do is open this edition lol
2)
Richard Klein makes some eye opening points in his article, “What is health and how do you get it?”I found his article unique in that he took an “out of the box” approach to health and definitely makes the reader think in an opposite manner of what one is used to.
Klein makes interesting points as it pertains to dieting and the harms it could cause. This topic I found very interesting and the points he makes are valid. Most recently I have put on some extra weight becoming lazy after my wife gave birth to our first child. I like to call it my “dad bod”, but the “dad bod” was becoming too much.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dad%20bod
In an attempt to drop weight I researched different diets and methods of dropping pounds by changing up my diet. I’m living proof that binge diets don’t work. Going from eating whatever I wanted and maintaining a decent physique for many years to restricting my diet of carbs and trans fats. This method worked for a short time but then my cravings came on heavier. I started to veer away from the “diet” and by the end I was actually putting on more weight because I fell into what Klein refers to as the “yo-yo diet”, I added weight back on. It was clear I needed balance in my diet and once I found a happy medium I started to see results. I modified my eating and controlled my portions but didn’t eliminate carbs and fats all together. I finally got back to where I wanted to be.
As the reading progresses Klein gets into the philosophical side of health. I found this difficult to follow but at the same time interesting to hear the critique. Klein discusses the Epicurean way of thinking, putting pleasure in the place of thought. I found this very unique and it put my mind in a whole other gear. Klein discusses the idea of alcohol being a drug. The CASA at Columbia University calls alcohol “a premier drug of abuse in America”. Klein goes on to argue that no one talks about the positives of alcohol but merely focused on the negatives. I found this very interesting and have never thought about it from that angle because from a health perspective, alcohol seems to be smothered with the negative. I do like a cold beer in the summer and believe it does add to one’s social life. Klein discusses the positives and makes a great point that alcohol may have played a big part in the creation of civilization.
Overall, I found the readings challenged my thought process but also made me view health in a different light. I did find the readings challenging and at times hard to understand/comprehend but in the end both authors were unique in their thoughts and how they approached the articles was very interesting.
I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s readings as I snacked on nine chocolate covered almonds (two hundred and twenty calories per nine almond serving). During my reading, I also made a few intermittent trips up the stairs in my house to complete the laundry, hoping to gain an edge on steps so that I can beat my friend Lisa in daily steps this week (as recorded within my FitBit application on my iPhone.) On one trip up the stairs, I stopped to check my hair in the bathroom mirror and then decided to lift up my shirt to check in on my seven week postpartum belly that (unfortunately) just does not look magazine quality anymore (well, not that it ever really did.)
This week’s readings really hit home. What has “health” become in the public eye? What beast has “health” been made out to be? Metzel (2010) starts off by having us consider how we judge others in their health choices; where an individual may intend one thing, but be seen by others as having a different motive, one that they often become judged on. I find this happens all the time and sadly I find myself doing it too. When I see people smoking, I might think, “how can you be so negligent towards your health, with what today’s society knows about the dangers of smoking”, keeping in mind my grandfather (an avid smoker) who passed away of lung cancer in his fifties. However the person smoking that cigarette may just be doing what he or she needs to relax for a minute, reset their mindset, so that they can be more present and rejuvenated for their occupation, or time spent with their significant other and children. Another scenario being someone at the gym who stares at themselves and flexes in the mirror; I might assume that they are full of themselves and are trying to show off, where perhaps he or she feels discouraged, like he or she just can not keep up with the pressures put on them by the magazine he or she subscribes to, unable to attain and find the definition they are looking and striving for. Metzel (2010) points out that media plays such an impactful role in how we view our own health and how we view others; everyone is impacted by pressures put on us by the ideal male and female figure that we see in magazines and on TV. We are so judgemental as a society. As Metzel (2010) mentions, people are critiqued constantly; maybe an overweight person is too broke to afford healthy foods, is lazy, or can not control themselves. Celebrities get it more than anyone (in my opinion), being publicly scrutinized for gaining a few too many pounds, or for losing too much weight at once, regardless of the reason or method used to transform. What does “a few too many pounds” really mean anyway? Actors likely spend millions in trying to maintain their appearance with liposuction and botox injections just so they can keep up with their younger costars because youth and anti-aging “beauty” is what is celebrated. Never mind that the image of a female most often celebrated in the media probably comes with a heavily restricted diet, lacking in important nutrients, rendering a female infertile due to a low body fat percentage. It is just awful…and unhealthy in my opinion!
Metzel (2010) and Klein (2010) raise a great point – what does “health” really mean? I had not really considered it prior to reading this book’s few assigned pages. Is “health” the image we strive to attain? Is “health” the diets, taking the supplements and drinks mixes, the fear of becoming fat, the six pack we are all expected to have, or the smoke or drink we are not supposed to enjoy? No. In reflection and consideration of these readings, my belief is that health is a positive state of mind and body that will be different in action for every individual who is honest with themselves. For me, my health is reflected through daily physical activity, time spent with my family, chocolate in a modest dose every day, and a glass of wine or pint of beer with a meal, whenever I feel like it. I find pleasure in each of those things and therefore support, to some extent, the Epicurean mind frame that Klein (2010) speaks to. If we do not find pleasure in what we do, can we ever have a sound state of mind? Can we ever be well? Which brings up one of Klein’s (2010) finishing points in the chapter, we need to define “health” operationally so that we can have meaningful, coherent conversations about what we need to be doing to live a “healthy” life; further to that, not what we should be avoiding. We should not be focused on what we need to not acquire: a flabby belly, cancer, alcoholism, or saturated fats. We need to focus on what we want and what we can do to get it in order to live healthfully. It is like what I share with my Physical Education students, “Be active because it is good for you and it makes you feel good.” Maybe while doing next week’s readings I will have a tenth or eleventh chocolate covered almond, I will do my laundry all at once, just enjoy my daily walk and leave my FitBit at home, and when I look in the mirror, I will smile and say, “A baby came out of that belly seven weeks ago, now that is pretty impressive.”
References
Metzel, J. (2010). Introduction: Why “against health”? In Against Health: How Health became the New Morality, edited by J. M. Metzl and A. Kirkland (pp. 1–11). New York: New York University Press.
Klein, R. (2010). What is health and how do you get it? In Against Health: How Health became the New Morality, edited by J. M. Metzl and A. Kirkland (pp. 15–25). New York: New York University Press.
