Be Healthy or Avoid being Unhealthy?

Ever since I decided to switch my career goal from Business to Nutrition, one of my close friend started sending all sorts of articles relating to health, fitness and nutrition my way. It boggles my mind that when I was in high school no one did a double take when I told them I wanted to work in the business industry. And now in university, if I express my passion towards nutrition, it needs to be followed up by a small explanation of what led me to this. Nevertheless, I find it interesting to see people's reactions as I tell them I want to be a nutritionist because I like to help people. I feel that nutrition is one field that aims to help individuals lead healthier lives by working with them and not for them. Every client is unique and has different needs. There is no set procedure to follow when it comes to leading a healthier lifestyle and that's whats so beautiful about nutrition, to me anyway! (see the immediate desire to defend my career aspiration : )  )

This time around, the article that was sent to me was called "Health and Fitness tip" from the healthzone section in the Toronto Star website aimed at providing health tips to parents with young children. I tend to be somewhat skeptical of health tip articles because they need to be simple and easy to follow, however, health is anything but simple! But at the same time, some information is better than none (provided the information is correct and relevant). The need for such a list is understandable because we need to get the message out there to the public in a way that is easy, accessible to large groups of people and interesting enough for them to read. .


While I was doing some research relating to this article, I did a quick google search and by the looks of it, it seemed like every other person (expert and non-expert) is handing out parenting advice which made me feel bad for new parents. Not only is there so much pressure to be a good and responsible parent on one hand, but on the other, there is so much information out there that it becomes  tough for a lay person to know what to follow and what to ignore (especially if one is unfamiliar with the topic, which is likely to be the case for most parents). It also seems like young parents are always under the watchful eye of the public- we tend to be rather quick to judge a parent if we see them scolding their child in public without even knowing what the situation is (perhaps the child was doing something dangerous). I am not claiming to be an expert in parenting by any means, and neither am I advocating a certain way of parenting. All I am trying to say is that we tend to be quick to judge parents at first glance (influenced by our experiences and/or bias) without really looking at the scenario from all viewpoints before forming an opinion.

In a nutshell, the article talks about 

•  understanding that "safe" does not translate into "without risk"
• what not to avoid: Bread crusts and

• what to have plenty of: vitamin D-3, folate, tomato products, cruciferous vegetables (think cabbage family), and yogurt.
• exercise!

I am just curious how the authors came up with this list. Moreover, all the recommendations have a prevent-cancer message following them, which is hard for me to swallow since this article is aimed at parents. Since when is cancer prevention one of the top priorities for new parents? In my opinion, our purpose as health professionals is not to scare individuals but to provide them with the tools necessary to lead healthier lives. Agreed, nothing is definitive in the world of nutrients as every individual is different and we speak in terms of risk reduction, but we have long surpassed the concept of health as being merely the absence of disease. Health is enjoyment of life and beyond. Perhaps, I was not expecting this article to have a risk reduction tone to it, but a more health promotion perspective to it (victim of my own bias?).With that thought, I will part and hope that with the nutrition month right around the corner everyone stays healthy, happy and safe!