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National Family Health and Fitness Day, September 24th Story


NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH AND FITNESS DAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH

by Rob Lauer



National Family Health and Fitness Day, on the last Saturday of September, promotes families incorporating exercise and a healthy diet into their lifestyle.

Heredity certainly influences a family's health-with paternal genes having a more dominant effect than maternal genes. But a family's shared habits have as profound an effect on their health as their shared genes. Families tend to eat the same types of foods, in the same amounts, at the same frequency. They also tend to share the same patterns of physical activity or inactivity. All of which points to an uncomfortable truth: our best efforts to break unhealthy habits can be unintentionally undermined by the very people who love us the most. Thankfully, Family Health and Fitness Day USA promotes families prioritizing healthy living together.

Healthy living is the practice of making choices and doing activities that promote physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. As simple and straightforward as that may seem, it has not been the norm for most families throughout history.

Before the 1700s, the health threat facing most families was epidemic disease, such as plague, cholera, and smallpox. A family's eating habits were usually the result of their social status. Wealthier families could afford tastier, healthier foods, while lower-class families survived on less healthy food in smaller portions.

The 1800s saw the birth of the one-dish meal. Most families weren't wealthy, and cooking equipment was limited, so they often cooked meals in one stew for dinner. Nutrition wasn't their main priority. Since many were working families, they cared about filling foods that gave them the high calories needed for physical labor.

In the early 1900s, most meals were prepared from whatever was available in a family's garden, cellar, or icebox. The majority of Americans, still living in rural areas, might have to travel some distance to get to their "local" general store to buy canned goods. Americans living in towns and cities had easier access to such items but tended to buy most of their groceries from neighborhood vegetable stands and butcher shops. When the first fast-food chain, White Castle, was introduced in 1921, it changed the nation's attitudes toward processed foods.

In the 1940s, the American Medical Association and the National Committee on Physical Fitness encouraged physical exercise and nutritious eating to improve the nation's overall health. But it was an uphill climb, thanks to the rise of national fast-food chains, such as McDonald's, in the mid-1950s. By the 1960s and 70s, convenience trumped nutrition at mealtime. As the average American's weight and waistline increased, the American lifestyle became less physically active and more sedentary-resulting in a rise in high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and other life-threatening conditions.

In 1996, the Health and Information Resource Center created Family Health and Fitness Day USA, understanding that when families strive to be healthy together, their success rate increases. Incorporating exercise and a healthy diet into a family's lifestyle is a team effort. It's kind of like celebrations. Who celebrates alone?




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