Take Your Vitamins, On Pain Of Pain

dacap writes "The American diet continues to deteriorate. In the news is the exacerbation of bone disease from a deficiency of vitamin D. Too little vitamin D also causes muscle pain and joint problems. How is it that we let something so easily remedied affect us? Details are in USA Today. The ultimate solution to this and many other health-related problems that techies suffer is a proper diet coupled with a multivitamin supplement and regular exercise. Too bad that these choices are so unpopular. A sound mind and sound body go together."

Comments

Although...

[Otter]

The American diet continues to deteriorate.

That's the spin in the article but there's no evidence given of any factor that has changed. Or even numbers to support a rise in rickets.

My guess is that a combination of kids' drinking less milk in favor of Mountain Dew and Big Gulps and their spending less time outside makes up a large part of the problem, but who knows? Clearly, a lot of it is simply that the UK and northern US simply get so little sun that the risk is always there.

Re:Although...

[pmz]

I'm waiting for "Mountain Dew with Calcium". Of course, shit in a bottle with a couple vitamins is already sold to naive mothers as "Sunny D."

Why not just feed the damn kids real fruit juice! It actually isn't that expensive!!! If you want to get the same effect of those "fruit drinks" pour about one ounze of OJ into a glass and fill the rest with tap water.

It's not just the USA

[Zocalo]

Funny this should come up today, because in yesterday's paper here in the UK was a picture of a toddler from behind (I'd guess about 2-3 years old). She had quite severe ricketts (which is also caused by Vitamin D deficiency) such that her legs had a similar degree of curvature to a banana.

You can blame Margaret Thatcher for stopping children's milk in our schools way back when if you want, but the problem is far more serious than that, I think. With all the faddy and medically unproven diets such as Atkins being bandied about, how many parents are foisting those diets on thier children without any idea of the effects? I will not be at all suprised if medical disorders developed by bad diets in childhood are going to become as much of a problem for the health services as smoking related illnesses are now.

Re:It's not just the USA

[pmz]

Putting a child on a fad diet is asking for disaster. The only reason adults can tolerate such things is that our brain is more or less done growing, as is our bodies.

Kids need whole foods in adequate but not excessive amounts, more than anything. If only seafood didn't have so much pollution in it, tuna would be awesome brain food for a toddler. Peanuts aren't a bad second choice, though. Whole wheat bread has minerals what white bread doesn't. And so forth. I wonder how many kids are growing up brain-damaged, because of 10% fruit juice, white bread, french fries, etc. Goddamn stupid parents (and shifty advertisers...).

This doesn't seem particularly nerd-relevent

[daviddennis]

Yes, we should exercise more, and yes, we should eat better, but it looks like vitamin D deficiency is mainly a problem with kids because their bones are still growing and forming.

I suppose it's a nice frame to hang a discussion of diet and exercise on, but the issue itself doesn't seem like it applies to most of us.

Being in Southern California, and being outdoors way more than 45 minutes a week, it would appear that I'm taken care of for this problem. Pity that doesn't make me any lighter :-).

From my viewpoint, the real problem is that exercise strikes me as a mindless waste of time and effort. I watch people in gyms mindlessly walking to nowhere or pulling stuff on machines until they sweat and ache, and to be honest it sounds like a miserable, dumb and unproductive way to spend time.

Exercise and better diet strike me as a lot of pain for little gain. The negative effects on one's life show up immediately and the positive ones take huge amounts of time to appear. So it's all too easy to give up and say it's just not worth it.

That explains the problem; as of yet I have not come up with anything like a solution. But perhaps this statement of the problem will give people some ideas.

D

Re:This doesn't seem particularly nerd-relevent

[lukeg]

The article discussed the impact on children, adults and seniors, maybe not explicitly, but it's all there, making the topic relevant to many.

Exercise is not pointless. Increasing your baseline strength, coordination, endurance and flexibility will make you more likely to live independently and actively as you age. This is an excellent reason to exercise frequently

As for exericise seeming mindless, that is a function of the particular activity.

stereotypes

[YouHaveSnail]

The ultimate solution to this and many other health-related problems that techies suffer is a proper diet coupled with a multivitamin supplement and regular exercise. Too bad that these choices are so unpopular.

I hereby reject the notion that poor nutrition and lack of exercise are problems that "techies" suffer any more than other groups of similar composition (age, gender, education, etc.). Not all "techies" are anti-social pasty-faced overweight Jolt-drinking pizza-gobbling couch potatoes. In fact, I don't currently know any of those.

I hate raisins

[Merk]

I hate it when people talk about raising kids, saying things like "Just substitute raisins for M&Ms and stuff like that".

First of all, did you know that dentists have found that the sugar levels in apples have been raised so high that apples are now rotting kids' teeth? Just because something is presumably "natural" doesn't mean it is necessarily good for you anymore.

Secondly, kids above 6 or 7 know that candy is bad for them, and that is one of the reasons they want it. I remember sneaking off school property to get to a corner store and buy some candy when I was a kid. Kids aren't so dumb that they'll believe that sweet fruit is the same sort of a treat as chocolate.

Thirdly, people have different tastes. I hate raisins, and don't like most berries, but I love chocolate, even the unsweetened bitter stuff. You're not giving the kids enough credit if you think that they'll blindly eat anything sweet.

As for basic ingredients, it's not always that easy. Many kids (as well as adults) have food allergies. Aside from that, there's the matter of what is healthy. Apparently fat in fish is a good thing, but fatty red meat is bad. Now both of these are probably much better than a McBurger, but it's not like it's completely obvious how to make a very healthy yet still appetizing and digestible meal.

As for the exercise, I agree that's important for everybody, but the more my parents pushed me to "get some exercise" the more I resisted. I think the reason is that: 1) they set a bad example, never exercising themselves, and 2) they would never explain why, they'd just order me to "go play outside". Playing outside also generally require someone to play with, whereas TV/computer/nintendo, whatever doesn't.

Raising a kid is hard, and not everybody is cut out to do it. Sure, a lot of parents can do better than they're doing, but it's not like the whole process is simple, and treating your kids as objects doesn't help.