Tuesday, October 9, 2012

"That's Crazy"



One of my favorite print advertisements features a rock climber hanging by two fingers from an overhanging rock ledge thousands of feet above a gorge. If one of his two fingers were to slip, he surely would fall to his death. What I love about this ad is the caption that lies below the picture… 
“This guy is crazy... No sun screen!”

I love the irony focused on the sun screen with a complete indifference toward the obvious danger of the moment. (Hanging off a cliff) …Great advertising!

Pool party:

This summer my family was at a pool party. I couldn’t help but notice a scene that resembled my favorite ad.
There were many overweight families drinking cokes, eating hot dogs, chips, and hamburgers. While the feast was on, the parents were franticly running around applying copious amounts of sun screen to save their kids from the effects of the sun.

It was obvious these “well-meaning” families were unaware of the consequences associated with the consumption of these foods.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list many immediate health effects of children overeating…

~ Cardiovascular disease

~ Diabetes

~ Orthopedic issues
~ Social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem.

One study showed that children who became obese as early as age 2 were more likely to be obese as adults.

Everything matters:

Americas have a tendency it seems to over complicate our lives and lose discernment for what's really important and what's not. We tend to mistake trendy nutritional concerns (i.e. cooking in plastics, artificial sweeteners, tap water) for empirically proven facts.
As we go forward and traverse the rocky terrain of our life please put things into proper perspective.

Sun screen is a very important component in our quest for overall health, but let us not forget/ignore the many factors that go into creating a healthy body. If we fail to do so, obesity related diseases will kill us long before we have a chance to see the damage from long term exposure to the sun.