Is Fitness that important?
I am a journalism major at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and currently hold a freshman class standing. One thing I have noticed about popular American culture is the latest obsession with fitness and staying healthy. Children are now raised to think that smoking is a horrible habit and can take years off of one's life. Youth are also taught that exercise and eating right are vital to good health. The “Obesity Epidemic” in modern society is a horrific concept to many people in this day and age. Why? It takes years off of your life and inhibits one's ability to participate in athletic activities. Today I received a magazine that was thrust beneath the gap under the door to my dorm. It was a magazine on how to survive college entitled “Student Health & Wellness”.

Being bored as I was at the time, and trying desperately to distract myself from the research paper I needed to complete for my journalism class, I decided to flip through it. On page 54 of the magazine is a brief blurb of smoking. Beneath a perfectly hideous photograph of a girl with ugly makeup smoking is the heading, “Immediate Reasons to Stop Smoking”. The top two reasons to quit smoking are, “Bad breath and stained teeth” and “Bad smell in clothes and hair”. Have people really become that vain in modern society? Is physical attractiveness that important now to succeed in life?

Not so long ago in human history, practically everyone smoked. My late grandmother was a member of this culture. She gave birth to three boys, all of them of very high intellectual capacity. Her first son was my father, a major history buff and a retired civil service employee. He had one of the highest paying jobs one can get without having a college degree, and now that he is retired he owns the largest old time radio show library in the state of Alaska. He is the smartest man I know. My grandmother's second son is a singer/songwriter and a musical genius in nearly every aspect of the word. The third, was an electronics engineer and ran his own radio station for a long time.

All three of my grandmother's sons were highly intelligent and relatively successful. She smoked while she was pregnant with all three of them. None of them are severely brain damaged. The people from that time period created the people who make up the American population today. And yet the baby boom still occurred despite the fact that most women did smoke then.

What is the main reason why it is a horrible thing to be obese and a smoker? What does all the evidence come down to reader? There is only one reason. Smoking and overeating are unhealthy and can take years off of your life. Is quantity of life that much more important than quality of life? It's interesting to think that 200 years ago the obese were considered highly attractive and fertile. The main reason for this philosophy was a simple one; the only people who were able to be fat were of royal blood. Members of royal families also usually lived longer because they were not working themselves to death like the common folk. Of course back then everyone had to walk and exercise because the automobile had not yet been invented. Sedentary people are those at the highest risk of “premature death”.

Premature death is a fascinating concept. Any historian will tell you that early man very seldom, if ever, lived past the age of 30 years. Of course now, many argue that man did not know how to take care of himself that long ago and now that he does he can improve his quality of life. We see doctors for minor ailments which can interfere with our lives and have thus made ourselves soft. Children who are born severely retarded are allowed to survive and are confined to wheelchairs for the rest of their lives; most of which can only communicate with oral grunts and simple sign language gestures. But the child is alive. The child cannot ever grow up to become a productive member of society, and the child more than likely is unable to reproduce on his or her own. What is the reasoning behind forcing their bodies to survive?

Eating tofu and veggie burgers all of the time deprives the body of nutrients that it needs and nearly abolishes fat deposits of any kind. Is this healthy? Sure. The women who starve themselves in the name of beauty are really attractive with their visible ribs and are really good in bed because they're not strong enough to do anything. Oh, and did I mention that if a woman does not have a certain fat percentage on her body she can be rendered sterile? It's a scientific fact.

The opinion which I am expressing is simple. Do whatever the heck you want. If you want a hamburger, eat it. Go ahead and get some French fries too. Oh, and you might as well enjoy that after-lunch cigarette. If you do it in Los Angeles though, a city where people can actually see the air most of the time, make sure you are away from people whose health you may permanently damage with your second hand smoke. Have a candy bar too. If it tastes good, doesn't make you feel sick, and if you are active enough to burn it off, go for it. Anyone will tell you that quality is better than quantity. Shouldn't this philosophy apply to life as well? Perhaps we are all merely too haunted by the fact that every single one of us will some day die. Perhaps we are too terrified of the inevitable. We need to ask ourselves: Is fear of death really that good of a reason?