Multi vitamins are essential.
There’s no difference between synthetic and natural supplements.
3 minutes each day is all you need.
Weight training will make me bulky.
A calorie deficit equals weight loss.
Low fat is the answer.
The list of health and fitness related claims is endless and we all know them, have seen them and may have been guilty of being fooled by them.
It’s not hard to see why when we take a closer look.
First and foremost, it’s essential to understand that behind every product or claim there is a business and the goal of that business is to create revenue. While a health and fitness product uses the guise that its first priority is ‘you’, make no mistake the key driving force is that of any other commercial enterprise, profit generation.
Now that we understand this we can begin to look at things a little more subjectively.
Why would a fitness product spruik that their idea or product requires only 3 minutes each day or a low fat diet is key.
The answer is that ‘we’ the general public have essentially told big business through our spending and consumption habits what we want and how it needs to be delivered to us. Using the two above listed examples let’s look closer;
3 minutes each day appeals to our desire to have it all instantly. It allows us to continue life without change. It allows for the ‘cake and eat it too’ mentality.
‘Low fat is key’, means that we can have food that is nutritionally poor that tastes great. It means we can tell our family and friends we are on a diet that just happens to be tasty and easy to follow. It means that we need to make that bear minimal in changes to our usual routine to ‘fit the guidelines’.
Consider this – if it sounds too good to be true, it is! Without making a change how can you expect change to occur?
We understand these concepts when they are broken down and considered for their simplicity however when they are wrapped up in fancy marketing and advertised directly to us, the truth is harder to define.
When it comes to your health and fitness you owe it to yourself to look a little closer. You owe it to yourself to ask questions and demand reasonable answers.
When it comes to your health and fitness be willing to make changes in order to improve and grow; after all our health and fitness is all we have!