Poor health choices, quiet consequences

Photo By Gunnery Sgt. Rubin Tan | This scene could become a permanent fixture in your life if early warning signs of a poor dietary lifestyle are ignored. Diseases such as diabetes can threaten to cut short a military career as a result of the necessity of medication to treat it.  

BEAUFORT, SC, UNITED STATES

10.06.2011

Story by Lance Cpl. Timothy Norris 

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION BEAUFORT, S.C. - Marines with high marks on a physical fitness test that meet height and weight standards, may seem the picture of perfect health, but health is measured by more than just outward appearances.

The current lifestyle in the U.S. has led to a rise in obesity and other health problems from eating foods high in sugar and fat. Eating these foods in large quantities makes it difficult for the body to properly process and can lead to things like diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

“[Americans’ common diet] is loaded with processed sugars, or is greasy, fatty and fried,” said Lt. Cmdr. Payton G. Fennell, Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort senior medical officer. “Yet we’re eating these foods and expecting our bodies to function properly when garbage in, is garbage out.

“You can work out three hours a day, but if you continue to eat foods that have no real significant nutritional value, then those three hours mean nothing. You’ll just add the calories right back and you won’t get the nutrition you need to rebuild and allow your body to work properly,” he said.

Eating better with a focus on nutrition can lead Marines to better physical and mental health and an increased state of readiness

“Many Marines don’t know they have health risks until an annual check up. Because they are within standards yet don’t know they have high blood pressure or cholesterol,” said Ivette Moore Naval Hospital Beaufort health promotion coordinator. “Human nature is that we don’t address an issue until it becomes serious. Some issues may not manifest themselves until years in the future.”

Physical health then should not be measured by performance or appearance alone. A Marine’s work schedule is busy which can lead them into making poor health choices out of convenience.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people may be more at risk to develop a disease like diabetes based on two major factors, diet and family history. From 2007 to 2010, the number of people who were diagnosed with diabetes in America per year rose 18.75 percent with about 25 percent in the 20 to 45 age range.

Fennell, a Charlotte N.C., native, explained with an analogy how a person’s likeliness to get a certain disease can be like a bucket. When the bucket is full, you have a problem. Some people have more water in their bucket and can not tolerate eating the wrong thing, while others have less water and can eat bad food all their life and be OK, but a person may not know where their water level is, until it’s overflowing.

According to health experts like Fennell, the best medicine is prevention. Stopping the likelihood of developing a disease by controlling diet and regular exercise can be some of the best tools that prevent a disease from limiting or ending a career.

• Date Taken: 10.06.2011
• Date Posted: 10.06.2011 14:56
• Story ID: 78134
• Location: BEAUFORT, SC, US