As a family we watch very little TV, but we've been glued to the new series of Gladiators
What's not to like? Classic Saturday night entertainment!
Perhaps I'm imagining it but it seems they've selected “fitter” contestants for this series - maybe there were too many injuries last time around?!
They all seem to be real fitness enthusiasts and their training is a huge part of their life, which I admire
However, something bothered me last week: when they were introduced one of the contestants said (I will be paraphrasing here slightly): “I'm in the gym 6 days a week!”
The presenter responded: “Wow! What do you do on Day 7?”
The contestant: “Mainly eat junk food…oh and look forward to my next training session”
If you know me you'll know I'm all about freedom of choice - in fact one of our principles here is that there are no “rules” around food; as adults we can eat and drink whatever we want, whenever we want
But when I hear things like this it bothers me as the implication was that “it's OK because I'd earned it”
I.E. if you do loads of exercise you can eat as many calories as you want, from whatever foods you want because you're burning so many
I.E. as long as its within your “calorie allowance” it doesn't matter
I.E as long as your maintaining/losing weight it doesn't matter
I.E. the quality of what you put in your mouth doesn't matter
That's bu115h!t
It does matter
It certainly matters if you want to be truly healthy
If you want to eat junk food, fine, eat junk food, but don't pretend it's healthy
Eating patterns as described above are a big red flag for me when it comes to a person's relationship with food, with their body's…and with themselves
And I'm pretty uncomfortable with that idea being promoted on a family TV show as it reinforces the “McDonalds and Coke after football practice culture” which has been so expertly marketed to us and our children
It's sad that despite all we know about nutrition and health you still hear things like this all the time - even in “fitness” communities.
Many people are objectively very “fit” but their internal, biological and hormonal health is a complete mess due to overtraining, poor sleep, poor nutritional choices, over-use of stimulants and various other “supplements”
Fitness ≠ Health
Don't get me wrong; every now and then “junk food” probably doesn't do too much harm to your health, but full-on binging on a weekly basis most certainly does
It's not healthy physically or mentally
And ironically for the “fitness” enthusiasts, the disruption to digestion, hormones, sleep and subsequent inflammatory response will be compromising their fitness, performance and how they adapt to training, even if they're not aware of it…
Let's start showing more respect our bodies and what we put in them
Lets take better care of them
And let's help the next generation do the same and not develop the hang-ups many of our generation have around food and their bodies
