I randomly came across this news item earlier today: The Fattest Place on Earth.

Nauru, population 14.000 has the highest obesity and diabetes rates in the world. ABC News decided it might set a valuable example for the fattening population of the USofA -an most of the western world. According to the ABC 95% population in the island are overweight and 80% of the male population are clinically obese. 50% of the population suffers type II diabetes.

The message is simple enough: processed food will kill you if you only feed on it. Big news, right? Now, can we just blame the food for this obesity pandemics? I’m sure a sedentary lifestyle doesn’t help, and the reporter notes that the Government of the little Republic is in fact trying to encourage its population to be physically active sponsoring free aerobic lessons. Unfortunately, due to a fuel shortage, attendance is low.

Wow. That is a shocker. The Island is 10 times smaller than Amsterdam. Cycling at 15 km/h, it would take you less than 2 hours to go around the whole island. Yet, you only see two -and a half- bikes through the whole video. The reporter openly questions the food, but not the car culture that somehow makes it impossible for people to go to an aerobic lesson in a tiny island due to a fuel sortage. In fact, the first thing he does is drive around the island using the only paved road available. It takes him 17 minutes to cruise its 24 km.

How come walking and cycling to places is not an option in such a small place? Western civilisation has created a good number of evils, junk food is no doubt one of them, but the sedentary lifestyle associated to it is playing a big a role in the obesity pandemic. If we are going to go around pointing fingers and trying to educate the audience into a healthier lifestyle, maybe we could start with car culture.

Let’s question the logic that linked car ownership and progress, that brought the sprawl and multiple car lane streets inside cities. Let’s question the need -or even the point- of counting calories and driving to the gym. Maybe there is an easier solution: ride a bike, walk to places and eat sensibly. Stay active.

Just for reference, obesity rate in The Netherlands is at 10%. But of course, this doen’t mean that everyone you’ll see around looks like Barbie or Ken, that’s just silly, isn’t it?

Two Wheels

“If God wanted us to ride bicycles, babies would be born with crash helmets on their craniums and flashing red lights on their buttocks. Although, on the whole, we cyclists are fitter than non-cyclists, we must be careful of the impact of the bicycle frame on the human frame. Beset with back pains, I was advised to drop the drop handlebars years ago, on the grounds that the bent-over posture they imposed did my spine no favours. Being a commuting, not a racing cyclist, I could live with the extra wind resistance. That helped, but occasional twinges persisted.

A recent study published by the British Medical Journal showed that the Alexander Technique can ease back pain. It was time to consult Barry Collins, who gets around by bike and has been teaching AT for the past 25 years. “Severe spinal injury at zero mph,” warns a poster at his practice, illustrated by a drawing of an unhealthily slumped skeleton slouched in front of a computer; similar maltreatment of vertebrae can be seen in cyclists.”

…

Unhealthy posture.

“Most people in the saddle collapse their spine,” he says. “Collapsing the back produces in turn a collapse in the front, which restricts rib movement and breathing.” Placed carefully in a chair, I am both upright and relaxed, “another template for being in the saddle.”

…

“Push down with the heels.” Not the front of the foot, which is my usual practice. By now I am on Collins’ bike, tall in the saddle. “Open the backs of the knees on the power stroke. This takes the load off your knee joint.”

…

“It is the legs that really must do the work,” Collins says. “Use only the heels of your hands and then just let the fingers lie passively as if resting on fragile eggs.” Also, do not heave at the pedals in too high a gear: “Allow the legs to spin freely and so avoid tightening and constricting the upper body.” Then there is the pelvis: do not wiggle it from side to side but think of it as fixed to the spine. It’s the legs that go up and down, pivoting at the hip joints.

Healthy posture.

“Effortless effort” is what Collins is after. It is pretty Zen (the sound of one handlebar clapping, perhaps). “Let go of old muscle habits and relearn new ones,” he says. As I pedal home, fellow-cyclists may not be aware that my toes are relaxed, my heels are down, my arms are straight and my back is more like a capital I than a C. But I am.”

• Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique, stat.org.uk

& reader Sue Benson’s link submission: Alexander Technique

The Dutch concur, doc. :-p