Empower yourself

I recently listened to a TED talk by Kelly McGonigal on "How to make stress your friend". It was extremely fascinating. In the beginning she related a study that tracked 30,000 adults in the U.S. for eight years. They asked people about their stress levels and then asked them if they believed stress was harmful to their health. Then they tracked the public death records to find out who died.

The results were that those who had a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43 percent increased risk of dying. However, that was only true for the people who also believed that stress was harmful for their health. Those who had a lot of stress but did not view stress as harmful had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study, including those with little stress.

She went on to detail how we can view our stress response - quickened breath, racing heart - as gearing us up to handle life's challenges. I loved how empowering this is and the way it puts your body in the light of being a good thing that will help you in life. I would encourage listening to the rest of her talk here, as she goes on to explain how caring for others creates resilience and strength. But I want to move on a little bit.

This study on stress to me had greater implications. It reminded me of a study I learned about years ago in college. I wish I could find the actual study but the essence was that they were looking at statin drugs (cholesterol-lowering drugs) and comparing different ones with some control groups. The surprise finding was that patients who weren't even on a drug but saw themselves as following doctor's orders experienced a decrease in cholesterol. To me this showed the power of faith and the power we can have over our own bodies when we view the things we are doing as healthy and good.

Laura touched a little on this in the last post. What do we view as success in exercise? Do we see our actions as empowering and strengthening our bodies? Do we see the movement and action and exercise we do as building us up or do we concentrate on all that we aren't doing?

Food and nutrition is a field where there is a lot of confusion: no fat, low fat, GMO's, organic, gluten-free, paleo, vegan, butter, margarine, the list goes on. My personal opinion is that when we fret so much over healthy eating that we are doing more harm than good. One of my favorite scriptures is found in Doctrine & Covenants 59:18:

"Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart."

Now this is what gladdens my heart! Avocados, beans, tomatoes and cheese! Yes please!
Picture from LDS Media Library

I believe eating should gladden the heart and that when we view food as something good that strengthens and empowers us, that is health. I of course believe in following the Word of Wisdom and eating a balanced, varied and wholesome diet but I hope we can go about the effort with joy and gladness instead of worry and guilt. I don't have a study to show it but I really believe that you will be more healthy just by celebrating your body and the good things you are doing with it.