Do We Take Our Health For Granted?

I guess the immediate answer to this question is yes and no.  Those who put in the effort to not only watch what they eat, but go the extra mile to understand how what they eat will effect them long term are those who might answer yes.  The other side of the coin is those who rarely, if ever, think about how the foods they eat will ultimately effect them in the future.

The reality is that the majority of people eat with reckless abandon and I'm not just talking about those who eat fast food meals three times a day,  seven days a week.  I'm talking about regular people who make bad choices time and time again.  Maybe they're just ignorant about the consequences or maybe they just don't care what happens to them 10 or 20 years from now.

We see it time and time again with the people we know.  The scenario goes something like this:
During your childhood you eat whatever you want because "you're growing" and it's not a major concern to you parents, and you really do not know any better anyway.  Then as you hit your late teenage years maybe you see a slight change in your metabolism as you venture off to college and pack on some poundage from late night pizza binges and weekend booze festivals.  From there -
Maybe you've gained a few pounds or maybe you've managed to keep them off and on the surface you still feel "healthy."
Fast forward to the mid to late thirties and maybe you just saw the doctor for your "check up" and they said your blood pressure is a little high and they recommend you go on medication.  Neglecting to change your diet you go on the medication and continue eating as usual.  Then ten years down the road, the hypertension worsens and now the doctor says your triglycerides are now high as well.  It's at this point that people often either wonder how this happened or just settle and except the fact.   It's also at this point that people tend to either right the ship, or lead themselves down a road that possibly encourages a whole host of diseases in the future.

To those who are concerned about their health they understand these scenarios (luckily) are possible from a very early time period.  Unfortunately for everyone else they end up on the losing end in a battle of decisions and medications.
It's impossible to get an accurate percentage of the split between those who are conscious of their health vs. those who are not, but i'd have to go out on a limb and speculate the split is somewhere around 30/70.  Thirty for the those who are part of the health conscious crowd!  This leads me to believe the majority of people out there take their bodies and their health for granted.



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