Get Fit: Milk or cigarettes,which does a body good?

Remember the “milk mustache” all over billboards, magazines and television?  It was cool for people to drink milk and have a little milk crusty on your face.  Natural, wholesome, good for you milk.  My Dad got his milk from the cow or none at all, just like millions of others during his day.

Think back to the 50′s, 60′s, 70′s when it used to be cool to smoke,  they even customized shirts to hold packs of cigarettes (pocket T’s).  Marketing from business and government drove home the point about these products.

So what happened? Why is it any different now than what it used to be?  They took the kids milk campaign away because the more money they spent on newspaper and tv ads, the more obese children were becoming.  Kids today “Generation 2XL” as a result of the obesity problems, are the first generation of the US A expected to have a shorter life expectancy than the parents.  I believe the increase in steroids and growth hormones injections used to manufacture larger, beefier, more milk productive cows correlates this problem.   The cow has changed, the milk has changed, and so have the kids.

We all know about the dangers of smoking Cigarettes and nicotine, detrimental to life.  Notice the Phillip Morris ad?  They deiced to target the younger generation, guess they figured the young would smoke cigarettes and be addicted to the nicotine as long as they “lived”.

As an infant I was given baby formula at 15 months because milk caused bronchospasms or asthma in my lungs.  My mother chose not to breast feed me nor my brother although knowing what we know now, she wishes she did breast feed.  A recent study from Pediatrics suggested that there are hundreds of deaths and many more costly illnesses each year from health problems that breast-feeding may help prevent. These include stomach viruses, ear infections, asthma, juvenile diabetes, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and even childhood leukemia.  I have allergies and respiratory problems, if it wasn’t for the fact that I do fitness for a living, who knows what kind of shape I may be in.

About the author:  David has made physical fitness and healthy living a lifelong quest.  He is the owner of a local fitness studio in Bowling Green.  He holds a M.S. in Excercise Science from WKU and is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine.