HEALTH SCIENCE

A part of physical wellness is knowing what is “healthy” for us: What’s our ideal weight? How much exercise do we personally need?  While it would be great if “being healthy” was our only goal, most of us have a vision of what we want to look like, and that drives our fitness and nutrition choices.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of external factors (mostly from media) setting our standards of “beauty”.

Read: Advertising’s toxic effect on eating and body image (Links to an external site.) https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/advertisings-toxic-effect-on-eating-and-body-image/

Pick an advertisement and explain how it is related to body image and health.–be sure to choose an ad that no one else has used. Post the actual ad or a link to the ad in your response:

Is this image/ad something that would make people feel good about themselves, or bad?

Now imagine teenagers are seeing this: What would you say about this ad to those teenagers to guide them toward healthy lifestyles?  Does the gender of the teenagers matter?

Part 2:

For your assignment:

Look through these Reshaping Body Image, and answer the questions for yourself, you do NOT need to turn your answers in.

https://canvas.park.edu/courses/57191/files/7512582/download?wrap=1

For years, we’ve been hearing about the “epidemic of obesity”, and the general public sentiment is that obesity = unhealthy.  But is that true?  Much research has shown that it’s not actually size, but sedentary living that is problematic. For your homework, answer the following questions:

1)         Body fat has a negative connotation in our society, but fat is actually essential for the proper functioning of the body. Don’t forget your citations. (5pts)

1. Why do our bodies need fat?
2. What happens if a person does not have enough body fat?
3. Is the Body Mass Index (BMI) a good indicator of health, why or why not?

2)         What causes overweight and obesity? (5pts)

1. Is a function of behavior only (overeating, lack of exercise, etc.) or are biological factors also a cause? (citation expected)
2. Do you think it is healthy, or even possible, for all people to attain and maintain a thin body according to current societal standards? (no citation expected).
3. What do you think our societal standards should be? (no citation expected).