Yesterday on this blog we referenced an article that linked the trend in obesity to global warming, and discussed how reversing that trend could impact health and wellness worldwide. Below is an article that shows some very progressive thinking that provides a practical way people can begin to combat obesity without drastically interrupting their normal lifestyle and schedule (although sometimes drastic is definitely called for!). I think many people who live in "vertical" cities like New York believe the stairs are only there as an alternative to the elevator in case of a fire or power outage.
This story reminds me of a humorous picture I once saw of an escalator leading up to a health club located on the second story of a building. We here in America have long been spoiled by our modern conveniences that are designed to save us time and effort, but which only contribute to our sedentary lifestyle and resulting poor health. Choosing stairs over the elevator is not realistically applicable to all individuals, but it can help us to recognize simple ways that we can increase our daily activity. Combining this with other choices such as eating quality foods and consuming fewer calories can help to steer us in a direction that leads towards wellness and away from lethargy and disease.
May 20, 2008, 5:43 pm
These Stairs Were Made for Walking
By Jennifer 8. Lee
City officials seem awfully meddlesome with our weight these days. First Philadelphia challenged its residents to lose 76 tons in 76 days. Then Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg thought it was a good idea to remind us how many calories we consume each time we go to Starbucks.
Now New York's health commissioner is encouraging us to take the stairs because, simply put, we are getting fat. (After all, New Yorkers, we gained 10 million pounds in two years.)
To that effect, the city is introducing a green logo of a person taking the stairs with the mantra "Burn Calories, Not Electricity. Take the Stairs." (Killing obesity and global warming with one stone!) The health department says "visual prompts can boost stair use by more than 50 percent." If that is the case, the New York figure seems less athletic than the federal government stair climber, who appears to be bounding upward enthusiastically.
New York is as vertical a city as any in the United States, so taking the stairs to get somewhere seems practical. After all, we live in a nation where people drive to the gym to run on the treadmill and take the elevator to use the Stairmaster.
Stairs are really a nice simple form of exercise. Some of the other benefits the city trumpets:
*Stair climbing burns almost seven times the number of calories as standing in an elevator.
*Just two minutes of stair-climbing each day burns enough calories to eliminate the one pound an average adult gains each year.
*Men who climbed at least 20 floors a week (about 3 floors a day) had a 20 percent lower risk of stroke or death from all causes, in one study.
*Stair-climbing has been shown to raise good cholesterol and improve cardiovascular health
The city's Department of Design and Construction (who knew we had one?) is working with architects to emphasize stairs. They hope to making stairs more pleasant and inviting, perhaps by adding art or music. (Perhaps Muzak will come up with a stairs equivalent of elevator music?)
Some of New York's newly approved construction codes will also allow buildings to use certain tested fire-rated glass doors and smoke-activated automatic-closing devices, so many stairwells can stay visible and open.
What you are not likely to see: more stairs in general. Real estate developers don't like stairs because they take up space and don't generate rent.
To get a copy of the sign, building managers can call 311.
(The floors of the new New York Times building are linked together by flights of red stairwells. Officially this was supposed to "foster communication and animate the building from the outside," but perhaps management was making a pre-emptive comment about our weight, or saving us from the building's confusing "smart elevators.")
Perhaps the health department should work with other city agencies to get us all to climb stairs. The Buildings Department could be give breaks to landlords who need to fix decrepit and broken elevators. Courthouses could force people to choose between taking the stairs or an hour-long wait for the elevator, lest they miss their legal proceedings. The M.T.A. could spend a billion dollars on elevators and escalators that still constantly break down.
Or given that this is all already happening, maybe this is all a big government conspiracy to make us lose weight.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/these-stairs-were-made-for-walking/
Thursday, May 22, 2008
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