I am a voracious reader when it comes to faith, family and fitness and Thursday I read an article in the New York Times that I find disturbing. It is entitled, “China’s Next Revolution Is in Fitness” which on the surface doesn’t seem that interesting or significant but this line from the article does, “The government preaches that only a nation of strong bodies is truly strong.” The Chinese government is telling its citizens to have strong bodies. My understanding is that in China, when the government tells you to do something, you do it.
Why is that so disturbing? Here are a few things that we should all know.
- China, with 1,339,724,852 people has 19.23% of the world population
- China has the world’s second largest economy (until 2020)
- China has an external debt ranking at #153 or $274.62 per capita
- China has overall rates of obesity below 5% in the country
- China ranks second in life expectancy
- China spends $224 per capita on healthcare
Here are some comparisons that we should think about:
- The US with 312,417,000 people has 4.48% of the world population
- The US has the world’s largest economy (until 2020)
- The US has an external debt ranking at #20 or $48,258 per capita
- The US has the highest obesity rate in the world at 33.8%
- The US ranks 36th in life expectancy
- The US spends $7,439 per capita on healthcare
I am a member of a community started by a company that wants to end the trend of obesity in this country. From the numbers above it isn’t hard to see that we are not #1 in most categories that would indicate whether a country is strong or not. China not only wants to have a strong country, but they want a strong country populated with strong bodies. They currently are third in terms of global firepower and they have almost a million more troops than we have. In the US, because of a tough economy, fertility rates have been dropping since 2008…
Do you want to settle for #2 or worse or do we want to be a strong, healthy country of strong bodies that can invest $7,000 of the money that we are now spending on healthcare on technology and making the world a safer place?
If you want to be #1, then do the things that you need to do to be healthy and have a strong body – work out regularly, eat nutritiously and make positive lifestyle choices. We’re in this together and together we’re better!
Please join me today in the Team Beachbody community and put us back on the road to being #1 and safeguarding our freedoms and our lifestyle. Your journey to a strong body starts by clicking here…
Sincerely,
Rich Dafter
Independent Team Beachbody Coach Howtobefit
Head Coach of Team Howtobefit
Website: http://www.howtobefit.com/
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Email Rich: howtobefit@aol.com
