Social Environment — A Key Factor of Health

Statistically you are 3–4 times more likely to smoke if you grew up with parents who smoked. Similarly, children with obese parents have an 80% chance of being obese — about a 45% higher chance than the approximate current rate in Australia. These trends carry over to any environment we live in for our whole lives, and the little influences that affect out behavior mostly go unnoticed.

The main social/environmental influence I want to focus on in this post is friendship groups. Everyone has heard the saying: you act like the 5 people you spend the most time with, and to a large extent its true. Say your whole friendship group love going out every weekend and getting blackout drunk. If you choose not to participate then its unlikely you will have that friendship group for very long. So even if you know its bad for your health, finances, other relationships and productivity — you will most likely be at the same bar as them, getting just as drunk as them each week. The same goes for friends who sit around and smoke weed every night, or play sport together, or have brunch together — no matter what it is, you will be much more likely to engage in those activities.

This is a huge reason that people don’t commit to long term health change, as they think it will alienate their friends and not allow them to be social anymore. I have a You Tube video going over how to balance losing weight and having a social life so check it out if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ipoN9Z_HjI&t=113s&ab_channel=FormativeNutrition

Becoming consistently aware of how your friends are negatively and positively affecting your life is the first recommendation I would make. My clients are much happier and make better progress when they are allowed to engage in normal social activities — whatever that may be for them. But the key factor is understanding when to say no, or I have had enough or maybe ill have 10 beers instead of 20 every Friday night. I don’t want to imply that you need to cut ties with your current friend group just because they engage in certain activities, just don’t thoughtlessly go along with those activities regardless of the consequences. Awareness is absolutely key in all aspects of your life when trying to get healthier.

If you are interested in working with a nutrition coach to learn how to make consistent progress while living the lifestyle that you want, then contact me at http://formativenutrition.net. Thanks for reading.

References:

· Teens More Likely to Smoke if Parents Were Smokers, Even if They Quit Long Ago. Partnership to end addiction. https://drugfree.org/drug-and-alcohol-news/teens-more-likely-to-smoke-if-parents-were-smokers-even-if-they-quit-long-ago/#:~:text=The%20study%20found%20a%20smoking,smoking%20rate%20was%2029%20percent.

· Obesity. Benioff Childrens Hospital.https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/conditions/obesity/#:~:text=A%20child%20with%20one%20obese,80%20percent%20chance%20of%20obesity