Tuesday 3 September 2013

Coca-Cola Playing an Active Role Symposium

Last week Mumtaz was invited to the "Coca-Cola Playing an Active Role Symposium". It was an honour and a privelege as only 10 Biokineticists were invited.
 The host for the evening was Kerishni Naicker










The evening was all about Physical Activity, the lack of it in society, and the need for more awareness.

It is advised that one should be exercising for a minimum of 150minutes per week (if it is moderate intensity) or 60 minutes per week (if it is vigorous intensity) . Kids should be doing a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week and 50% of this should be done at school.

A shocking 50% of our population is INACTIVE!!

Exercise during pregnancy was also spoken about. Exercise during pregnancy is needed to control weight gain during pregnancy, to control weight retention post partum and it has now also been proven that exercising during pregnancy can reduce subcutaneous fat in offspring.

Dr John Peters from the USA was one of the speakers and he discussed energy balance. His theory is even if we eat x amount but we are exercising this is more advantageous. He has done a study on Amish persons in the USA. These people do not use any electrical transport and are alot more active and his study has shown that based on their lifestyle where although they are not eating very healthy but are getting in alot more physical activity than the average person, 0% OF AMISH MEN ARE OBESE. No that is not a typo, I meant 0%!!

Dr Louis Holtzhauzen from South Africa has started an initiative called "Exercise is Medicine" in order to educate medical practitioners so that they in turn can advise and encourage the general pubic to get going and get active!
He made an interesting point :"We are not facing a fatness epidemic but rather a fitness epidemic!"

The biggest question on everyones tongues is "What is the best diet?"
And the answer to that , according to John Peters, is simple, What is the diet for? Because it varies based on what you want to achieve and what activity you are involved in.

The highlight of the evening was being mentioned, by name, over and over, that the people we need to turn to are BIOKINETICISTS!!
It was so refreshing so have such highly esteemed people understand our true worth and place in the medical industry and it was so exciting to not have to hear that "other medical professional" are the fitness gurus beacuse put simply, they are not.
Maybe doctors have finally been educated enough and this is the turn in our profession!!

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