Eleanor Clift has escaped D.C.'s infamous August mugginess to unwind at an undisclosed beach. But like most political junkies, she couldn't help but start thinking about health reform. Here's a quick insight she kicked in last night:
I was sitting on the beach
reading Barbara Boxer's new novel, Blind Justice─about a right-wing
assault on a liberal senator who seems a lot like Boxer─when a friend
called to tell me how outraged she is about Time magazine's cover,
"The Myth of Exercise." The article is titled, "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin," and pictures a woman doing a back-bend over a doughnut.
The thesis of the piece is that vigorous exercise makes you hungrier,
plus you feel entitled to reward yourself, so you eat more food, like
doughnuts, after going to the gym. That hasn't been my experience,
and while there's a study to support almost anything, I'm dubious
of the value of this one. The friend who called me, Pamela Peeke, is
a physician whose practice includes counseling people on how to live
a fit life, which should include exercise. "You and I hit the gym
regularly," she e-mailed me, "and I don't see either of us plowing
through cupcakes after each session. We need to set the record straight."
Exercise won't deliver a
perfect body and you won't lose weight if you take in more calories
than you expend. The Time writer details his fairly obsessive exercise
regimen and notes that he still has gut fat that hangs over his belt.
I'm not going to list my imperfections, but exercise has kept my blood
pressure down near astronaut levels, and the endorphins released during
exercise help keep me sane. Next thing you know, the right wing will
claim the Obama administration wants to set up health panels where government
bureaucrats will demand exercise plans from citizens every five years.
Dr. Peeke forwarded me talking points from the American College of Sports
Medicine, which points out, among other things, that exercise can help
ward off heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and is an important health
tool beyond its role in stabilizing or losing weight. The congressional
committees writing the health-reform legislation are struggling to balance
the merits of preventive care against its cost. I happen to believe
that exercise is the closest thing we've got to a fountain of youth,
but keeping people healthy longer doesn't necessarily cost less, and
that's the dilemma playing out on Capitol Hill.
