Today is National Wear Red Day. Held annually on the first Friday in February, the day is designed to raise awareness about women's cardiovascular health by asking women to wear red.
And I think it is completely ridiculous.
Don't get me wrong, I fully support both red attire and preventing the increasing epidemic of heart disease in women. But I am so damn tired of these 'awareness' movements. I liken Wear Red Day to all of those stupid Facebook campaigns, like change your profile picture to a cartoon to prevent child abuse, or post the color of your bra to prevent breast cancer. Because, seriously, does having the Care Bears as your profile picture do anything to protect the millions of children who are physically and sexually abused on a daily basis? Does posting "white" or "black" or "hot pink" reduce the skyrocketing occurrence of breast cancer in women across the country? NO. IT DOES NOT.
If you really want to decrease the occurrence of heart disease, here's what you should do today instead of in addition to wearing red:
- more chickpeas, less cheeseburgers (which is a cute way of saying that red meat, dairy and processed foods contain saturated fat, and as such, are huge contributors to heart disease. try to eat a plant-based diet, which I think you'll find has more benefits than just increased heart health).
- exercise! if you work at a desk all day, get up and move around as often as you can.
- strive to maintain a healthy weight in order to protect your heart.
- DON'T SMOKE.
- alcohol in moderation. red wine has been shown to lower cholesterol and increase heart health, but that doesn't mean
Iyou need to drink a bottle of wine every night. - encourage family, friends, and co-workers to adopt healthy habits!
In the end, all we can do is take care of ourselves. And I'm pretty sure that none of you want to die young of a heart attack or stroke. Right? So do what you can to protect yourself now.
And if you want to wear that sassy red dress, by all means, please do.
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3 comments:
I am so glad you posted this because, a) I am equally annoyed by supposed "awareness", and b) we all could use tips on preventing cardiovascular disease. You rock.
well said!
don't smoke-- so important!!!
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