You are what you eat!

Assess how societal needs (i.e. the need for healthy foods; active lifestyles) lead to scientific and technological developments related to internal systems.

What we do everyday makes us the person we are both on the inside and on the outside. The more activity we do, the better in shape we are! But these requirements are to much for some people. It's not that hard to devote a couple of hours a day to exercise. Instead, people devote themselves to watching a movie and shoving their mouths with buttery and fattened popcorn, or hitting the bar for a few drinks, or just sit at home and watch tv or surf the internet. There are so many advertisements these days for 6-pack abs or nice built arms. You don't really need those things. Keeping yourself in shape is a great achievement itself. Running, Biking, Skating or just kicking a ball around is good enough to keep your internal and external body in good shape (if its being done on a reguar basis). Doing those things such as staying home and watching tv, or surfing the internet or watching a movie is sad because this has no positive effect to the body. You gain calories, destroy your health and soon enough start regretting the things you have done. But like every other problem, we, humans find a cure for it. These societal needs have led to the scientific and technological developments which relate to the internal systems of our body. Three developments that come to mind that relate to the internal systems are the Bodybug calorie counter, liposuction, the sauna and the steam.

The Bodybug calorie counter is a weight loss gadget that has been promoted by the reality TV series, "The Biggest Loser". This is a very unique show where contestants compete for their spot to stay and keep exercising and getting fit. Who stays and who goes is determined by how much weight the contestant loses that week. The people here are examples of what i mentioned before. They don't live a healthy lifestyle, they gain calories and soon enough regret what they did and that is why they end up on this show. So next time, think before you do anything that will affect your body in a bad way. Once the show is over or your eliminated and you want to live a healthy lifestyle, you are back to the person you were long time ago. That is such a waste of time. Anyways, kinda going off track.... So the Bodybug gadget is worn around the user's arm and basically it detects the calories you burned that day with over 92% accuracy. Inside of the gadget are heat sensors and pedometers which detect heat that escape from your body. This keeps track of the number of calories that you burned and when you log onto the website, you can input this data into your page. Here you basically have a picture of how much calories you consumed that day (through the selection of food items in the system), how much you burned (through the information in your BodyBug gadget) and the difference between the two to see whether or not you need to gain calories or reduce more calories in a day. The video below describes the following device. By the way if you never knew this gadget does not come cheap. This wonderful gadget comes at a price tag of about $249.99!


One technique that comes to mind in terms of technological devices that have to do with our body is liposuction. Liposuction is a type of surgery that improves the shape of your body by removing excess fat from deposits located between the skin and muscle. According to [1] liposuction involves the use of a small stainless steel tube, called a cannula. The cannula is connected to a powerful suction pump and inserted into the fat through small incisions in the skin. Fat removal is accomplished as the suction cannula creates tiny tunnels through the fatty layers. After surgery, these tiny tunnels collapse and thus result in a better body. Why would you go through all this? Waste money, time and effort. Just live your life! Stop being lazy. We need to get out more and exercise. I am looking outside and the weather is PERFECT! I can think of 5 things that i can do right now to get my body moving and everyone should be thinking the same thing! These societal needs are just costing you money, time and effort. By the way liposuction costs about $2500.00. Set your foundation to being healthy and it will get you a long way in life (in terms of health) or pay $2500.00. You decide?

Another technological equipment (i guess you could call it that) that comes to mind, in terms of working your body would be a sauna. If you don't know what a sauna is, it is basically a hot and humid room where you just sit down and sweat automatically pours down your body. Sauna's are located in many gym and fitness centers so they have to be an advantage in terms of our body. I googled the effects of the sauna and apparently it is recommended by many doctors. According to [2], the effects of the sauna are: weight loss without effort, ease sore and tired muscles, releave back pain or arthiritis , combat cold and sinis problems, improved skin, look and feel (OH NICE!). Check out the 2nd website. It has more information on the benefits of the sauna. I used to go to the sauna rarely when i went to the YMCA but, these benefits just make me want to go everyday!

Thinking of the sauna, another technological equipment which is related to our body and the sauna is the steam room. The benefits of the steam room are similar to the sauna but one thing that I just found out, according to [3], that the steam room helps speed up your metabolism. A sauna/steam will heat your body and therefore raise your heartbeat and metabolism. When your metabolism is raised, your body burns calories quicker and more effectively. The website [4] provided an example: In a 20 minute sauna session, you can burn up to 300 calories which is the same as a short jog or a long walk.

Therefore our societal needs of having a healthy lifestyle, or need for healthy foods has led to these 4 examples i mentioned above (BodyBug, Liposuction, sauna and steam) and more... But personally I feel that we could avoid these things. As kids we run around and play, but once we get older, that starts to disappear. I keep hearing stories of how our generation is going to be obese by a really young age (like 25 or something), but that reason is because there are so many technological devices (e.g. cellphones, tv, internet, facebook, ps3) that give us internal pleasure (i guess you could call it that) but that does not need to take us over. Just keep in mind that exercising and eating healthy benefits yourself in many ways and that your foundation is what will carry you along when you get older. So, next time you decide to stay at home and watch TV like a couch potato, get your bum off that couch, and go for a jog and if you can't jog, ride a bike!


[1] http://www.liposuction.com/
[2] http://www.123saunas.com/health/#weight
[3] http://www.ehow.com/about_5100620_purpose-steam-rooms.html
[4] http://sauna.lifetips.com/ http://www.24hourfitness.com/training/bodybugg/