Are Millennials The Healthiest Generation?

Are Millennials The Healthiest Generation?

Last week’s blog looked at healthy and globally sustainable food trends courtesy of Millennials. This week, we’ll see whether their food beliefs transfer into actions that have a favorable impact on their health. Interestingly, every generation apparently believes they’re the healthiest, followed by their parents’ generation, then the younger generation. Let’s find out who the healthiest generation actually is.

Know Your Generation

Depending on the resource used, there are differing age categories for the various generations, but for this blog, we’ll use this criteria.

 

Category Birth Year       Current Age

Silent Generation 1928-1945       74-91

Baby Boomers 1946-1964       55-73

Generation X 1965-1980       39-54

Millennials 1981-1996       23-38, 22-35

Generation Z 1997-present       0-22

 

Define Healthy

Different generations have different definitions as to what “being healthy’ means. Most Baby Boomers define healthy as getting recommended screenings and checkups,and more often feel the right weight for height is a factor. A majority of Millennials define healthy as having good eating habits and regular physical activity. The definition that best aligns with being healthy is that of the Millennial, and also refers to having fewer health conditions.

Millennial Milieu

Here’s where health as a principle and health as a daily habit conflict. There are alarming trends that do not bode well for the health of Millennials.

 

Millennials are experiencing double-digit increases in the prevalence of these health conditions:

• Colorectal cancer, due primarily to high red meat and fried food intake, and infrequent fruit and vegetable intake.

• Obesity, though it’s obviously at epidemic rates for all generations,

• High blood pressure

• Diabetes

• Risk for stroke

• Stress

• Anxiety and depression

• Substance abuse

 

Unfortunately, Millennials are tending to ignore their health, which is common in early and young adulthood, and are failing to realize that prevention today offsets health conditions in future decades.

Detrimental behaviors:

• Nearly 1 in 5 do not have health insurance

• Two-thirds of young Millennials do not engage in regular physical activity

• Millennials are deeply dependent on daily technology that negatively impacts:

  • Sleep

  • Stress levels

  • Healthy eating, with a steep rise in binge eating when binge watching

  • Mental health

  • Socializing

 

All Is Not Lost

The factors that are resulting in health problems for Millennials are impacting all generations, but when those factors start at a younger age, they compound sooner. Many of the behaviors of Millennials and all generations can be tweaked slightly to turn a negative into a positive.

• Use health and fitness apps to implement routines of regular exercise, stress management, hourly movement and to reduce the amount of time spent on gadgets and devices

• Continue to enjoy food and be creative and adventurous. Make it a goal to include at least a fruit or vegetable in every day, and then graduate to every meal.

• When feeling overly stressed, take a walk, go to the gym or join a hiking club and avoid going the the pub or popping the cork on a bottle of wine when arriving home.

• Cut back on work hours if you’re working too much. Meet friends, take a healthy cooking class or start a new hobby.

• Schedule a general health exam.If uninsured, ask for the cash discount rate. There’s no better use of hard-earned money than to get a review of your health status, and if there are issues, to start addressing them now, when changes can reverse trends.

So, Who Is The Healthiest Generation?

It turns out the Silent Generation, those currently age 74-91, are the healthiest, with the lowest rates of health conditions that ultimately lead to our demise. Much has changed in the lifetime of those in the Silent Generation, and having come into those changes later in life has been a benefit to seeing obesity, diabetes and heart disease at a later age and at a lower rate.

When the decades were ticking by for the Silent Generation, jobs involved physical activity, work weeks were shorter, stress levels were lower, recreation involved body movement beyond the use of our thumbs, and socialization was face to face. There was little processed, convenience and fast food, and eating out in a restaurant was a special occasion. We can all do well by turning back the clock a bit. Take a minute to commit to one or two ways you can unplug a bit, and then make it happen on a regular basis.

Karen Fisher, MS, RD, LDN, CDE is a dietitian in Reno, Nevada, happily promoting the benefits of healthy foods at her nutrition consulting firm, Nutrition Connection. Find her website at www.NutritionConnectionNV.com