Engineers: Unhealthy Habits Impact Health & Well-Being

[rustled_jimmy]

in my work place, it seems that most people have very poor eating habits and posture and like to scoff at me and call me a health freak just because i take care of my body. i noticed in school and engineering events, a lot of the meal choices for meetings or presentations was usually take out food or pizza. if engineers are logical and smart, why can't we think about how we're treating our bodies?

 

[boneh3ad]

Over-generalize much?

 

[Vadar2012]

Yeah damm man, I eat mostly health food. My meetings consist of salad sanwhiches... and orange juice. Although I do sit weirdly in my chair, but we all can't be perfect. I do cop some comments, but not from engineers.

 

[AlephZero]

All you need for healthy living is to make sure you get plenty of each of the five basic food groups - sugar, fat, salt, caffeine, and alcohol

 

[xxChrisxx]

in my work place, it seems that most people have very poor eating habits and posture and like to scoff at me and call me a health freak just because i take care of my body. i noticed in school and engineering events, a lot of the meal choices for meetings or presentations was usually take out food or pizza. if engineers are logical and smart, why can't we think about how we're treating our bodies?

This post deserves some real abuse. Either it's thinly veiled contempt for 'dem fatties', or a genuinely stupid question.

I'll even highlight the answer, which you so kindly posted yourself.

in my work place, it seems that most people have very poor eating habits

Engineers are people. What's it to you what people eat, say, do or sit like?

I'll now address the more probable reason why you made this thread. Considering your other posts, you seem to be tremendously thin skinned and have come across some (what seems like minor) critisim at work.

Taking that into account, this doesn't seem like a genuine question at all. It does seem like a snide little dig, to give yourself a bit of an ego boost. By highlighing the one area where you see yourself as subjectively 'better' than your colleagues.


EDIT: OK so I've just reread your other post, and you say you are on the autism spectrum (seemingly who isn't these days). So maybe we can give you a bit of leeway on this.

You may not have picked up on it due to your condition, but people rib each other all the time, and it's all in good humour. It's not a real dig at you taking a healthy approach.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Isn't it just 'Blokes in general' who eat badly?
You will probably find, however, that fewer than average engineers smoke. That, at least, has been my experience when comparing them with groups of teachers, medics, police, social workers. performers, artists etc.. Engineering is a less stressful job than many (yes!) - allowing more projects to be taken to a successful conclusion than many professions - which could be one reason for the lack of need for nicotine.
Swings and roundabouts I think.

 

[Integral]

What I find shocking is the number of smoking, overweight people I see working in doctors offices. You would think that they of all people would have an appreciation for healthy living.

 

[sophiecentaur]

A friend of mine was a theatre sister in a busy hospital, working with lung cancer operations on a daily basis. Almost all the theatre staff used to pop out for a ciggy between operations. Amazing.

 

[wuliheron]

According to the National Science Foundation one in five Americans still believes the sun revolves around the earth. That's not an issue with low IQ or poor education, but flat out denial and to deny that denial has a huge impact is, in and of itself, denial.

 

[phinds]

in my work place, it seems that most people have very poor eating habits and posture and like to scoff at me and call me a health freak just because i take care of my body. i noticed in school and engineering events, a lot of the meal choices for meetings or presentations was usually take out food or pizza. if engineers are logical and smart, why can't we think about how we're treating our bodies?

This sounds like a "dumb blond" kind of comment. I worked all my life with engineers and the only difference I saw between us and the general population was that there tended to be fewer really fat people in engineering than in the general population.

 

[Aero51]

He's got a point. I don't know too many engineers that go to the gym and strength train regularly. In fact, come to think of it, I don't know many engineers that are knowledgeable in nutrition. It requires a certain type of thinking, sometimes called common sense, that is required to maintain a healthy body.










Notice my subtle comment. :)

 

[phinds]

He's got a point. I don't know too many engineers that go to the gym and strength train regularly. In fact, come to think of it, I don't know many engineers that are knowledgeable in nutrition. It requires a certain type of thinking, sometimes called common sense, that is required to maintain a healthy body.

Another dumb blond statement. Do you really think engineers have less common sense that the general population? What planet do you live on?

 

[micromass]

This thread seems to be going off into the deep end.

First of all, does anybody have any actual evidence that engineers are unhealthy other than personal anecdotes??

If nobody has such evidence, then this thread is based on nothing and it will be locked.

 

[Aero51]

Phinda, obviously you take these comments personally. Dont. Also, all my statements are purely from experience I don't see why that invalidates an argument. A big problem with the scientific community is that knowledge from experience is looked down upon.

 

[micromass]

A big problem with the scientific community is that knowledge from experience is looked down upon.

For good reason in my opinion! Otherwise we would also believe in silly things like alien visitors and government conspiracies.

Evidence by personal anecdotes is not acceptable here. So please only post if you have some actual evidence.

 

[micromass]

Let's keep this thread on topic please.
If anybody wants to discuss personal experience vs scientific evidence, then feel free to create a new thread about it.

 

[Mentalist]

rustled_Jimmy. You're speaking from a bubble, or just your personal experience. There are many more engineers than the 5-15 you see every day, so you should not make such generalizations about people as a group based on the limited experience you have.

 

[dkin]

I am an engineer and I just ate an Indian takeaway, along with soup. Not very healthy. So in my experience you are correct.

 

[micromass]

There doesn't seem to be any concrete evidence. So I'm locking this.

 

[Astronuc]

For good reason in my opinion! Otherwise we would also believe in silly things like alien visitors and government conspiracies.

Evidence by personal anecdotes is not acceptable here. So please only post if you have some actual evidence.

I think most if not all evidence will be anecdotal. I doubt that there has been a scientific study on engineers and their health vs other groups of people. I was just at a large engineering facility where many of several hundred folks on site are engineers (as well as support staff). A vast majority were overweight. However, that probably reflects office workers more than it does engineers.

The CDC and NIH have records of studies on lifestyle and health (overweight, obesity). For example, http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedentary_lifestyle - one must review the citations.