Health mistakes that 1980s and ’90s children are making today
Even though the word millennial is thrown about a lot these days, most of us are only vaguely aware of what it actually means. For a panel discussion that I was moderating recently, I did a fair amount of research to figure out who exactly a millennial is, and found out that the term is used to refer to the generation of children born between the ’80s and the ’90s (between age 18 and mid-30s fit the bill).
Now we all know many from this generation, also called the Generation Y or the Net generation. I am a millennial’s mother myself, and besides my son’s friends and cousins, I come across multiple people belonging to this age group during my practice all the time too.
I find them peculiar. In fact, if I had to define them in one line I’d say they are the “Me generation”. Rather, I’d say they are the “Me Me Me generation”. Plus they are the generation that came to digital first, and that distinguishes them from all those before them - the Generation X who parented them and the Baby Boomers who parented Gen X (who coins these terms!). Without doubt, millennials are different (besides being peculiar) and have specific characteristics.
We tried to understand them during a panel discussion which had a sleep specialist, a dental surgeon, and a soft skills expert, and many-many harassed (or so they thought) parents of millennials in the audience. It was an unusually interactive session and discussed at length how millennials sleep (or just don’t), the social issues they face (their dependence on social media and utter lack of soft skills), their disdain for dental hygiene (they just don’t take oral health seriously), how their eating patterns and choices are vastly different, and the unique nutritional challenges that this generation faces in particular.
We spared some thought for the parents too; after all it’s a given that parents of millennials are confused. These moms and dads are giving their children more time and attention than their parents gave them, but there is no appreciation coming back their way — at least that’s the majority thought that came through from the audience (and also the panellists, all of whom were moms of millennials too).
When it comes to eating, I feel that on the one hand, this generation is very demanding — they want customisation, have exacting health food standards and expectations, they want and scout for the best of the options, they are very curious, experimental and are willing to try everything, adapt far better to new tastes and foods, and like to stay abreast with international tastes and trends. So far so good. But that said they are making some blatant nutrition mistakes too. Here, I am sharing the top five that I have observed over the years.
The first problem arises because this generation wants everything easy. Convenience is the key and rules all their food decisions, so this makes them big consumers of packaged, ready-to-eat food. This pattern of eating obviously shortchanges their nutrition quotient, and is fuelling lifestyle epidemics and making them vulnerable to ailments while they are young (diabetes, hypertension etc now often begin in the 20s). This way of eating is stroking multiple nutritional deficiencies, inflammation and the leaky gut syndrome too.
Secondly, they all suffer from the lack of time, and have a tendency to eat on the go. They often skip breakfast, hardly ever cook; most have difficulty even fathoming how to fit cooking into their lifestyle. This is a very bad, soul- (and gut-) busting way of eating.
Thirdly, they love to carb-bash. Mostly misinformed, they believe that following a low-carb diet is a magical solution for all their weight woes. This does not deliver, and may in fact result in harsh short-term side-effects like fatigue, irritability, mind fog, dizziness, headache and consti-pation.
Commonly seen symptoms in this generation, right?
They also worry obsessively about calories and give them too much importance. The problem is that they don’t look at food as a whole entity and spend their time either chasing protein, or trying to boost their brain power via herbs, besides counting calories all the time.
They get caught in the small details and miss out the big picture. This is a terrible way to look at food. Plus, this constant worrying about calorie intake, meeting protein requirement et al creates a negative psychological relationship with food, further fuelling eating disorders.
Finally as they are fixated with technology, an alarming number of them rely on nutrition advice from unlicensed "nutrition experts” on the social media. Just look at the number of Insta stars (users with a large following) who earn their living by advertising and endorsing products and services on their Instagram feeds, and see their following, and you’ll know what I mean. Incomplete news is often deeply damaging.
This generation works on logic, which is good. I just hope it focused on all the right aspects of food, and took some cues from time-tested ways of eating. That might just save them from making such health-numbing, blatant nutrition mistakes and help preserve their health, and make the most of the best resource given to them - their body!