Why buying groceries online is ruining our health
Walk to shops and carry bags home to regain fitness, says Dame Sally
ONLINE shopping is making us unfit, Britain’s chief medical officer has suggested as she urged people to walk to the supermarket and carry bags home to help restore basic fitness.
Dame Sally Davies urged the public to make “little changes” to their everyday habits, warning that sedentary lifestyles have become one of the most pressing health problems facing the nation.
She issued the warning as official figures showed that just a quarter of women and a third of men do enough lifting each week to stop muscles wasting away.
Government guidelines recommend doing 20 minutes of “muscle strengthening” exercise twice a week, in addition to aerobic exercise. This requirement could be met by a couple of journeys with heavy shopping, digging in the garden, or by weightlifting or yoga.
In addition, at least 150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic activity such as brisk walking or cycling is advised – a target missed by almost half of women and one third of men.
Dame Sally urged the public to return to the habits of the past – swapping the lift for the stairs and replacing online shopping with a walk to the supermarket. “Everyone can become more active by making little changes to the things we do every day,” she said.
“If you can go for a run around the local park – great. But if you are pushed for time, something is always better than nothing.”
Britain’s senior doctor, who caused controversy earlier this year when she urged women to “do as I do” and think about the risk of breast cancer before having a glass of wine, said she tried to practise what she preached.
“At home I do little things that I know will make a difference, like walking to a nearby shop and carrying bags home, or even getting off the bus a stop early,” she said. “At work I try to take the stairs to my office over the lift.”
Steven Ward, executive director of ukactive, a nonprofit organisation which advocates an active lifestyle, said Britons should learn lessons from the past to prevent them “limping towards an early grave”
He said: “Modern living has made us more inactive than ever before. Where once we would walk around the office talking to colleagues and carry home our groceries, today we fire off emails and have Tesco deliver food to our door.”
Online grocery sales totalled £8.6bn last year and are predicted to reach £15bn by 2020, according to Mintel research, which found that online shopping levels have doubled in five years.
Public health officials said the human body was not designed to spend long hours sitting at a desk, followed by an evening on the sofa.
Prof Kevin Fenton, director of health and well-being at Public Health England, said: “We’ve gone from hunter-gatherer to grocery carrier to simply signing the delivery note.”