5 TED Talks About Physical Fitness and Nutrition

Empowering TED Talks for Health and Fitness

  • Teach Every Child About Food
  • Why Do Some People Find Exercise Harder than Others?
  • Your Genes Are Not Your Fate
  • Why Bother Leaving the House?
  • Plant-Strong & Healthy Living

Get motived with strategies and personal stories highlighted in these 5 TED Talks about physical fitness and nutrition. Not only do they inspire, they also provide in-depth research and proven statistics on how lifestyle changes can affect the physical and mental well-being while increasing overall happiness.

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Teach Every Child About Food

Good eating habits develop in childhood, so in this TED Talk, Chef Jamie Oliver talks about the disgrace of nutritional education. Meals are now fast, processed, and misleading. Instead of cooking nutritious meals at home, people opt for processed, frozen, or fast food. These eating habits are passed down from generation to generation, which is shortening children’s lifespans. This causes diet-related diseases that cost Americans 10% of their healthcare bills. To start a food revolution, Oliver says children must learn about food at home and be given healthy options.

Why Do Some People Find Exercise Harder Than Others?

Emily Balcetis, a social psychologist, explains how perceptions of exercise changes according to how people view the world. Physically, the eyes can deceive someone, which in turn affects their emotional state. In the case of exercise, Balcetis’ research shows that motivation is the key to how people view exercise as either easy or difficult. Once the perception of exercise changes, so does the motivation in what she calls “keeping the eye on the prize.”

Your Genes Are Not Your Fate

Dean Ornish discusses how nutrition and exercise can counter-act your genetic makeup. Some examples in his TED Talk include how certain foods can increase oxygen to the brain and actually create more cells. Other foods like saturated fat and sugar decrease brain cells. Increased blood flow also affects skin aging and prevents chronic illnesses like heart disease. By altering lifestyle choices, people can activate good genes and switch off bad ones, changing the fate for many people who are more prone to genetic anomalies.

Why Bother Leaving the House?

Ben Saunder, an outdoor explorer, explains how in-home exercise has ruined people’s idea of natural fitness. It is the challenge of adventure that keeps people happy and creates a sense of wonder. He talks about his own experience of crossing the Arctic Sea of Siberia to Canada. The conditions were miserable, but the accomplishment was the prize. The less extreme lesson to be learned is that the only true way toward personal growth is a real challenge: when people face and overcome adversity.

Plant-Strong & Healthy Living

Comparing the western-diet to a dragon that needs to be slain, Rip Esselsyn, explains his role as a slayer to diseases linked to a meat-eating diet. Instead of more pills, diet-plans, doctors, and treatment over prevention, a plant-based lifestyle can solve the epidemic of chronic diseases. He also talks about the misconception of certain foods and how marketing has taken over facts in order make it seem like certain foods are needed for complete nutrition. A food revolution is needed by relearning what food does to the body.

Healthy eating and exercising habits develop from inner motivation and a will to improve one’s health. These 5 TED Talks about physical fitness and nutrition empower people by giving them proven tactics and scientific facts to generate excitement for transformation.

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