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Seoul's finest natural assets are the mountains that tower over it. They provide Seoulites not just with dreamy vistas, but also with superb urban playscapes and exercise grounds. Crisscrossed with forested hiking trails, they summon the citizenry to get up, get out and get hiking.
This is a big plus, for cross-country walking and running are among the best, most natural exercises the human body can perform - and gradients provide an extra challenge. Moreover, local governments citywide have wisely outfitted many hills with public exercise equipment: Pull up bars, leg press machines, and so forth.
The good news is that these trails, walking routes and exercise spaces are widely used. At any time of any day, chances are better than even that you will see a cheerful ajumah and/or ajoshi, kitted out in garish, hi-tech outdoor gear, hiking or working out.
The bad news is that Seoul's physically active population seems to be limited to the over 40s.
This is problematic. Various factors affect health and longevity - notably, diet, exercise and mental outlook. Korea's sub-40s are significantly at risk from them all.
Let's start with diet. Forget the conventional wisdom about Korean cuisine: It is not healthy, it is one of the riskiest on earth. International studies find that Koreans (male and female) suffer the highest stomach cancer rates on earth.
Why so? The modern Korean diet post Park Chung-hee is more heavily flavored, salted and spiced than ever before, because during the "New Village" movement, in a bid to upgrade efficiency, cans of artificial flavorants were handed out to help citizens cook more quickly than traditional "slow food" demanded.
It worked. Koreans were empowered to create tasty, spicy dishes in minutes, rather than hours. The downside was the massive increase in and possibly addiction to sodium-loaded flavorants such as MSG, at the expense of natural ingredients. Today's Korean food is spicier, saltier and more pungent than ever before, but is not the healthy, peasant cuisine of recent memory.
While Korea's diet does not cause obesity, Western cuisine particularly the fast food beloved of urbanites does. With the younger generation scoffing ever more of this, obesity is soaring among schoolchildren.
I won't even mention alcohol consumption.
Next is exercise. With the intense focus on academics, school PT classes are inadequate, and after their military service, Korean males seem to lose interest in (or time for) personal fitness. I have no data on this, but the evidence of my eyes suggests older Koreans are hardier than younger. In the heroic, "economic miracle" days, Korean had few leisure options beyond hiking. They do now. Alas, many of these options, from mooching around jimjilbang to sitting in coffee shops and fiddling with digital devices, are sedentary.
Then there is stress. There are two issues here. The first issue is youth un/underemployment, generated by a mature economy and increasing offshoring by conglomerates. The second is the stifling weight of Korean culture. In a hugely competitive society, there is colossal family, peer-group and social expectation to conform and (over) achieve in education, work, wealth and relationships. These factors combine in "Hell Joseon" hence high stress and soaring suicides.
What to do? Amid the endless crises Koreans perceive themselves threatened by economic erosion, political implosion, North Korean explosions public health is overlooked. After all, the current generation has good genes, inherited from parents and grandparents, while plastic surgery and fashion options make them look lovely externally.
But with Korea's population rapidly graying, the young generation faces a weighty burden ahead. Are they physically robust enough to shoulder it? I wonder.
To give them a chance, I suggest schools upgrade PT. Workplaces and colleges should institute old-fashioned morning/afternoon group-exercise classes. Restaurants should be required to supply information about the artificial ingredients in their dishes. And artificial flavorants like MSG should be removed from kitchens, and placed on tables alongside salt and pepper.
However, the government's role is limited; at the end of the day, health maintenance is an individual choice. Even so, this is something all Koreans should be educated on by schools, by public information campaigns and by the media.
Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk.
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