From every statistic you can find, whether it is the World Health Organisation or Public Health England and with every metric measured, increases in general health result in so many benefits including socioeconomic.
But why is it so hard to get healthy and then maintain it? For developing nations access to clean water and sanitised nutrient-dense foods is the issue and for wealthy developed nations an over-abundance and poor lifestyle choices lead to illness and poor health.
So how can we as a collective create a healthier world? The benefits are there for all to see and yet we simply cannot overcome this burden on our society. Is there a better way?
To start with we first need to take a look at the biggest causes of what is referred to as Western metabolic disease. There are 2 main causes; poor diet and poor lifestyle choices.
Poor Diet
It is just too easy to walk into any convenience store and buy cheap processed food. Studies have shown that motivation to eat more sugary produce derives from the way in which sugar reacts within our systems. Sugar doesn’t provide the necessary nutrients your body craves, as well as having an effect on your brain function.
Therefore the combination of cheaper processed sugary foods with the internal fight against your own natural instincts and hormones (which are crying out for you to eat this processed food that actually tastes great), you begin to see why it is so difficult.
Poor Lifestyle choices
Then if we look at cause No. 2, poor lifestyle choices. We can see that after eating a poor choice of food which is not supplying the correct energy and nutrients your body needs. Your body will not have the sufficient energy needed to motivate you to exercise. Why is this? By eating a surplus of energy in the form of processed food, your body immediately stores this into fat reserves. Therefore it is not being utilised as energy for your consumption.
So now not only are you eating poor foods that do not provide the correct energy and nutrition but you are having to find additional energy to motivate yourself to exercise. Maybe you are working long hours and have a family to take care of therefore exercise is a luxury that you simply don’t have the energy or time for. If we then mention that it costs money to get healthy either in the form of gym memberships, sportswear, sports equipment, and healthy food which is much more expensive than mass-produced junk. We can see why it is just so bloody hard to become fit and healthy not to mention maintaining it for a lengthy period of time.
Shall we point a finger at the greedy food companies that want to increase their profits by creating cheap mass-produced food? No of course not, that is only a simple excuse, if people didn’t buy the processed food the manufactures wouldn’t produce it. A simple case of supply and demand economics. The food manufacturers do however know exactly how your brain and body chemistry work and by creating delicious foods lacking in nutrients understand that your body will require more of that type of food to try and fill the gap in nutrition thereby increasing their profits.
It looks pretty gloomy for the future of our health and yet the fitness and health industry is one of the largest growing industries worldwide so something must be working.
The most common way for fitness gyms and health products to promote and advertise their products and services is to create an image of the perfect healthy body which is a motivation for many people to achieve. The flaw in this thinking is its only aesthetics, meaning it’s all vanity, which is a poor motivator for many people who struggle with reducing their weight and improving their health. This is why there is a big push back with campaigns which highlight ‘body shaming’ or ‘fat-shaming’ etc. All the while both parties are missing the point of creating sustainable health improvements for society.
What can be done then?
Throughout history, social and economic systems have been established to help people achieve things in their lives whether it be socioeconomic, religious, community, etc. These systems for the best part have worked until they didn’t.
What do I mean by that? If we look at the current state of Capitalism, there is a good argument that it has passed its prime and therefore it needs to evolve into something more in line with our current social norms. That is not to say Capitalism does not work, it works, in fact, it works too well. Its creation, however, was from a different time and era. The opposite of this is socialism, so should we all become socialists?
No, obviously not. There has never been a time when socialism in its purest form (Communism) has worked, I’m not going to elaborate on why here but it's safe to say it has never worked. Partly the reason for its failure in the real world is how it does not take into effect the true nature of man; we are naturally selfish, no matter how much we would love to overcome this intrinsic value within us, it is still there. A simple way to know this is to find a large group photo of you and your friends, and or family members. Who was the first person you looked at? Yourself, right. It’s natural, so don’t shy away from it, understand it and accept it.
Is it possible that technology could provide an answer?
The immediate answer to that would be – no way. Just look at Facebook or Twitter and how they are slowly ruining our kids and society. But are they really? They do provide lots of important tools and functions that help society. As the saying goes “It’s not guns that kill, it’s the idiots shooting them”. So, what is exactly wrong with Facebook and Twitter?
First and foremost, they were built on a desire for people to interact with one another. However their ‘why’ was to create an income for themselves, ie the tech companies and their shareholders and not initially to help society by providing them with a principal, but rather a want. This has led to a narcissistic society resulting in poor use of technology for the greater good of humanity.
If we compare this to Tesla, we can see that the ‘Why’ of this company was to use technology to provide ‘a want’ (nice cars) but by ensuring ‘a principle’ (saving the environment) was key. People will gladly give up certain important principles to get certain needs. This is why there is such a huge problem with data privacy. People will gladly give up certain aspects of their privacy as long as it gives them unnecessary items to compensate for their immediate cravings.
If we then take a look at the initial finding that health increases society's wealth along with how tech is or isn’t providing the correct or necessary services to aid humanity, we can see we have a long way to go.
It’s all very well pointing fingers and accusing everyone else of the problems we face but what can you do as individuals?
We at Fitchain are trying to provide a solution to these main problems by using technology to provide people with the correct incentives and systems so that they can overcome their cravings, overcome their inertia of not exercising and start to get fit and healthy the right way.
We are going to create a brand-new fitness and health economy from data!
How will we do this?
Fitchain will create a new open API (a type of program that other apps can simply plug into to use in their own services). Whereby any fitness and health app, either currently in operation or being developed, can plug into our API for free. This allows their existing customers access to our Fitchain platform.
By allowing their users access to our platform they can sell their health data and receive compensation for it. Simply put, by them getting fit they will get paid.
As a user, you will sign up to the Fitchain platform and download the Fitchain wallet for a small monthly subscription. On completion of your sign up, every bit of data you input into your fitness app(s) will be sold and you will be paid directly into your very own Fitchain wallet.
Because the Fitchain platform is built on the Blockchain network which uses a 128bit encryption cryptography, you the user will remain completely anonymous, no one, not even us at Fitchain will ever have access directly to your personal details that are directly connected to your health data.
Who buys your data?
The Fitchain platform uses smart contracts so that medical research has direct access to your health data via the blockchain network using hash technology. This means that the medical research projects that require your data will have to pay you directly for the privilege; this is all done automatically using the smart contracts. You can easily check to see exactly where your data is going, what it’s being used for and who has paid you in the Fitchain wallet.
What can you do with your earnings?
For every bit of data that the researchers actually use you will receive a Fitchain token that is paid directly into your Fitchain wallet. Therefore, the more information you provide using your current fitness app or even multiple fitness apps and appliances the more you could possibly receive. Once you have earnt your tokens, they can be used to purchase products and services directly from the Fitchain Marketplace.
Welcome to the Fitchain Marketplace
The Fitchain Marketplace is your online health shopping world where you can use your tokens to buy items and services either directly or via subscription. The products and services are provided by our marketplace partners ranging from sports equipment, fitness wearable technology, sportswear, protein and supplements to healthy meal prep services, basically everything you will need to achieve your fitness and health goals. And once more, we will work very hard to ensure that you don’t have to walk the entire length of the Himalayas to receive 1 token. What is the incentive in that? We hope to provide you, the Fitchaineans, with a basic stream of wealth that is worthwhile. So that something as simple as counting your daily steps will earn you enough to buy a few cups of coffee per month!
Take a moment to think about that. You could earn yourself a few FREE cups of coffee per month simply by doing what you already do such as walking. Look at it like this; Have you ever washed your jeans and then found a wet soggy £10 in your pocket? How good does that feel? It’s your money though, and yet you feel so good. Well, that’s how Fitchain works. It’s your money only, it's not in your washed-up jeans pocket, it’s in your fitness app, and it’s already yours we just allow you to receive this benefit.
How are you helping the world?
It’s hard to see how simply by filling in your health data and aiming to get fitter, oh and of course now getting paid for it, you are helping the world. If we look at some statistics; The average cost to society as a whole in the UK from obesity is estimated at a staggering £27 Billion per year! By you getting fitter and thereby healthier you will immediately reduce this burden on our NHS. Plus, as an added bonus up until now, Medical research has never had any access to millions of people’s ‘live’ health data and lifestyle. By becoming a Fitchainean signing up to Fitchain and completing your health data you are providing a massive wealth of information that can be used to possibly find cures for some of the most difficult diseases of our time such as Cancers and Alzheimer's. How good does that feel?
In summary, you can not only get paid for getting healthier, but you can also help the NHS by reducing the burden it already has dealing with obesity and diabetes, you will be helping provide invaluable data to medical research and you will be able to help your family by not becoming overweight and unhealthy. What is there not to like?
Can you imagine a world in the near future where you and millions of other people are providing their health data to medical research, getting paid directly for it and modern western disease such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s are virtually all but eradicated due to your help?
Please indulge me, close your eyes and imagine yourself walking into your local GP office. You greet your doctor and then he/she scans your phone using a QR Code and wham, your doctor has access to your full health profile provided by your fitness apps which shows them all of your daily activities, diet, etc. They can now provide you with a diagnosis that's more accurate, helping you to get better and remain healthier. What an amazing thing you will be helping to provide!
These are all of the reasons why we are creating Fitchain. To do so we will need your help. Stay in touch with us, sign up and become a Fitchainean with us. We would love for you to join our family knowing we are all working on something that will become a true game-changer.
