The solutions to these primary social problems are in no way hard to perform, especially with the dreaded ‘big-government’ to oversee the education and housing sectors and control public health, and it is here where our democracy should be a clear advantage over other countries in fighting disease, but reality does not seem to be as simple. Unusually – in my opinion at least – there is somewhat of an opposition in people’s minds, including those that I have spoken to myself, to pushing public health measures into our lives.
A large number of people told me that this would be “preaching” and one that the idea was “condescending and invasive”, and others appealed to our right to freedom from nagging, but I feel this requires a certain blindness to reality. Many Americans do not know enough, and would be happy to be educated – in their schools or elsewhere – on their own bodies and how they could be more health-conscious.
Our unusual relationship with food is definitely one of the roots of the problem, and I found a very interesting article from Durham University that compared obesity rates throughout Europe, and used France and Finland as case studies of healthy nations. France’s traditional diet is in fact higher in saturates fats than the US’, but their rate of obesity in adults is under a third of ours.
The interesting answer given to this by many is the French’s relationship with food, and the value they put in fine cuisine; it has been observed that they are far less keen on ‘dieting’ and snacking as we are, are freely engage their love of food in moderation. This leads to a culture of smaller portion sizes in restaurants and shops, and slower-eating, both of which lead to an overall reduction of calorie in-take.
Finland, the other example, did not have a cultural advantage to the extent of France, but pursued many government programs from the 1970s to avert the obesity crisis they saw on the horizon. They particularly took issue with children began monitoring their weights, prohibiting unhealthy foods from school, and providing every child with food subsidies and healthy eating programs. These radical and undoubtedly expensive approaches resulted in Finland’s child obesity rates staying among the lowest in Europe, even today.
I would consider an investment like this a worthwhile one, but as the writer’s of the paper note, it is naive to assume that this approach would work elsewhere. I have found many culprits in my research, for the degeneration of Americans by way of overeating, and though I have further my knowledge do not feel closer to a conclusion, or even that there is a conclusion to be reached. We certainly have a dangerous attitude towards food, and a lack of awareness of what is healthy, and what isn’t, but at the same time we also have a lack of desire to mend our ways.
It strikes me that those men who are approaching death at 60 do not lament their indulgent pasts, and pray their children live differently, and that it has become a relative social norm to eat oneself to the grave. If people had more love for their bodies then maybe they would be more conscious about destroying them, and value their lives; and perhaps it is a much deeper psychological problem that we have, being animals, used to fighting for survival, living in a world of overwhelming decadence.
References
Flegal et. al. Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among US Adults (Jama 2002) American Heart Association Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations (2006) Science Daily Lower-income Neighborhoods Associated With Higher Obesity Rates (10 Feb 2008) Lidstone et al. Obesity and overweight in Europe and lessons from France and Finland (Durham University) Wikipedia – List of countries by GDP/Obesity