Yesterday I linked you to a news story about a sugar tax. In seeing the same story on Face Book my sister, quite understandably, suggested that we teach people to moderate as opposed to taxing them.
Every public health graduate from the bachelors to the master's level enters the field with exactly those intentions. We are taught strategies to motivate persons to make lifestyle choices that will reduce their risk of disease; chronic, communicable and acute as well as how to promote injury prevention. As one of those MPH practitioner's I learned that even my favorite theory (Social Cognitive/Learning Theory)- making things relevant and teaching skills - was falling short. It has everything to do with why I am now in a doctorate program in NC.
The rates of obesity and the chronic health diseases that accompany it have not abated and so, we learn, the situation is complex. It requires health education programs and everything else we can throw at it.
Recalling another health crisis - raising taxes on cigarettes, after we educated on lung cancer and COPD, put in controls on advertising, and offered assistance for quitting is what finally got the smoke rates down from 43% to 19% in the USA. It really took all of those actions.
The article I am linking to today is from a peer reviewed research journal and the scientists suggest ways to "create an environment in which youths are encouraged to eat a healthier diet." It speaks to the magnitude of the problem and thus the complexity of the solution.
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