"Governments and public health researchers who are serious about tackling obesity must consider the toxic environment that has led to the current epidemic. Proposals for reform that focus solely on individuals--be it on their knowledge, willpower or decision-making ability--will not be successful in reversing our society's body weight trajectory.
We need measures aimed at changing the context, not the individual.
Rather than simply encouraging consumers to make healthier choices, we must recast the environment so that healthy options are far more accessible, available, and desirable than unhealthy alternatives. A fruitful area for further exploration is corporate practice, because it is so influential in shaping consumption patterns and because it must be carefully regulated in new ways if we are to achieve any change in the epidemiology of obesity."
From the editorial "Why Education and Choice Won't Solve the Obesity Problem" in American Journal of Public Health, April 2009.
Thanks!
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