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Do campaigns promoting healthier living work?
The number of US adults following a healthy lifestyle has fallen in the last two decades despite increased public health campaigns. What would make you adopt a healthier lifestyle?
A review of two studies dating back to 1988 found that the proportion of obese adults had increased by a third while levels of exercise and consumption of fruit and vegetables had fallen.
Overall, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina found that the number of people adhering to all five "healthy habits" - including maintaining a healthy weight and stopping smoking - decreased from 15% to 8%.
Dana King, lead author on the report, has suggested that: "The amount of emphasis by the current health system on prevention and healthy lifestyles may be insufficient."
Why are campaigns promoting healthier lifestyles not working? What would make you adopt a more healthy lifestyle? Would more campaigns work or should other strategies be adopted? Or should we be more accepting of the way we live and not try to force change?
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Published:
Thursday, 28 May, 2009, 10:54 GMT
11:54 UK
All comments as they come in
Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:53 GMT
08:53 UK
"I feel like consuming everything 'bad' for me just because the government tell me not to! Christopher Malpas, London"
And this was recommended by over 70 people??? You can eat your daily fry-up, smoke as much as you like and even drink yourself stupid. It's all good. But dont put the blame on the government - something folks here LOVE doing - you do this because you want to. Folks here are obese, right after the states. And size 16 is avarage! A bit of sport never hurt nobody. Than you!!
[Sassena], United Kingdom
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:38 GMT
08:38 UK
I get up at 5:30 and have to be on site for an 8:00 start..
I have a big fry up at about 7:30 and then I am on the shovel untill 3:30 with possibly a stop for a cup of tea at mid day..
I don't actually want to go anywhere near a gym at the end of the day!
The pub is far more preferable!
Good Man The Dan, Killinaskully
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:31 GMT
08:31 UK
"healthy food requires a healthy salary, thats why people dont/cant opt in to it"
A pack of beans, that feeds 2 grown ups for 2 days, in my local supermarket costs 1.70eur. Fast food costs at least 5eur per person
finally, Dublin
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:31 GMT
08:31 UK
"Advice" is often presented in a condescending and contradictory manner. This coupled with an attitude of "you are a fat lazy slob who does not deserve my help" from those who can make a difference, doctors, nurses, dieticians, fitness centre trainers etc. actively discourages anyone looking for help.
It is strange that those who willingly help anorexics even if they do not want help, simply sneer at the obese who do want to change.
Michael Lincoln
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:31 GMT
08:31 UK
Never mind healthy living, when are we going to see a tax on prejudice? This HYS alone would net HMRC an absolute fortune.
Not everyone who is overweight is a lazy, TV-addicted slob who's life consists of shovelling fistfuls of chips into their mouth for six hours a day.
Likewise, not everyone is a wafer-thin vegan health-freak who would rather eat their own foot than go within a hundred feet of a kebab shop.
Or maybe the secret is to realise and accept that we're all just different...
Ben Cook, Horley, United Kingdom
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:26 GMT
08:26 UK
No they dont.
I recently went for a yearly check up, the person advised me I was about 3 KG over weight.
The medical person who told me was obese to say it nicely.
And I take notice of what they said?
Peter Berry, United Kingdom
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:25 GMT
08:25 UK
People seem to forget, nobody is telling us what to do, but we are being told the results of the latest research etc. which can help improve the quality of some people's life.
Advice is there to be taken or ignored - I find it very telling of someone if they reject new advice and then complain about them being told what to do, what you are really saying is, yes you are right, but I'm too lazy to change anything even though I think it will make me feel better as a person, so I will moan instead
The Running Man, London, United Kingdom
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:23 GMT
08:23 UK
More campaigns will not work and are a complete waste of money. It's not as though we don't know by now! Just look at the majority of the readers recommended comments.
We are sick to the back teeth of being told what is and what is not good for us. So much so that it often has the opposite effect and if that arrogant green woman down the road tells me in her holier than thou way to get on my bike once more, I'll scream!!!
Jon Storr, Wales, United Kingdom
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:21 GMT
08:21 UK
It's just the modern version of religion. A set of rules to obtain ever-lasting life that are actually impossible for people to live up to. Guilt. High preachers. Beliefs touted to be true but in actual fact can be ripped to shreds by proper science and critical thinking.
So there's some correlation between people that have a healthy lifestyle and disease? So what? There is no proof of cause. Fire-engines do not cause fires.
Robin Arnold, Wolverhampton, UK.
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:18 GMT
08:18 UK
Obviously humans are the worst kind of animal failing to understand the basic:
that smoking causes health problems and stinks, drugs and alcohol hinder them from using the brain in its full potential and too much junk food weaken the immune system
No respect for the human body and soul at all.
But I dont care really because this is what makes me stand out as a human being
marta, Dublin
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:11 GMT
08:11 UK
The fact the healthy living campaigns cannot make up their mind one minute to the next what is and isn't healthy, simply makes life confusing.
[LABOURHATERSCLUB], ALDERSHOT, United Kingdom
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:10 GMT
08:10 UK
We have designed in "unhealthy" life styles with school runs, hypermarkets accessible by car, re-designated playing fields, lack of competitive sports, fast food, lack of cooking skills, cheap alcohol, misinformation on diet and nutrition across decades, and a sadly missed will to "fight back".
When you are young you learn to hate the stridency of adults telling you what to do. Today, instead of a parental voice, we have the State telling us "do as we say not as we do".
Scarlet In A-Study, Oven Lane
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 07:06 GMT
08:06 UK
I don't believe they are working because the information given is confusing and sometimes contraditory. There is a very old benchmark which still holds good today; all things in moderation. If youeat/drink too much and don't exercise you will get fat, it's not rocket science. You don't have to join a gym, just get off your backside and go for a walk, it's enjoyable and you'll be suprised at how easy it is and how much better you feel. Try it, it works.
Geoffrey Burn, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 06:59 GMT
07:59 UK
Blah..Blah...Blah...Of course they dont work, posters and expensive adverts doing nothing. Didnt work for smoking, this Country suffers with a lack of education, discipline and motivation. Get Rea!!
KG, London
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Added:
Friday, 29 May, 2009, 06:39 GMT
07:39 UK
If cheap processed food which is high in fat and salt was REMOVED from the stores then people would have no alternative.
But when cheap food is bad for you and you have the choice of cheap food that lasts or fresh food which goes off after a couple of days your going to buy processed.
I personally love fresh fruit and veg and fresh fish. BUT the cost is so excessive its an imposibility.
andrew giggal, chesterfield
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Total comments: 477
Published comments: 451
Rejected comments: 26
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