Hold the Fries
Fed by a leap in calories consumed and lack of physical activity, childhood obesity is a growing epidemic, and school lunches are one culprit, says Nicholas Freudenberg, director of the Doctor of Public Health Program at CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College. It's up to the public - individually and by pressuring government to turn the heat up on schools - to control the problem, Prof. Freudenberg says. "Human decisions" are responsible," he said. "People can unmake those decisions, but it's not going to happen on its own." In his lecture, "A Tale of Two Obes-Cities: Comparing London and New York City's Responses to Childhood Obesity," part of the Serving Science Cafe Series, he discussed a CUNY-London Metropolitan University study of efforts to improve opportunities for children to consume healthy food and increase activity. Both cities had difficulty implementing changes because of the large number of schools; most continued to dish out pizza, burgers and fries. Listen http://www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/news/radio/podcast/lecture_275.mp3
Nice one!! Isn't that London was fast in setting up their Obesity prevention agenda and push policies much faster??? I mean check their advertising campaign targeted toward the childhood obesity. Their public health action was much faster.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember who said it in class, but somebody said that they have to take action because they have universal health care. Do you think if we (as in the united states)have universal health care, we would be faster to in act such policies.
ReplyDeleteTHATS true, once the burden comes on a country's government to pay for healthcare, the public health improves because now the government wants to keep you healthy and so you cost less! However, even if we (US) go universal, we are still going to be a different nation as most of the health insurances will come from employers, and it might not be as effective to push policies as the other countries universal health care systems.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it will definitely help to make the government implement healthy policies much faster than now.