Obesity Epidemic

The FDA has now made a rule requiring calorie labeling on foods, including popcorn at the movie theaters and pizza at restaurants:

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/diet-fitness/new-fda-calorie-label-rules-include-pizza-popcorn-n255291

This is certainly important information that the public should have access to. However, as we have learned, education on health does not always influence behavior changes. For example, in the article from this week on hygiene, sanitation, and water, it was stated “It has only recently become clear to health professionals that emotional levers (‘Clean hands feel good’) change people’s health behaviours more effectively than cognitive statements (‘Dirty hands cause disease’)” (Bartram & Cairncross, 2010, p. 1).

The American Cancer Society lobbied for the labels, of course. The new article used a quote from a member of the American Cancer society: “‘Between one-fourth and one-third of all cancers are caused by poor nutrition, physical inactivity and excess weight,’ said Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the group’s lobbying arm.” While this may be true, few people are motivated by the threat of a disease developing over time. The health behavior model would show that people perceive this risk as a low threat. Often, people do not consider their risk of cancer until they know people like them who develop it. Jill mentioned this as a comment in Ola’s cancer post.

The news article also mentioned “The group said FDA also needs to launch an education campaign so people know how to read and use the labeling.” Simply educating the public will yield few results if people do not perceive their threat of developing diseases related to poor nutrition as high. This will be largely inadequate in fighting the obesity epidemic. More emphasis needs to be placed on things like educational entertainment to motivate people to change their behavior.

People may not be able to make informed decisions if this health information was not available to them, but I think that government should be more focused on advertising that reflects emotional levers to influence the obesity epidemic. This, however, would have to be done in a way as to not make obese people feel bad about how unhealthy they are. Our society covets thin women over obese women, but recently, in media and songs such as Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass,” obese people have been shown as beautiful too.

What if a campaign were done to promote healthy eating as something that makes you feel good? It does not have to be related to beauty, as that would likely offend many people and cause them to ignore the message. Maybe some sort of campaign that shows that if you eat too much popcorn with too much salt and butter, you will have a stomach ache and headache and feel fatigued. This would be in contrast to if you ate a well-balanced meal with fruits and vegetables, which would make you feel energized.

The problem is that the government only has so many tax dollars to spend on advertising. They are up against large corporations with huge advertising budgets. Some of the numbers I learned in my Health Policy class are riveting. For example, on advertising alone, Reese’s spends $383 million each year, M&M’s spends $500 million each year, and McDonald’s spends $665 million each year. This is in comparison to the USDA, which spends $3.5 million each year on healthy food programs. No wonder why we have such an obesity epidemic.

Bartram, J., & Cairncross, S. (2010). Hygiene, sanitation, and water: forgotten foundations of health. PLoS Medicine, 7(11), e1000367.