Lifestyle changes

Cleaning up the environment

Here’s another brilliant observation made by one of the speakers at the Obesity 2011 conference I told you about last Thursday: “The environment that we live in really does encourage a lot of the wrong things from a weight control standpoint.”

Actually, while I’m at it, let me give you a couple more examples of the insanity that reigned at this conference…

As one speaker oh-so-helpfully pointed out, “It’s difficult to change how you live, how you work, how you eat and how you sleep.”

And then there was my personal favorite quote from the session: “Some people can’t make lifestyle changes in this environment. What should we do–tear down all the fast food places?”

Yes! That’s exactly what we should do.

If we are ever going be thinner and rid ourselves of this diabetes and pre-diabetes epidemic, then we need to change the landscape. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we live in a society where it’s all too easy to gain weight. After all, more children in this country recognize Ronald McDonald than Mickey Mouse.

In other words, we need to create a new environment. One in which the cheapest foods are not the most fattening. One in which exercise is encouraged. One in which obesity is not the norm.

Of course, this sort of overhaul won’t happen overnight. But it can start right here, right now.

We may not be able to bulldoze all the fast-food joints, but we CAN choose not to eat at them. It’s a simple case of supply-and-demand. If we stop “demanding” the junk they’re selling, they’ll stop supplying it.

It may take a generation or two of small steps like this to achieve a whole new environment. But making the world a healthier place will be worth every step we take to get there.