Drop that cheeseburger and put your hands up!

It must have taken 15 years before we figured out that health education alone wasn’t going to solve the tobacco problem. Then we learned that taxes and laws changed behavior a whole lot quicker than smoking cessation programs.

With obesity it appears that lesson has been learned, and legislated solutions are being initiated already. A bunch of states are developing laws to get rid of junk food at schools, make restaurants print fat content of the menu, require PE again in school, etc. It won’t be easy, but at least we’re not going to waste a decade hoping that education and persuasion can overcome billions spent per year in advertising and bad products for which no one is accountale.

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  1. School systems actively pursue lucrative soft drink vending machines to shore up budget shortfalls due to economic downturns. The pragmatist says that we need to provide schools with reasons not to have ‘candy sales for lab equipment’ and soda sales for new textbooks.

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