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Great tasting, but not less filling. Inexpensive, extremely delicious — and yes, unhealthy — food is everywhere. Have you seen a Taco Bell commercial lately? I’m salivating, and I digress.
Let’s face it. Junk food is at our fingertips, and there’s really not much actual need for physical activity anymore. Personal mobility devices, escalators that lead to fitness-center entrances, drive-through vaccinations where you don’t even have to get out of your car….
Remember the humans in Wall-E?
Is it any wonder we’re getting wider but not necessarily taller? So wondered John Peters last week at the Arkansas Biosciences Institute’s Fall Research Symposium (ABI is an IA research partner).
His keynote address focused on promoting good health in the 21st century. As associate director for corporate research with Proctor & Gamble and an advisor to ABI, Peters has some experience in the field of biosciences and how it can be applied to promote healthy lifestyles.
Peters asked how we, as a society, can facilitate sustainable change in communities to improve healthy eating and active living behaviors. First, he described what it means to be sustainable:
Peters cited policy change, economic recession or collapse and global climate change and its effect on quality of life as forces powerful enough to change population priorities. He said sustainable solutions must be integral to the “prosperity engine.”
That, he said, will change the current cultural paradigm [I love that term, and by love, of course, I mean hate].
According to Peters, a win-win business model for healthy behaviors doesn’t exist….yet. Regardless of whether one supports a market-[yea] or government-[boo] driven model, a paradigm change requires the support of the broad population — its votes, wallets, emotions.
He cited tobacco, seat belts and recycling as examples of how this can happen.
How can it happen in the future? How about a Wal-Mart Community Center, he asked. The more you walk, the more you save.
Peters said creating and sustaining meaningful change requires tapping into a lasting framework in the culture that can keep things going. And, perhaps most importantly, he noted that change takes time, especially if it’s not linked to short-term economic measures.
You’ve got to prod the cattle, son. And for most of us, we’re most prodable [proddable?] in the wallet.
Now, off to get my afternoon malt and lottery ticket…Just kidding. On the lottery ticket, anyway…
Yeah, I think he meant W-M community centers in a figurative way. Interesting idea.
I took the term ‘Wal-Mart Community Center’ in a figurative sense, not literally. And the reward as better health. I am one of those fortunate people who has good mobility and I often park away from the entryway to stores and malls so that I can walk more.
I think that John R has a good point about urban/neighborhood planning. Of course, it might be difficult to retrofit existing, ‘non-friendly to walking’ developments but if we start now with building sidewalks and not giving sidewalk waivers to the developers, the future will be better. It is not safe to walk in the streets but some places, that only is available. Another problem in Arkansas is the lack of neighborhood stores, thus requiring us to drive or ride a bus to reach them rather than walking to them.
I do LOTS of walking at W-M….from the truck to the front door is usually a pretty good hike. ha ha.
All good points. Too bad sidewalks don’t score political points. It’s the little things that collectively make a big difference.
Sounds fascinating, but I’m having difficulty understanding what that means in concrete terms.
It sounds like an enormous challenge that would require multiple sectors. One thing I have noticed: there are NO fat people on my campus. Social stigma probably plays a role, as well as what types of people self-select here.
A Wal-Mart Community Center that rewards walking? What would that entail? Wal-Mart provides higher discounts for people who exercise more? And what incentive would Wal-Mart have for doing this? Demographically speaking, Wal-Mart shoppers are probably disproportionately low-income, and low income people tend have higher rates of obesity. An initiative like that might rub the wrong way with customers. Or not. I don’t know. That doesn’t even brush the issue of measuring how much people walk, nor the fact that most Wal-Marts are in huge sprawling complexes that deter walking and encourage driving.
It sounds like a government program would need to give incentives to the businesses in the first place to initiate such a plan.
It seems to me that better urban/neighborhood planning would play the largest role. The cities where people walk more are those that are more crowded/have few places to park, though a culture of fitness and youth probably plays are large role too. There are very few walkable places in AR. No sidewalk in my neighborhood. It’s actually pretty awful, especially if you’re trying to attract young professionals to the state.
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