The Key to A Healthy Change

It is good that the American government is concerned with the health of its general public. It is even a greater thing to see that, while upholding the rights of its citizens, the U.S. government has taken steps towards improving and encouraging healthy habits amongst them. Several laws and policies have been made to address the ongoing obesity and health concerns that a huge percentage of the American population face. Despite all of the changes these health concerns stay the same and at times seem to be growing worse. 

                           Over the duration of the past few years recent laws have been created to promote healthy eating in America. One policy that has been established is the 2008 law that requires all restaurants and food chains to provide a calorie count on menus. This is a good law, but ineffective when the average person is unaware of how many calories they should be consuming let alone how much they are eating and burning on a daily basis.

 Another ineffective policy the government made is the tax on sugary beverages and the reduction of over-sized, unhealthy packages. The most recent policy, currently under review and dispute is New York Mayor Bloomberg’s policy that will ban the sale of big gulp slushies and over sized sugary beverages to consumers.

The shocking factor is that, regardless of all the effort that the American` government is making, the population continues living unhealthy life styles, growing obese, and making unhealthy choices. The government spends so much time and money on developing and implementing plans that seem to constantly fail when they should deliver results. The reason why these policies and laws seem ineffective is because the government is missing a vital step in the battle of encouraging healthy habits; that step is education.

The best thing for a person making unhealthy choices is to educate them. Most unhealthy choices are made because of a lack of awareness. A persons’ upbringing will also cause them to make unhealthy choices. An individual or a family’s level of poverty will often times lead to unhealthy habits due to a lack of health education and access to healthy foods. The key to a healthy change is through educating people about the benefits of a healthy life style and empowering them to make a healthy choice.  As with anything in life; when a person knows better they can do better; healthy choices are no different.