In the newest Newsweek, the health article by Sarah Kliff posed an interesting perspective on how to get children to eat more nutritious foods at early ages. It's really a simple idea. Kliff starts the article: "What's the best way to make sure a kid eats an apple? Ask him if he really wants one... Want her to eat her veggies, too? Rename them." In short, this new concept, called "stealth health", will cause kids to find a balanced diet more appealing because they are being pushed towards the healthier choice. Kliff states that this "push" may be verbal encouragement in the lunch line in the school cafeteria, more expressive food labels in grocery stores, and making healthier foods more readily availiable. As a result, "the most nutritious decision [will be] the most desirable one."
It seems that especially in the United States, people are either at one end of the extreme or the other when it comes to weight. It's easy to find nine year olds who are anorexic, or young adults that weigh three hundred pounds. Fitness is a main focus here. Almost every magazine has at least one article per issue on health, Newsweek no exception. Looking good is a very important part of our society today. I'm not arguing that staying active and eating right are bad things, but the more this concept is stressed, the more I question it's actual benefit. Although these articles target all of the pro's to healthy habits, continually reading them could be a possible con. Your opinion?
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Reading your post makes me think of those infomercials you see in the morning. Like the Magic Bullet and how you can apparently get "All the Vegetable Goodness, Without that Vegetable TASTE!" You see, I kind of agree with you. Sometimes highlighting all the dangers of not maintaining a healthy diet cause people to be too afraid to do anything about it. The secret lies in that Magic Bullet example. We gotta confuse people. We gotta trick them into being healthy. That might be a much more effective way.
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