25.07.12
Bad habits
Behavioural change on a large scale would prevent thousands of unnecessary cardiovascular deaths, says the European Society of Cardiology.
It is perhaps intuitively true that changing unhealthy habits could be achieved more easily, cheaply and quickly if implemented across populations by governments, via regulation and subsidy.
Yet it does not follow that such an approach would be the best for the citizens. It depends on the level of responsibility we’re willing to hand over to the state, and what measures it is acceptable for governments to use to protect people’s best interests.
For one thing, many would argue that they should decide what their best interests are, not some removed policy-makers and politicians. But the authors of the ESC paper make an interesting point; at the moment policy leans towards unhealthy products and practices, via manipulation at a similar level as the option they promote.
The only problem is that this behaviour control has been embedded in our society for a long time, and we like this lifestyle; evident from the public health issues that have arisen as a result of such ‘freedom’.
Europe’s population has been conditioned to accept a lifestyle of junk food, inactivity, cigarettes and alcohol. Accepting this control has led to a belief that this is our choice; and people will now fight for the right to remain under its ruling.
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