Читать книгу Diabetes For Dummies - Рубин Алан Л. - Страница 14

Many changes explain the epidemic of obesity and diabetes that began to explode in the 1950s and ’60s. Here are some of them:

✔ The availability of fast-food restaurants and vending machines

✔ The frequency of television commercials for foods filled with fats and sugar

✔ The large number of screens watched passively all day, from TVs to smartphones

✔ The larger, higher-calorie meals that tend to be eaten, both at home and at restaurants

✔ The dependence on vehicles for much movement

✔ The huge increase in mass-produced, high-calorie convenience foods

What steps can people take to reverse this trend? Some of the ideas developed to reverse the high rate of cigarette smoking can be recycled, but the process takes years for the whole population. What you can do immediately is contained in Part III. Some of the population-wide measures include the following strategies:

✔ A tax on low-nutrition foods like sweetened beverages

✔ Better labeling of foods; for example, a red label for low-nutrition, high-calorie foods; a yellow label for intermediate foods; and a green label for low-calorie, high-nutrition foods

✔ A ban on or reduction of advertising of junk foods

✔ School-based programs promoting healthier eating and elimination of soft drinks and sugared juices

✔ A low, fixed amount of screen time for children