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Can Government programs solve obesity in America?


Fast Company - At last week's TED conference, Jamie Oliver, the passionate British chef who won this year's $100,000 TED prize, became emotional as he showed pictures of the residents of Huntington, West Virginia, America's fattest city--who will, on average, live shorter lives than their parents due to diet-related illness.

A few days before Oliver's talk, Michelle Obama announced the launch of a new Web tool, the Food Environment Atlas, which shows both how daunting Oliver's food revolution will be and how much social factors have to do with American eating patterns and the obesity epidemic.

Is this data tool going to help us solve Obesity?

Or is this data TBU (True But Useless)?

According to the new book, Switch, by Chip & Dan Heath, "we should find a bright spot and clone it.That's the first step to fixing everything from addiction to corporate malaise to malnutrition. A problem may look hopelessly complex. But there's a game plan that can yield movement on even the toughest issues. And it starts with locating a bright spot -- a ray of hope." More

The book tells many amazing stories including the story of Jerry Sternin, a soc who found a way to alleviate malnutrition for millions of Vietnamese children without aid of any budget, massive data sets or government grants.

Sternin's strategy was to search the community for bright spots. If some kids were healthy despite their disadvantages, then that meant something important: Malnourishment was not inevitable. The mere existence of healthy kids provided hope for a practical, short-term solution. Sternin knew he couldn't fix the thorny root causes. But if a handful of kids were staying healthy against the odds, why couldn't every kid be healthy?

Sternin's started with one village, had success, and his success began to spread. "We took the first 14 villages in different phases of the program and turned them into a social laboratory," he said. "People who wanted to replicate the nutrition model came from different parts of Vietnam. Every day, they would go to this living university, to these villages, touching, smelling, sniffing, watching, listening. They would 'graduate,' go to their villages, and implement the process until they got it right... . The program reached 2.2 million Vietnamese people in 265 villages. Our living university has become a national model for teaching villagers to reduce drastically malnutrition in Vietnam."

We need to switch from archaeological problem solving to bright-spot evangelizing. Take Jerry Sternin as your inspiration. He could have stayed in Vietnam for 20 years, writing position papers on the malnutrition problem. But what he knew was this: Even in failure there is success.

Can Government programs solve obesity, health care or any other complex problems?
Share your thoughts here

Tags: business, government, health, politics

Views: 122

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Lawrence on February 18, 2010 at 10:33am
Fat Chance!
Permalink Reply by Taylor Martin on February 18, 2010 at 10:35am
no
Permalink Reply by Pat Coyle on February 18, 2010 at 10:37am
OK guys...if policy won't make us thinner, what will??

Please take a look at that book excerpt...I think you'll find it intriguing
Permalink Reply by Sean Murray on February 18, 2010 at 11:04am
Why do we need to be thinner?
Why do we need a policy to make people thinner?

The argument and premise we have to be thin is flawed and should be rejected and you should worry about whether you are thin or fat and develop a personal policy fitting your appetite (pun intended).

I know you put this idea up to generate discussion but the discussion should not be about weight and policies to control weight but about self-determination. We don't need external forces to introduce a policy for our personal well being.
Permalink Reply by Pat Coyle on February 18, 2010 at 4:37pm
You're right. I have much more on my mind than body weight or girth. I found it fascinating that a program with very little money behind it had such a huge impact in Vietnam. It seems to me we have little successes in the US too. If we focused more on building on these "bright spots" rather than waiting for policy to solve problems, maybe we'd make more real progress.
Permalink Reply by Jeff Ready on February 18, 2010 at 12:24pm
Eating fewer calories.
Permalink Reply by John Kohlmeyer on February 23, 2010 at 1:16pm
Government programs are the CAUSE of obesity in America. When laziness is rewarded, don't be surprised at the results.
Permalink Reply by Arlan Landey on February 23, 2010 at 4:24pm
Bingo! We have a winner!
Permalink Reply by Shari Boultbee on February 27, 2010 at 1:27pm
I believe this is an important factor.
Permalink Reply by Jerrod Carter on February 18, 2010 at 10:37am
The question isn't the right one. There are lots of ways to solve problems, and government programs are but one potential solution among many. The right question is "What is the best way to solve obesity?" Government programs have definitely solved lots of problems and could be put to use to solve this one as well. Costs and efficiencies compared to other solutions should be taken into consideration as well, though.

The real key to any solution to any problem, though, is a passionate problem-solver behind it. This example in Vietnam has Jerry Sternin behind it. There's almost always a passionate and capable person behind good solutions, and rarely is a program the driver. It's the dedicated person, and sometimes they'll use private resources, sometimes corporate resources and sometimes government resources.

The question is: "How do we identify these passionate, capable people and give them the freedom and resources to do great work?" To my way of thinking, the freedom to act is the key. Often times government money comes with too many strings and stipulations to appease political considerations and dogmas, and this gets in the way of efficient solutions.
Permalink Reply by Sean Murray on February 18, 2010 at 10:45am
Government has no money.

It is our money.
Permalink Reply by Jerrod Carter on February 18, 2010 at 10:48am
Absolutely agree that it was our money. But after it's submitted to the gov, it's no longer our individual money, it's our collective money. And that's the definition of government money. And even if you don't give that money willingly, it's still government money. Ever tried to withdraw your taxes?

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