• Taste. Kids love the taste of junk food.


• Advertising, which is self-explanatory.


• Genetics. Some families have fat genes.


• The failure of parents to exert a positive influence. If you grow up on Hamburger Helper and macaroni and cheese, you’ll tend to eat it when you get older.


• Poverty. Junk food, according to the theory, is less expensive than healthier alternatives.

The fact of the matter is, it isn't any one reason. The current solutions being presented to our children are based on the premise that isolated actions will have an effect. When you really look at this approach, you'll realize it's nonsense. What kind of impact can a video of a dancing piece of broccoli have when the vending machine in school sells Snickers and M&M's? The reality is that we need a whole solution approach. Hillary Clinton may not have been so far off when she said, "It takes a village."



A real world example of this is the town of Somerville, MA. Professor Christina Economos, a professor at Tufts University, wanted to find out what would happen if the whole community got involved in the war against fat. The result? A town where kids opt for healthy options before fattening ones. The entire community came together and made changes on all fronts including repainting crosswalks and hiring more crossing guards to encourage more walkers, replacing unhealthy options in school cafeterias with healthier ones and asking restaurants to serve healthy portion options.



The changes this town made can serve as a great model for your own family. A thought to mull over from Economos: "I think people are starting to understand that to affect health, it's not just individual education and behavior change, it's creating healthy environments." What can you do create a healthy environment in your home or town?



For more on weight loss, read some of Jon's articles on the topic here.



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