Remember those "Quit while you're ahead" ads from the
70s? A group of Canadian teens in bellbottoms and halter
tops singing to their nic-addicted peers: "Smoking makes
your teeth yellow/ Smoking makes your clothes smell-o."
It was goofy, it was catchy — but most importantly
many people believe the message and ads like it have helped
reduce smoking in this country.
A group of doctors, nurses, administrators
and counsellors recently convened in Ottawa to take
inspiration from the successes of anti-smoking campaigns
like this and jumpstart a flagging anti-obesity movement.
They attended a panel called "Tobacco Control: Lessons
for Obesity," part of the first Canadian conference
on Integrated Chronic Disease Prevention.
Dr Kim Raine, PhD, Director of
the Centre for Health Promotion Studies at the University
of Alberta and a speaker at the conference, admits she's
a victim of tobacco reduction envy. She wants obesity
to be slashed just as tobacco use has been over the
past few decades. "We're at the peak of the obesity
epidemic — like tobacco was in the 1960s," says
Dr Raine. "Now is the time to make a change."
UP
IN SMOKE
Consider the facts. Thirty years ago, about half of
Canadians were smokers. Today, the number has dropped
to 20%, largely thanks to enormously successful public
health awareness campaigns that made sure the population
knew the risks that smoking entailed. But the health
gains made by the anti-smoking campaign have been offset
by the climb in obesity levels (see the table on the
left for Canadian obesity figures).
Dr Elinor Wilson of the Chronic
Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada and chair of the
conference points out that with obesity, unlike tobacco,
"you don't have a natural 'enemy,' you can't say that
food is bad. What we see in this day and age is that
some kids go to fast food outlets every day; it's really
hard for them to make informed choices. Obesity is more
complex [than tobacco] because it's both about eating
healthily and participating in physical activity."
DEMONIZE
THE MESSENGER
This complexity is what gives Dr Jay Wortman, a Vancouver
physician who works with First Nations and Inuit, cause
for concern. "I think it's a bad strategy. With tobacco,
we demonized one product. We don't have that clarity
with obesity. We've demonized fast food and by extension,
the purveyors of fast food."
Dr Raine agrees that, with obesity,
the root of the problem is our culture — not an
individual product or company. "It's about our cultural
values needing everything to be fast, even foods," says
Dr Raine. "We need media regulation, advertising restrictions,
and taxation. An increase of tax [on fast food] may
decrease consumption of unhealthy foods."
In addition to raising public awareness
about healthy eating, Dr Raine wants to foster community
awareness about increasing physical activity. "We need
to implement environmental strategies in schools like
school PE policies and safe routes to school so that
kids can walk and be active while on the way to school,
and community strategies to promote healthier lifestyles
that can fit people's financial means."
WHAT'S
ON YOUR PLATE?
But Dr Wortman believes that before anything can be
done to educate the public, the potential educators
need to take a serious look at themselves.
"We need to clean in house first.
Would we have any credibility whatsoever if we are all
smoking cigarettes at the break? It's the same thing
with the food here," he says of the conference. "Sugar
everywhere at breakfast, and only one diet option among
all the soft drinks [offered]."
Dr Wortman is not convinced that
awareness campaigns are the way to go in the fight against
the obesity epidemic.
"People don't like to hear this
stuff, but a campaign is useless until you have an intervention
that works. In smoking, it was easy, we said: 'You have
to stop using this product.' [Obesity] is a complex
problem: some think it's fat, others carbohydrates,
others sugar. I think we need to figure out which foods
are the bad foods and focus our efforts there."
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