A quote from a motivational book states, "A recent study showed that when doctors tell heart patients they will die if they don't change their habits, only one in seven will be able to follow through successfully. Desire and motivation aren't enough: even when it's literally a matter of life or death, the ability to change remains maddeningly elusive."
The sad truth is that many people are so set in their unhealthy lifestyles that even if they know they will die prematurely if they continue with them, they just can't stop. They are attached to their current method of living and eating, feeling they can't possibly give it up, they would rather not live than stop eating meat and junk food or smoking/drinking etc. People even say "I would rather die than not eat meat", or "life wouldn't be worth living if I can't smoke".
There are many levels in which this problem can be looked at.
Firstly people need to learn where real happiness is to be found. They are looking for it by gratifying their senses, e.g. enjoying taste flashes, or the enjoyment of smoking a cigarette (can someone please explain where the happiness is in sucking on a 'chimney' and swallowing smoke - normally people avoid smoke and pollution, but with cigarettes we actually suck it in and hold it inside as long as possible, I mean, what is that?).
Unfortunately people don't understand that sense gratification is not going to satisfy their inner need and longing for happiness. Society should encourage people to look for deeper sources of happiness through religion, meditation, yoga, and other spiritual pursuits, etc. However, in our modern secular society we are actually taught the opposite, in the guise of making it so religion is not forced on anyone, no one can even barely mention religion or spirituality.
Secondly, it is about education and teaching people while they are young before bad habits in the form of unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles become set. It is so much easier to educate and teach people to adopt healthy choices before they are addicted to them and set in their ways.
Thirdly, society needs to charge the real costs of unhealthy lifestyles to the businesses which profit from them. The food manufacturers, the alcohol makers, the tobacco companies, and the soda makers etc. should pay additional taxes to cover the health care costs that their products directly cause and pass these taxes on to the people buying the products. If this happened people would either stop buying the unhealthy foods and other unhealthy products, and the problem would be solved, or if they don't, well, at least the tax revenues will have been collected to pay for the medical treatments, and those who live healthy won't be paying the medical costs of treating those who choose to live unhealthy lifestyles.
Fourthly, the manufacturers of unhealthy food products should not be allowed to "engineer" them to be addictive. We all know that cigarettes contain nicotine and the tobacco industry works hard to ensure their products are addictive (all the while denying it in court). But less well known is the fact that food manufacturers do the same thing, they engineer the junk food to make it so we eat more of it and become more or less addicted to it.
Thanks for reading.
Mark Fergusson