finally.
walking might become cool again in this car-obsessed country. walking in the united states is otherwise often seen as something europeans or poor people or new yorkers or washington dc residents do. that's one reason why i like washington dc -- it is walkable. meaning, there are sidewalks, which you shouldn't take for granted in any u.s. city, practically along all roads. even bike baths!
a current newsweek magazine article introduces the so-called road diet, walking as a healthy lifestyle, which is supposed to be a new thing. (imagine me laughing here).
but the article is not only remarkable because of a possible renaissance of using your feet to move around but it also assigns responsibility to society rather than the individual for what happens to people.
it's the system, stupid. the underlying premise of the articles declares: no, not everyone can follow the american dream of you can do it, shoot for the moon, from dishwasher to millionaire, and what other verbal myths float around to heave the burden for success on the individual alone, the american hero(ine).
having lived in the united states of america for several years now, this difference in philosophy in comparison to germany has been among the most fascinating and sometimes disturbing to observe. the more i was surprised to see a different approach hailed by the newsweek article.
newsweek's "crimes of the heart" reports about how changes in the fundamental structures and institutions of a city positively affected its inhabitants:
"Crimes of the Heart
It's time society stopped reinforcing the bad behavior that leads to heart disease—and pursued policies to prevent it.
by Walter C. Willet and Anne Underwood
...
The city laid new sidewalks linking residential areas with schools and shopping centers. It built a recreational path around a lake and dug new plots for community gardens. Restaurants made healthy changes to their menus. Schools banned eating in hallways (reducing the opportunities for kids to munch on snack food) and stopped selling candy for fundraisers. (They sold wreaths instead.) More than 2,600 of the city's 18,000 residents volunteered, too, selecting from more than a dozen heart-healthy measures—for example, ridding their kitchens of supersize dinner plates (which encourage larger portions) and forming "walking schoolbuses" to escort kids to school on foot.
The results were stunning. In six months, participants lost an average of 2.6 pounds and boosted their estimated life expectancy by 3.1 years. Even more impressive, health-care claims for city and school employees fell for the first time in a decade—by 32 percent over 10 months. And benefits didn't accrue solely to volunteers. Thanks to the influence of social networks, says Buettner, "even the curmudgeons who didn't want to be involved ended up modifying their behaviors."
read on: http://www.newsweek.com/id/233006
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3 comments:
Isn't it all just a question of knowledge and isn't it the hard part to transfer that knowledge to our every day behavior? If we would find more ways to ease the process of behavioral changes, we might could keep up with the fast (worldwide) insights brought to us almost every month.
But I guess germany doesn't know the hidden values of sidewalks, because we didn't spent enough money to make sure they are sill usable in the winter. We are out of salt!
what other insights would you like to see implemented how? for example i like the fact that there are no drive-through banks, pharmacies, or even grocery stores (yet). it is a structural advantage that should be kept.
what is disturbing though is that despite the presence of sidewalks in germany (childhood) obesity is on the rise there too just as in the united states.
One of my blog readers had an interesting comment about Dr. Willet:
He was a key investigator in proving the impact of hydrogenated oils on our circulatory system. That was based on his long term study of nurses, probably the best long term study regarding health and nutrition performed in the [United States]. [He wrote a book] called Eat Drink and Be Healthy.
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