In case you haven’t heard, the government released updated nutrition guidelines on Monday. The captain-obvious-style advice is that Americans should eat less saturated fats (duh), drink more water (duh), and eat more veggies (duh, duh, duh). Which begs the question: Did people really not know this stuff already?
A better use of the government’s time might be figuring out how to make nutritious food less expensive. A new study on the rising price of healthy foods found that food cost “is a major factor in explaining the differences in eating habits between people of lower and higher socioeconomic levels.” So really, if the government wants to tackle our waistline issue, it might want to find a way to make buying healthy food a more viable option.
And just so you don’t think Americans are the only ones with weight issues, read this. The BBC reports that ambulance fleets in the UK are having to remodel their vehicles to accommodate overweight patients. The subtext: That Brits are getting fatter. The new equipment includes wider stretchers, stronger lifting gear, and reinforcements to the vehicles. They are even adding special “bariatric” ambulances—ones with double-wide stretchers and special hoists—to “ferry the most obese.”Subscribe to Washingtonian
Follow Well+Being on Twitter
More >> Health | Top Doctors | Well+Being Blog
