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Canadian Obesity Network
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Misguided public policies that fail to protect the health of children undermine the fight against childhood obesity, according to a winning submission to the Canadian Obesity Network's annual thesis competition.
Megan Purcell, MA took top prize for an abbreviated version of her 2008 Master's thesis, which concluded that governments' reluctance to enshrine certain rights for children lest they infringe on the private rights of adults - by ensuring access to proper nutrition and exercise, mandating healthy environments and regulating commercial access to children - has played a key role in allowing the obesity epidemic to flourish.
"It's not enough to say that we're going to educate people about how to lead a healthy lifestyle - we've been doing that for a long time, and the problem isn't going away," Purcell explains. "Ultimately, we need to question the underlying limitations of the approach we've taken, and examine what's held us back from taking the steps that would ensure our children are able to lead a healthy life.