Reviews for Prescription for a Healthy Nation: A New Approach to Improving Our Lives by Fixing Our Everyday World

The average rating for Prescription for a Healthy Nation: A New Approach to Improving Our Lives by Fixing Our Everyday World based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-10-29 00:00:00 John Chapman I enjoyed this book like only a public health geek can. The premise of this book is that although Americans often think we have the free choice to exercise, smoke and drink less, and eat healthier, our environments are often set up to make these things much more difficult for us than they need to be. The authors argue that to some extent, we should try to change our environment in order to make us healthier -- for example, demanding sidewalks in our neighborhoods to allow us to walk from point A to point B, creating more space for vegetables and healthy foods in our grocery stores (seriously, does there need to be an entire aisle devoted to soda?), preventing the sale of chilled beer at gas stations in order to reduce the risk of drinking and driving. Some of their ideas are controversial, but they make the point that there are plenty of ways in which our health and safety are currently regulated that we take for granted. Anyone want to go back to the good ole' days of smoking in the office? Cars sold without seat belts, let alone airbags? No fluoride in the water supply? They argue that these small changes could make huge differences in keeping us safe and healthy. Certainly an interesting read, especially for public health folks that like to rely on the model that increasing knowledge will lead to healthier behavior. That's not always the case, of course, and this book tries to provide a few solutions to this dilemma.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-09-10 00:00:00 Thomas Bach Being a psychologist makes me more appreciative, not less, of how difficult it is to change individuals vs. their environment. People don't spend time and energy making every decision of the day - most of the time they default to the usual, the easy, or the accessible. Our current environment makes these defaults unhealthy - it takes conscious effort to opt for the healthy. This book asks, what if it were the reverse? You don't have to ban anything, just make it the option that takes conscious effort.