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If everyone improved their lifestyle just a bit, then the benefits to the overall health of the nation would be large but each individual would not notice the difference. An inspired epidemiologist, Geoffrey Rose, called this the Prevention Paradox and we see it being played out again and again.
That is why it is understandable that attempts to create these shifts in behaviour by exhorting people to change tend to fail - and make them anxious and guilty. It explains the current call for society-wide actions such as minimum alcohol pricing, and enthusiasm for 'nudging' people towards better behaviour. When you find the muesli at the front of the breakfast counter, and the bacon sandwiches in an unmarked gloomy corner of the canteen, you know you're being nudged.
So as you reach for your yum, perhaps sometimes pause a moment and realise that you are taking a gamble on the yuk occurring, but that it may be a risk worth taking.
Uma perspectiva individualista e desapaixonada sobre os prazeres e o risco numa prosa inspiradora.
Adenda: Não é bacon sandwich, mas “tem tudo a ver” (para usar uma expressão modernaça) na ânsia de regular os costumes; neste caso “regular a cama ou o vão de escada”. Uma outra prosa inspirada, desta vez da pluma de João Gonçalves.
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If everyone improved their lifestyle just a bit, then the benefits to the overall health of the nation would be large but each individual would not notice the difference. An inspired epidemiologist, Geoffrey Rose, called this the Prevention Paradox and we see it being played out again and again.
That is why it is understandable that attempts to create these shifts in behaviour by exhorting people to change tend to fail - and make them anxious and guilty. It explains the current call for society-wide actions such as minimum alcohol pricing, and enthusiasm for 'nudging' people towards better behaviour. When you find the muesli at the front of the breakfast counter, and the bacon sandwiches in an unmarked gloomy corner of the canteen, you know you're being nudged.
So as you reach for your yum, perhaps sometimes pause a moment and realise that you are taking a gamble on the yuk occurring, but that it may be a risk worth taking.
Uma perspectiva individualista e desapaixonada sobre os prazeres e o risco numa prosa inspiradora.
Adenda: Não é bacon sandwich, mas “tem tudo a ver” (para usar uma expressão modernaça) na ânsia de regular os costumes; neste caso “regular a cama ou o vão de escada”. Uma outra prosa inspirada, desta vez da pluma de João Gonçalves.
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