Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Also, education is factor. How educated is the public with regard to the effects of a diet too high in cholesterol and saturated fat and too low in fibre and essential vitamins and minerals? Not to forget about diets too high in calories as well.
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Not very.
From a paper I wrote on the subject of adolescent obesity:
"A lack of health literacy skills and nutritional education is a major factor in adolescent obesity. Sanders, Shaw, Guez, Baur, and Rudd (2009) found that parents with insufficient health literacy skills were less likely to read nutrition labels. Furthermore, another study found that almost 75% of parents of overweight children thought that their children were underweight or of normal weight (Sanders, 2009)."
I didn't address the issue of prevalence of poor health literacy in my paper, but the article cited by Sanders, Shaw, Guez, Baur, and Rudd (2009) does. You can find a link to it here:
Health Literacy and Child Health Promotion: Implications for Research, Clinical Care, and Public Policy -- Sanders et al. 124 (3): S306 -- Pediatrics The article states that "at least 1 in 3 US adults has limited health literacy."