Leaders in this field recognize that focusing on the word and the target “obesity” is actually a problem, particularly for children. That's not what we want to do. What we want to move away from is the tremendous linkage in our population between food and fun.
So what the leaders in this field suggest is that we don't want programs to target obesity; we want to target physical activity and fun. In essence they're calling it a stealth intervention. We need to get children more active through the recognition of fun—that being physically active can be fun. The outcomes of the studies in which this has been done have been much stronger than those in which the target was telling children or their parents that they needed to do something about it.
Eighty percent of Canadians want to change their behaviour to improve their eating habits, but they're not able to make those changes either because they live in an environment where they can't or don't.
Certainly parents have a responsibility here because they have control over a large part of their children's environments, but I don't think just telling them that is the solution. I think it's a lot more about going around and making it more about fun.