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| The gorgeous trees on the campus of Utah State University. |
Trees are made of several parts: roots, trunk, branches, leaves. All these play a vital role in the health of the tree, with some parts playing a more significant role than others. For example, the leaves are needed collectively but losing one leaf isn't nearly as damaging as say losing the trunk. If the roots aren't healthy, the whole tree will die regardless of how great the rest of the tree may be.
Now, lets compare this to a recent news. The New York City mayor attempted to prohibit sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces to be sold in the city. I believe that I understand why. Sugary drinks are highly correlated with obesity. Thus, in its simplest terms, outlaw sugary drinks = big win versus obesity. But let me explain why this type of policy is only "striking at the leaf" of the problem.
What is the real problem regarding obesity? At it's core, it is a lack of a healthy lifestyle. This is the figurative root of the problem. Factors related to this root are: lack of exercise, poor eating choices, ease of lifestyle, etc. These all form the trunk and lead to the branches of low self-esteem, low energy, low motivation, etc. These in turn lead to the actual behavior, the leaf. One leaf is drinking sugary drinks. It is on the obesity tree; however, drinking sugary drinks does NOT cause obesity. Unhealthy lifestyles cause obesity (as well as a handful of other factors including genetics).
So essentially, what is this policy doing? Chopping at the leaf (even if it is a big leaf) of the grand tree of obesity. Sure, it looks like its doing work. You now have a whole leaf in your hand that you can proudly wave around saying, "Look! We've helped curb obesity!" But did it?
If you want to kill a tree, kill the roots. Chopping at every single leaf will feel like we are doing a lot, because we are doing a lot, but are we doing a lot of the right thing? By the time we have a few more leaves cut down, the tree will grow back the original leaf that we chopped off.
To destroy obesity, the root of the problem is where we must focus our attention. The real question is how can we help people to have healthy lifestyles? Maybe, just maybe, if we focus on the real problem and not just the symptoms of the problem, we will be able to conquer it. For good.
