Fear of financial aid stands in the way of a healthy environment – ESB

Table of Contents

• 1 Holland lives unhealthy. More than half of adults are overweight and more than fifteen percent are overweight (RTL News, 2024). We haven’t even mentioned problems with vaping, smoking, gambling, stress, and so on. And that problem is alive, we noticed in the editorial office: when we started working on the topic ‘prevention’, we received so many contributions that we could fill two special topics with them.The first ‘Preventive Care Policy’ topic – published last month – was about paying better attention to the wider benefits of prevention. This second special issue takes a closer look at the role of the living environment in our health.From individual lifestyle to environment
• 2 Rules for companies
• 3 Everyone’s responsibility
• 4 Literature
• 5 **Question 1:** What are some‍ effective individual strategies that can help combat the unhealthy lifestyle choices prevalent⁤ in Holland? ⁢

Holland lives unhealthy. More than half of adults are overweight and more than fifteen percent are overweight (RTL News, 2024). We haven’t even mentioned problems with vaping, smoking, gambling, stress, and so on. And that problem is alive, we noticed in the editorial office: when we started working on the topic ‘prevention‘, we received so many contributions that we could fill two special topics with them.

The first ‘Preventive Care Policy’ topic – published last month – was about paying better attention to the wider benefits of prevention. This second special issue takes a closer look at the role of the living environment in our health.

From individual lifestyle to environment

The role of the living environment is greater than we think, says Johannes Spinnewijn ESB To see. If we take into account this living environment in the research, it turns out that, for example, poor people especially grow faster and die younger because of their socio-economic status and physical environment where they live: poorer communities suffer more from chronic stress and air pollution.

Carel-Peter van Erpecum, Sander van Zon, Ute Bültmann and Nynke Smidt also show that fast food restaurants in the neighborhood play a role in increasing obesity in the Dutch population, especially in neighborhoods so- injured where fast food restaurants abound.

While the context determines healthy behavior, Hans van Kippersluis Nathalie Dens, Georg Granic, Stefan Lipman, Kirsten Rohde and Joost Oude Groeniger note that much of the current health policy focuses on the second some on the person or on the whole population. They argue that more attention will be paid to the unhealthy context in which people live.

Rules for companies

Jochen Mierau and Luc Hagenaars see a greater role for the government, which should take on its role as a better market master and intervene harder on income models that harm public health .

Marcel Canoy has the same concerns as Mierau and Hagenaars, but he does not believe in their solution of ‘dynamic management’, because the government will not be able to do this properly. It therefore proposes codes of conduct for companies in the form of open standards aimed at fraudulent and aggressive practices, as well as actions that are against professional diligence.

Furthermore, once we set rules, we must enforce them. Elisa de Weerd, Hans van Kippersluis, Liying Zhang and Ruud Roodbeen show that this is not the case with the maximum drinking age. This lower age has hardly contributed to the downward trend in alcohol consumption among young people as young people continue to find ways to obtain alcohol.

Everyone’s responsibility

But the fear of support appears to be the biggest obstacle to prevention policy. For example, Telegraaf columnist Bina Ayar (2024) writes about the ‘tyrannical features’ of the ban.

However, she also says: “No one is against a ban, as long as your own choices are respected.” OK, but how free are those choices if the mass- store largely allowing us to choose between unhealthy and slightly less healthy waste?Stricter minimum requirements for food quality can lead to a more varied food supply, and in a sense to more choice.

Given the role of the environment in our health, it is not surprising that the responsibility for healthy choices lies not only with the individual, but also with the parties that influence the that environment. This can also be done in a positive way: consider employers who create a healthy working environment for their employees. There is nothing stopping us all from contributing now.

But if all else failswe still have a State Commission to look at ‘widespread promotion of a healthy living environment and food’ as part of a future-proof health care system (House of Representatives, 2024). With this ESBdiptych, the upcoming committee can start well.

Literature

Field, B. (2024) We still haven’t gotten rid of endless, complementary health restrictions. De Telegraaf, 29 October.

RTL News (2024) Never before have there been so many obese people in the Netherlands. RTL News, 4 March.

House of Representatives (2024) Movement by the member Krul et al. 36600 XVI, no. 69.