Getting to the Next Step

Within the safety and comforts of our class room walls, we have learned about the nutritional issues at large. These issues range from childhood obesity, the aging Canadian population, to most recently, the increasing burden on our healthcare system. We discuss the underlying issues, and brainstorm possible action plans or directions; none of which, I’m sure, haven’t already been discussed by current nutrition and healthcare professionals. But why, then, are we still talking about the same issues, causes, and correlating variables as we have for the past decades? One question brought up in our class discussion, for me, really hit the point: How do we get to the next step? As Malcolm Gladwell so convincingly addressed in his speech on social change, how do we get from the Knowing, to Doing?
After listening to his 15 minute speech, I spent a good night thinking on it, and after hearing the rest of the program and the debated between Gladwell and Kingwell, I’ve come to some sort of conclusion of my own.
In the context of nutrition, creating social change – addressing issues of resource placement, raising awareness on the concept of health, and eliminating stigmatization – in Canada is especially difficult. We can look at countries like Japan and Denmark, study them, and try to find out what it is that they are doing different from us which contribute to their success; but one very important confounding variable is the diversity of our society. Canada is known as a country of multiculturalism (this statement is controversial in itself), and for this reason, people have very different definitions of health, equality, equity; these are the same things we try to give our citizens. How can we achieve this when the definitions in itself are so diverse?
Gladwell makes many important and thought provoking statements in his speech, one that sticks out to me is when he reminds us how little we actually know. We believe that we know what is going on, but we are only seeing a glimpse of the whole picture. This statement draws me back to humility and reminds me that sometimes, maybe things just have to run their course.
I do believe awareness is an important part, and has given us some large strides; but like our knowledge of the global and national issues that we might wrongly believe to have a completely understanding, our increased awareness is only a small step towards our ultimate goal, which may very well change as our exposure increases.