Why do Americans resist a healthy lifestyle?

• Position: Information overload and individualism affect health behavior - Special Newsletter Edition: Your Health

Despite broad-based efforts to educate Americans about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, many ignore advice to adopt good habits like eating right and exercising. Why have attempts to change health behavior fallen short?

According to Angelo A. Alonzo, professor of medical sociology, Ohio State University, information overload may be one reason why people choose not to adopt healthier lifestyles. Due to the vast amount of medical information inundating the public every day, "Health educators may well face a significantly desensitized population, segments of which are immobilized by fear, indecision, and confusion."

In addition, the U.S. is a culture of risk-takers, and many Americans choose to ignore health messages. They don't want to admit they are vulnerable to health problems and feel optimistic that nothing bad is going to happen to them. "Many of us have this sense that perhaps we might be immortal."

One of the biggest obstacles to changing health behavior, Alonzo emphasizes, is society's commitment to individualism. "We encourage people to be very individualistic, to make their own choices about what they eat or what they do with their leisure time. Health promotion and education, however, essentially tells people to give up control, and says that somebody else knows what's good for them. Plus, what people are being biopsychologist, the two disorders may have in common a mixup in the section of the brain that controls how much attention a person pays to stimuli.

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