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Let?s take a look at the Ottawa Public Health report Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL).

That?s the massive document that inspired Coca-Cola to write letters of concern to the mayor, and also pushed Ottawa?s medical officer of health, Isra Levy, to publicly muse on implementing a soda ban.

The study?s main focus is compiling statistics about what Ottawa residents are up to in their daily lives and then seeing how those results compare to what guidelines say we should be doing.

For instance: ?Approximately, 71% of mothers reported some breastfeeding for at least six months; however, only 41% of mothers exclusively breastfed their last baby for at least the recommended six months.?

Now some may balk that breastfeeding is something done within the home. But in providing programs offering care for new mothers, particularly those lacking family support, one can see why statistics pertaining to breastfeeding would be useful. It informs how the city tailors motherhood programs.

(Although I?ve always found it bizarre that in the 21st century we need to give classes to women to do things that they?ve been doing naturally since the beginning of human history.)

Then there are statistics that can definitely benefit the way services are crafted, but we have to be careful how we use them.

Take this: ?Only 60% of students in Ottawa (Grades 7 to 12) reported eating breakfast all five of the previous school days.? And: ?Only one in five students reported that they did not drink sugar-sweetened beverages in the past week.?

These clearly inform school breakfast programs. Ideally, parents should be the only ones providing breakfast to kids. But it doesn?t always work that way. And since we?re already paying for public education for these kids, it?s also wise to give them the energy to stay focused so they can develop the tools to leave the nest (both the family and government nest). We just don?t want to use this data as further justification to wedge ourselves into people?s home lives.

Then we get to tracking things that exclusively concern adults and their choices.

Like ?more than half of Ottawa adults are not meeting the recommended vegetable and fruit intake levels as per Eating Well with Canada?s Food Guide recommendations.?

And ?[o]nce at home, nearly half of adults spent 15 hours or more per week watching television or using the computer outside of work or school.?

Which leads us to ... to what? Nothing. Those are all just examples of how people choose to live their lives. Yet it?s these sorts of statistics that are the impetus for people like Levy to conceive of potential bans.

Although OPH acknowledges this. They do write about ?community barriers,? but also have statistics to show the role choice plays in keeping fit.

?The top three individual-level barriers to physical activity reported by Ottawa residents were lack of time (74%), lack of energy (60%) and lack of interest or motivation (57%).?

It?s also interesting to note the considerable resources used to develop this report. The report runs 191 pages. It clearly took some time to make. The report was written by four OPH staff members. However, another 16 staff members also contributed to the project. They also brought on an outside graphics designer. That?s a lot of time. That?s a lot of money.

The city is clearly interested in your personal health and knows a lot about your health trends. The only question is where that knowledge and interest takes them. Fingers crossed it doesn?t lead to more proposed bans.

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Do you think the city's Healthy Eating Active Living report is a good use of taxpayer dollars?

Source: http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/08/25/beware-of-health-stats-leading-to-bans

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