Title: Stressed in America
Headings: Stressed in America
Stressed in America
Content: Instead of managing their stress in healthy ways, Americans are indulging in unhealthy behaviors: Almost a third of adults say they skipped a meal because of stress in the past month. Two-fifths reported overeating or eating unhealthy foods because of stress. And more than 40 percent reported that they had lain awake at night. Lack of willpower is a problem. Americans cite lack of willpower as the biggest barrier to adopting healthier behavior. But 70 percent believe that willpower is something they can learn or improve — if only they had more money, energy or confidence in their ability to change. To Henderson, those responses are misguided but not surprising given our culture’s emphasis on personal responsibility. " Survey respondents are mistakenly looking to some kind of inner strength to make the kinds of health behavior changes we want to see, when the reality is in large part they’re at the mercy of their environment," she says, pointing to data on the role of food costs, advertising and other environmental factors in shaping eating behavior. " Our job is to teach people how to structure their environment to increase the likelihood of making healthy choices at any given time."