Why is the knowledge that something is bad for you not enough to make you stop doing it?

I’ve been thinking about this question a lot recently. When I tell Paraguayans that I’m in Paraguay to teach about health they jump right in and tell me how bad the Paraguayan diet is. Paraguayans tell me their food “has a lot of fat” or that the food “is heavy.” They tell me that there are a lot of people who are overweight, have diabetes, or have high blood pressure.

Next, Paraguayans ask if I like their traditional foods like sopa paraguaya, tortillas, and mandioca. They tell me they want to lose weight, but then put three tablespoons of sugar in the milk they are going to drink with bread. They ask, already knowing the answer, if they should eat fewer carbohydrates if they want to lose weight. They explain how they don’t exercise or eat vegetables.

I don’t know if the people I talk to know that different foods have different nutrients or that balancing calorie intake and calorie burn is the center to weight control, but it’s clear they know what they are consuming isn’t the healthiest option.

If they know it’s bad for them, why aren’t they trying to change it?

• Is it habit?
• Is it that they don’t know how to cook different foods?
• Is it taste preference?
• Is it cost?
• Is it cultural heritage?
• Is it a lack of information or understanding about what makes food healthy or unhealthy?
• Is it something I’m not seeing?

In the past, I wrote about developing public health programs that encourage change by focusing on the out-of-box-experience. But, as I work in Paraguay, it’s daunting. Clearly, a lack of knowledge isn’t the only thing at work here. But what can I do other than provide information?