In a paper published in the Dec. 2004 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Bernard Choi, a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, suggests that we need to create new science-based proverbs that reflect current information about healthy living. "People often remember proverbs although they may not remember tables of data on calories or metabolic rates," says Choi, whose current research interests include knowledge translation.
"Proverbs such as 'eat to live, not live to eat' were created by our great-grandparents," says Choi, "A few hundred years down the road, we will be the great-grandparents. Maybe we have the responsibility to create new health proverbs based on clinical trials, rather than observations that haven't been verified."
Choi collaborated on the paper with his wife, Anita Pak, and their teenage children, Jerome and Elaine. Together they worked at creating proverbs that reflect today's public health principles, providing advice on such things as smoking, maintaining a balanced diet and being physically active. Their modern proverbs include:
"A proverb is usually a homely illustration of a great truth and is not meant to be a dry scientific statement," says Choi.
CONTACT:
Bernard Choi
Department of Public Health Sciences
613-957-1074
bernard.choi@utoronto.ca
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health