Dr. Derek Griffith, an assistant professor of health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, was recently quoted in an article in which he answered the question "How Can Healthy Eating Become a Higher Priority for Men?" He particularly discusses men of color, who generally have high incidences and death rates from a variety of cancers and other diseases associated with and exacerbated by being overweight or obese. Dr. Griffith is involved in the Men 4 Health project, funded by the American Cancer Society, in which he and colleagues are working to improve the quality of food that African-American men eat and the amount of physical activity they get.

"Through focus groups we’ve conducted, we know that African-American men tend not to change their behavior until they’ve been diagnosed with a chronic disease," Dr. Griffith said. "We’re seeking ways to speed up that process so that men adopt healthy behaviors earlier in life, rather than in response to a medical diagnosis or life-threatening illness. But it’s a challenge: how do you get men to re-order their priorities to make health more important?"

Through Men 4 Health, Dr. Griffith is examining how partners and families can support efforts to make healthier food choices in the home, and is working to change the culture of some of communities, families and organizations so that they prepare and provide healthy foods for events and activities and promote physical activity.

For more information, please see the full article here.