Healthy choices are difficult choices. On a Sunday afternoon, how many people would choose the exertion of jogging around the neighbourhood for an hour over the immediate gratification of watching a football game. Similarly, someone having to choose between buying foods that are healthful but hard on the budget and foods that are less healthy but make the budget stretch is likely to end up with a cart low on fruits and vegetables but high on dairy and meat products. 1 Why are healt hy choices so difficult. An overlooked, yet fundamental explanation is that we humans are only an approximation – not a perfect example – of the homo economicus that, in standard economic theory, rationally chooses whatever optimizes his well-being.
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