California Health Trends – Should Everyone Follow?

Here at Your HCG, we like to blog about specific statistics related to health and weight loss, in addition to specifically the HCG diet.  California has been known as the guinea pig state for trying out different laws and regulations involving health for their citizens.  For instance, California was one of the first states who banned smoking in public areas. One city even went so far as to ban smoking in your own home if you share a wall, floor, or ceiling with another unit. Many states have followed California’s example and implemented their own laws which will help reduce exposure to second hand smoke for non smokers. However, should we follow the California health trends in regards to other laws and regulations? How far is too far in restricting our rights to make our own choices regarding our health and the health of our children?

Examples of California Health Rules

Some examples of other California health laws include banning teens from tanning booths, preventing fast food restaurants from including a toy or prize in kid’s meals, requiring bike helmets when bicycling, and requiring medical clearance for student athletes with head injuries prior to returning to their activities.  California was the first to require smog tests, which has also been adopted by many other states and they have strict laws governing emissions as well.

However, despite these numerous health laws and regulations California is only ranked 24^th in the nation for overall health ranking according to America’s Health Rankings by the United Health Foundation.  They are listed last for air pollutions, and although they are ranked 5^th for diet, fruit and vegetables they are ranked 40^th for reports of citizens in fair to poor health, and 24^th for Diabetes. A lot of people state that California has a problem with eating healthy on the go, it seems that people in California always are on a tight schedule working to get things done quickly.  We wrote a blog post a while back talking about the HCG diet in California that explores some of the diet trends in California.

Are California Health Laws Going Too Far?

Passing laws that protect your health and your neighbor’s health are completely understandable. Is there a line that should be drawn which will allow people to make their own choices regarding their own lifestyle, health and weight loss? There are  over 150,000 health and safety laws in effect in California which are designed to keep their state and population healthy, yet their rank in the country isn’t as impressive as you would imagine considering the quantity of laws.   One thing to consider is this: what would their numbers be without these laws being in affect? California is the third largest state with the highest population of any other state in the nation. Are these regulations keeping California from having worse health? Would the overall health of the nation improve if the rest of the states followed the California health trends? Has any of you who have completed the HCG diet been affected by the California health laws?