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Change everything, all at once

ASU nutrition Professor Chris Wharton says to forget baby steps — to more successfully change your life habits, take a big leap


ASU nutrition Professor Chris Wharton rides a bike
February 16, 2018

Chris Wharton sees the world very differently than you or me.

The associate professor of nutrition and interim director for the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, sees many of the behaviors we consider normal — driving to and from work, relaxing in front of a screen at night, and carrying credit card debt — as decidedly abnormal. Even excessive.

“We eat poorly, we move too little, spend too much money and damage the environment along the way, all as our default behaviors,” said Wharton.

To change our habits, we’re often told to take baby steps toward healthier behaviors. Wharton has a radically different approach: leap.

In his KEDtalk, Wharton offers us the chance to see the world as he sees it. Along the way, he illuminates a path to health, wealth, happiness and sustainability that is surprisingly simple.

Short for Knowledge Enterprise Development talks, ASU KED TALKS® aim to spark ideas, indulge curiosity and inspire action by highlighting ASU scientists, humanists, social scientists and artists who are driven to find solutions to the universe’s grandest challenges. Tune in monthly to research.asu.edu/kedtalks to discover how the next educational revolution will come about, whether space is the next economic frontier and more.

Top photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

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