David Gordon is the Bristol UK researcher who came up with the alternative
10 tips for better health to the British medical officer's tips.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Boxed insert 4:  Which Tips for Better Health Are Consistent with Research
Evidence?
The messages given to the public by governments, health associations, and
health workers are heavily influenced by the ways in which health issues
are understood.  Contrast the two sets of messages provided below.  The
first set is individually-oriented and assumes individuals can control the
factors that determine their health.  The second set is societally-oriented
and assumes the most important determinants of health are beyond the
control of most individuals.  Which set of tips is most consistent with the
available evidence on the determinants of health?

The Traditional Ten Tips for Better Health
1. Don't smoke. If you can, stop. If you can't, cut down.
2. Follow a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables.
3. Keep physically active.
4. Manage stress by, for example, talking things through and making time to
relax.
5. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation.
6. Cover up in the sun, and protect children from sunburn.
7. Practice safer sex.
8. Take up cancer screening opportunities.
9. Be safe on the roads: follow the Highway Code.
10. Learn the First Aid ABCs: airways, breathing, circulation. (Donaldson,
1999)

The Social Determinants Ten Tips for Better Health
1. Don't be poor. If you can, stop. If you can't, try not to be poor for
long.
2. Don't have poor parents.
3. Own a car.
4. Don't work in a stressful, low paid manual job.
5. Don't live in damp, low quality housing.
6. Be able to afford to go on a foreign holiday and sunbathe.
7. Practice not losing your job and don't become unemployed.
8. Take up all benefits you are entitled to, if you are unemployed, retired
or sick or disabled.
9. Don't live next to a busy major road or near a polluting factory.
10. Learn how to fill in the complex housing benefit/ asylum application
forms before you become homeless and destitute.  (Gordon, 1999)

from Raphael, D. (ed.) Social determinants of health: Canadian
perspectives.

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