HIV vs. Obesity

My job here is to work with people who have HIV/AIDS, and hopefully help to prevent it. As an American, I know how many other Americans feel about HIV. Does it give you the shivers? Many people don't really understand HIV in Africa. If the solution were that simple, it would have been solved/cured a long time ago.

HIV is an epidemic in Mozambique. Obesity is an epidemic in the USA. There's alot of people with HIV in Mozambique. There's a lot of overweight people in America. Prevention- signs, campaigns, organizations, and advertisements for these are everywhere in Mozambique.  Prevention for obesity in the same way is everywhere in the U.S. Americans know how to lose weight: eat less and exercise more. People here know how to prevent/treat HIV. But knowing information isn't enough to change one's behavior. Our cultures don't help our problems. In the USA, restaurants serve way too much food and add stuff that isn't healthy. Here, with HIV, there's certain cultural aspects that don't help the problem, either.

I know what you're thinking. "Yeah, as Americans, we know how to lose weight and we're still fat and people die because they're morbidly obese...but at least it's caused by food and not sex." Is there really a difference? Maybe you as an individual lead a healthy lifestyle when it comes to food, but as far as changing the problem for a whole country...It's complicated, don't you think?