When he was in college, however, he started to look at health differently. Health is more than physical well-being, he says. It is also emotional, social, and mental well-being. Instead of focusing on caring for an individual, Dr. Watts decided to do research that could have a broad impact on the community’s health. He tries to find out why it’s hard for people to take care of their health and then he tries to figure out solutions. One of his research projects looked at what elementary school students in New York were learning about nutrition. He discovered they were not getting enough information about the topic, something that is true for many other states as well. Now, he is learning what is going on in the Philadelphia area where many schools have teachers who lead classes about nutrition. Sheldon Watts, Ph.D. Investigating why people struggle to stay healthy You are what you eat. You may have heard that expression before, but Dr. Sheldon Watts says you need to do more than listen. You need to act: Skip the junk food, or you might regret the health consequences later in life, he says. Too much junk food can lead to excessive weight gain. Too much weight can put a person at a higher risk for diabetes, some cancers, and heart disease, says Dr. Watts, who teaches public health at Temple University. Although such diseases may seem like distant possibilities to many children, he says young people need to make good choices now so they can lead long, healthy lives. Dr. Watts became interested in health when he was growing up in New York. His grandmother had diabetes and he thought he would become a doctor and help find a cure for the disease.