Ludwig and Nestle states in article Can the Food Industry Play a Constructive Role in the Obesity Epidemic?, “Far greater profits come from highly processed, commodity-derived products-fast food, snack foods, and beverages-primarily composed of refined starch, concentrated sugars, and low quality fats” (1809). I believe that the corporations can if they really want to send the right message to their consumers. Some corporations actually do promote healthy eating habits to their consumers when they come to the fast food corporations. The corporations started to promote healthy eating more after many research have been done to prove how bad fast food has been towards its consumers. Ludwig and Nestle expresses, “Research links frequent consumption of highly processed foods to weight gain and increased risk for diet-related diseases” (1809).
That’s why it’s easy to imagine the industry throwing its weight behind a soda tax. School lunch reform would become its cause, too, and in time the industry would come to see that the development of regional food systems, which make fresh produce more available and reduce dependence on heavily processed food from far away, could help prevent chronic disease and reduce their costs. Recently a team of designers from M.I.T. and Columbia was asked by the foundation of the insurer UnitedHealthcare to develop an innovative systems approach to tackling childhood obesity in America. Their conclusion surprised the designers as much as their sponsor: they determined that promoting the concept of a “foodshed” — a diversified, regional food economy — could be the key to improving the American diet.
In the 70’s 47% of Americans were overweight. In 2002, more than 65% of Americans are overweight including 31% who were clinically obese. An article this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association said that about 112,000 premature deaths in 2000 attributed to obesity. The blame for obesity is mainly the fleet of fast food chains, whose Americans sales went from $6 million in 1970 to $134 million in 2005. (EBSCOhost) Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation says that “Americans spend more on fast food than they do on higher education, PCs or new cars.” Nearly 400,000 Americans die each year in the United States of poor diet and not exercising that is an increase of 33 percent since 1990.
He recommends that in search of a better way to serve customers, the fast food industry has negatively infused its way into the American culture. Schlosser brings to light plenty of shocking facts like how the actual cost of a Happy Meal is determined and how it manipulates the children to persuade their parents to treat them out to McDonalds. A growing awareness of the connection between diets and disease is slowly but surely taking hold in the minds of consumers. Natural and organic foods are becoming more popular across the country. However, our government hasn’t taken the steps that most
The calorie intake is one tenth of the daily food intake for the average American showing that unhealthy food is becoming a trend. Current food and beverage marketing puts kids at health risks. The consumption of unhealthy food is corrupting America's youth. The growth of companies and unhealthy foods popularity is proving to be the demise of America's health. But who is to really blame for the rise of childhood obesity in America?
Obesity: Society’s epidemic Since the introduction of fast food in the 1980’s, obesity rates have risen due to a variety of factors. Physical activity has decreased among schools while more fast food restaurants are created in the US. Furthermore, the convenience of a meal makes people come back for more, with catchy commercials luring both children and adults in. Moreover, the food is convenient, cheap, and advertised well, and our nation pays for the cost of obesity. Fast food has become part of our culture, forming our adults and children into becoming overweight.
This means that they have little time to work out to burn off the fatty foods that they consume on a daily basis. Now there has been a confusing with the term obesity and overweight. Overweight refers to excess body and this includes all tissues. With obesity on the increase so much lately it has appear to show that it could be genetic. Most American adults grown more than an inch over and gain twenty five more pounds than normal since the early sixties, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
That’s why on January 22, 2003, a class-action lawsuit against McDonalds was dismissed (Anderson, 2003; Berman, 2003). “If a person knows or should know that eating copious orders of super-sized McDonald’s products is unhealthy and may result in weight gain, it is not the place of the law to protect them from their own excesses,” said U.S. district judge Robert Sweet about the lawsuit (Berman, 2003). Other law makers agree. What are being called “common sense consumption laws” have been voted into law in 20 states (Fast food’s yummy secret, 2005). The federal government is now beginning to do the same.
New Changes to School Lunch Menus Ciera Jimerson Strayer University Dr. Jeff Kersh ENG115 August 19, 2012 One of the biggest epidemics in this country is children being overweight. As adults we are here to guide and educate children on the benefits, and how important it is to keep our bodies healthy. We have created a new menu for school lunches to ensure children are getting more fruits and vegetables. Changing the menus to school lunches will allow children to lead healthier lives and can also increase life expansion. Lack of nutrition can cause obesity, poor academic performance, and an increase in diseases.
Childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States. We learned from him that it is caused by lack of education, unhealthy lifestyles, socioeconomic factors, and genetics. America must be more proactive towards educating institutions, families and children of this problem and stop the growth before its too late. Obesity is defined as excess body fat. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled since 1980, and today nearly one in three children are obese.