Blame of Obesity on Fast Food - Research Paper Example

The general consensus is that fast food is the major cause of the increasing levels of obesity. However, after conducting research on the respective notion, it can be stated that the blame of obesity cannot be totally blamed on the consumption of fast food since the nature of lifestyles plays a major role in the incremental weights among individuals. 2. Blame Fast Foods for Obesity? It has been witnessed in the recent history that the number of obese individuals is increasing more than ever. Evangelista, Ortiz, Soto and Urdapilleta stated that recognized organizations, such as World Health Organization, American Obesity Organization, acknowledge the fact that obesity has become a serious illness on a massive scale.

Department of Health and Human Services revealed an interesting figure that obesity has increased by 60% in adults and has doubled in children since 1980. Center for Disease Control defined obesity as Body Mass Index (BMI) which is explained in terms of the height and weight of the individual. It is commonly witnessed that obese individuals try to earn money out of lawsuits against fast food organizations since they blame them for their obesity. The most obvious argument against such blame game is that no organization or individual forced them to eat anything; the excessive consumption of food has been done as a result of their own desires and wants.

It can also be stated that individuals who eat fast food products but do not consume these products at an excessive rate maintain healthy lifestyles. Jaslow reported that fast food chains have been regulated to include the nutrition in all of their food items in New York, California and Seattle since 2008; other states and cities have also joined in with the passage of the years. The presence of labels can communicate the number of calories that are present in any item, thereby giving the consumer complete knowledge of what he is eating.

The distribution of such information cannot hold the fast food chains liable for any instances of obesity. Rogers stated that lawyers often put the blame on fast food organizations by saying that poorly educated consumer segment cannot read the nutrition values on the fast food items and simply consume this type of affordable food, thereby moving towards obesity. Buchholz provided some relevant figures that negate the assumption that the lack of comprehension of nutrition on the fast food items increases obesity.

He stated that around 53% of increase in obesity has been recorded in individuals with no high school education, whereas an alarming rate of 163% increase has been recorded among graduates who are very well able to understand the information on the fast food labels. Buchholz raised an important fact and stated that individuals have started eating between meals more than ever before; Americans used to eat less than one snack in a day in the late 1980s, whereas this figure reached to around 1.6 snacks every day by 1994.

Further investigation of this figure shall reveal even more astonishing results for the past decade. This fact tends to shift the nature of the problem from eating heavy fast food meals, such as breakfast, lunch and dinner to munching between the meals that is known to be a major cause of unhealthy living. McKesson Health Solutions LLC and Gupta, Ray and Saha also agreed with this notion and stated that majority of the individuals admit to eating in between the meals and it is considered to be one of the major causes of obesity among individuals.

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