Childhood Obesity in the United Kingdom - Essay Example

 Childhood Obesity in the United Kingdom Introduction Childhood obesity in United Kingdom has been on a rampant increase in the recent past. The condition has had detrimental implication among the adolescents and children. Obese children have an escalation in weight as compared to their height. The mass media has caught the attention of the condition due to its alarming increase in United Kingdom. Obese children are at a great risk of cancer, diabetes, and hypertension and sleep apnoea formation. The main cause is imbalance in the calories consumed, with close dependence on environmental, genetic and behavioural factors. The government has noted the ever-increasing trend in childhood. They have hence come up with a policy that will aid in reversing the trend. Childhood obesity statistics in United Kingdom In the past 25 years, childhood obesity in United Kingdom has shown a great increase in the childhood obesity cases. The statistics posits that 33% of the girls between two to nineteen years are obese, while 25% of the boys within the same age limit falls victims too. Most significantly, the condition has led to harmful effects, making the country consume over two billion pounds in policies formulation and implementation. Additionally, the condition had led to reduction in life expectancy among children by nine years. The number is even projected to rise. England has the highest cases of obesity compared to United States of America. The survey conducted shows that Wales and Scotland have remained the leading countries in childhood obesity rates. The rising trend has caught the attention of the government. It has declared corporate social responsibility as the final solution to the statistics reduction (Iacobucci, 2014). Causes of childhood obesity Study done by Fraser & Edwards (2010), reveal that diverse reasons related to environment, lifestyle, diet, socioeconomic status and genetics encapsulates the causes of childhood obesity. The modern environment plays a great role in determination of child growth. First, the prevalence of advertisements promoting unhealthy food consumption has been on rise. Besides, the activities within the child environmental growth area cut down physical activity and exercises adoption. Food consumption spearheads the obesity physiology, with consumption of food rich in calories and saturated fats. Furthermore, with the escalation in the concept of globalization and advanced technology, there is adoption of a tendency to live sedentary lifestyles: more time in watching television and computer games. Moreover, schools have not embraced the physical exercises fully, with a child spending 99% of the time in classes. Primarily, studies reveal that genetics have a role in childhood obesity. There may be genes transmission from parents to offspring. Most significantly, socio economic status has had great contribution, with those from low socioeconomic background being prone to obesity. They fail to afford the extracurricular activities while their parents always opt for convenience foods that have great content in fats and calories. Uneducated parents lack the technical knowhow on how to handle their children, because of lack of exposure to dietary policies and healthy food choices. CSR and childhood obesity crisis CSR theory dictates that the company has a great role in in the process of running the entire business, with its activities aimed at equivalent of the implications it has on the society and the environment. The triple bottom line encompass all the social and economic implications the company causes in the environment it thrives in. it remains a part and parcel of ethical accountability. Therefore, each company should draft and implement an operational policy that is inclusive of health concerns. With the ever increasing cases of obesity, any food company should be more focus on brand creation in order to sell more. All the manufactures must heed to quality production, insist on integrity, and build trust with their target consumers. They should own up the consequences of the products they advertise and supply. Most companies have had mission statements and themes focusing on the quality products at the disposal to the client. However, there arises great uncertainty of the quality of the nature of the products, and their effects to the consumers’ health (Pallan et al. 2013). Eventually, there is a shift in the blame, with the companies pointing to the consumers. The government alerts a call to the industries to ensure that they assume the responsibility and the health effects of the products produced. Childhood obesity, therefore, have had a close linkage with science, corporate interests in the commercials aired, responsibilities and rights, the drive to achievement of basic needs, media, and heath care systems and the government (Galvez et al. 2010). The food industry has been quite passive in its contribution to obesity reduction, having incorporated consistent strategies in balancing energy in their products, as well as campaigning for the concept of informed choices. The purpose of government The government is known to be the custodian of the public population. This means that it ensures a safe economic, political, and social environment. The government takes an active part in providing health services to its citizens to enhance stable economic growth. In most cases, any health problem to the work force of a nation strains governmental resources such that most of funds are used to restore health. In so doing, the economic development is slowed down as most resources are used in a non-profitable way that makes development unsustainable. This can now justify the role of the government in determining the welfare of it citizens. The UK government is fully aware of childhood obesity being a crisis among its citizens; it therefore has the responsibility to correct this situation before more harm is done. The government has the duty to come up with policies governing the food industry. It is appropriate for the government to come up with a policy that allows selling of healthy living food at an affordable price. High prices of healthy living food such as green vegetables and fruits are what have made people fall for the cheaply available junk food that is making them become obese. This will apply in all UK food industries to prepare food that is organic fresh and affordable to all people. The government also takes responsibility of crosschecking the ingredients used before food products are dispatched to the market for customer consumption; the quality standard control is used to ensure this is a success. Another important policy the government enforces is to ensure availability and easy access of healthy food in the market for the public to buy. This helps eliminate the chances of hoarding and counterfeit food staff in the market. Availability is directly proportional to accessibility, which is an important factor in promoting healthy eating habits. The type of food to be made available and affordable is fruits and vegetables, which are scarce in the UK food market. In order to control high fat and sugar food in the market, the government can impose high taxation of fat-based food staff. Food industries are required to pay more tax if they process and sell food with more than there required amounts of fat and sugar. With this kind of financial conditions, business dealing with food is likely to limit production of this kind of food or eliminate the food as a way of cutting down taxation expenses. Just as the food industry will be required to dig deep into their taxing pocket, individuals buying high fat food will have to pay with equal rates. This act of the government indirectly discourages people from consuming junk food and instead encouraging them to go for the cheaply available fresh and healthy food. Another governmental role is to have a policy that requires all food manufacturing companies and firms to clearly indicate the ingredients they use to prepare packaged food. The amount of each ingredient for instance caloric content, salt, and fat used must be indicated on the labels of each food. This covers all solid foods and soft drinks, which are more consumed people. Revealing food elements and their percentages is helpful to people in know what they are eating as well as regulates excessive intake of unhealthy food contents. Health education on importance of proper dieting should be put on emphasis. People are made to understand what they eat and convinced to shape their eating habits as the best available solution in preventing obesity (Parker et al. 2009). Public goods play a significant role in promoting healthy lifestyles. The government being the chief manager of public goods, it is better placed to ensure that its population remain obese-free and remain healthy. For instance, the government has the power to help people perform regular physical exercise by encouraging them to utilize playgrounds, runways and public gymnasiums to keep fit. Though some people may not be eating a lot of junk food, they are genetically predisposed to obesity and exercise comes in as the best way to ward of this disease (Parker et al. 2009). Summary of the governmental role Governmental role in promoting social responsibility and sustainable development The government plays a role in determining the economic development and success. Different business companies in UK are under direct influence of governmental policies right from acquisition of raw materials, processing packaging, distribution and marketing. Each step is made transparent and monitored to ensure that the public is protected from harmful products that can sneak into the market. Governmental agencies play a significant role encouraging companies to become more socially sustainable and responsible (Hashem, Haigh and Powell, 2011. The government provides good financial and environmental security for businesses to survive; it regulates smuggling of goods from other countries as this compromise market prices of the local companies. On the other hand as the government makes a suitable environment for companies to thrive, it expects them to provide quality products and services for its citizens (Institute of Medicine 2009). Policies are used to limit negative externalities of business as well as any similar kind of harm to citizens be it financially, socially or health wise. Similarly, they are used to eliminate economic threats presenting as unfair market competition and prices. Food safety and quality promote good health limiting chances of obesity. It is a way of promoting social welfare. By streamlining the welfare of the citizens and protecting the commercial field, the government is found to promote social responsibility and encourage sustainable development. Linking up individuals with companies to promote social welfare and development is a clear evidence of promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR). Each party fulfilling certain requirements to maintain health and favourable market status is a sure way of attaining sustainable development (Parker et al. 2009). Personal responsibility Personal responsibility in childhood obesity reduction has led to blame game. Adoption of personal responsibility does start with implementation of policies put across by the government and other stakeholders Research reveals that the increasing obesity cases cannot be linked to irresponsibility alone, but also other factors such as environmental and modern food regulation. However, to some extent, parents have a role to play in ensuring that their children exhibit normal developmental milestones along with healthy diet and balanced caloric content. They can control the food consumption as well as the exercise patterns (Lakshman et al. 2012). Adoption of the phrase “choices have consequences” aligns itself well with the way parents bring up their children. Behaviour modification for children works well, with consistent counselling sessions and educative programs to make them understand the implication of the food they consume. Food industry and CSR in obesity reduction The food industry has a role to play in the reduction of childhood obesity rates. Most significantly, it is worth noting that they are the major contributors of escalating obesity rates, through their uncontrolled food processing, manufacturing, and sales. There is an alarming rate in the strength of the forces contributing to the childhood obesity, being affiliated to poor marketing, advertising, and promotion of such products in school and lack of caloric notification on the food labels. The food industry has an ethical and social responsibility to combat the childhood obesity crisis. Ethics entails the moral application and norms to all the activities making up the commercial circles of the businesses. The current businesses have the mandate to go far beyond their profit targeted activities, and ensure that they are concerned about the communities they serve, through promotion of their wellbeing. CSR chips in to integrate the business, social and environmental activities, and interaction into their stakeholders. Fundamental drivers to adoption of the program include pressures form the stakeholders, the stakeholders’ awareness of the ethical practices, pressure from the investors and peers. Birch & Ventura (2009) posit three CSR types, with the inclusion of ethical, strategic and altruism. Ethically, the food industry possess the moral obligation to production of safe foods to the consumers, those with low caloric content, and not at the verge of causing excessive weight gain. Their profit goal should not be in consistent conflict with the societal moral responsibility. The content in the marketing process should undergo persistent regulation. First, it is the mandate of the industry management team to ensure that there is incorporation of CSR in development of the marketing plan. Its philanthropic philosophies should have a close connection to the organizational objectives, as well as observance of other ethical issues. Unethical marketing practises have been on rise, whereby there have been a sharp rise in the use of false information for self-gain (Datar & Nicosia 2012). Such deceptive marketing of the products fails to observe the detrimental effects the products have to the society. The spread of falsified information about certain products has been a point of concern among many people. Prior to the escalating rates of childhood obesity crisis, the United Kingdom marketing monitoring team noted that advertisements with children as the target were on rise. Such information misleads the young children, who goes ahead and venture on the same to test of the viability of the messages. Regulation of such advertisements relieves the burden of stereotypes, making the consumers possess the awareness of their choices. Psychologists also argue that various approaches to advertising limits the information spread to the target consumers, hence, a reduction in compulsive eating. Myriads of people assume that all advertisements deliver true information of the products, hence end up being duped in the purchase process. The advertisements are spread all over- in the video games, magazines and the rest of electronic devices. In addition, many fast food have a target on low-income populations, an element that has direct implication to obesity. Advertising remains the most influential method of acquisition of new clients. The food industry must be ready to forego the benefits they gain from the marketing process. They should look into the advantage of the derailed marketing with reference to curbing childhood obesity. Their investment agenda should focus from small profits they gain to complete maintenance of public health (Walker et al. 2007). Nutrition labelling ensures that all the food consumers’ reports awareness on the caloric content of the products on purchase. The various labelling must be in place to reveal the percentages content in the every product. The food container should possess a clear label on the packets, with an indicator of the caloric content and the servings available, always references with the number of calories available (Harris et al. 2009). In the recent past, there have been an alarming confusion in the regulation of ideal number of servings and portions in packaged food. Distortion has been on rise, but the packaging firms can take an initiative to have a reduction in portion sizes, as well as consumer education on the ideal food consumption behaviour. All that will aim at reduction in the rates of childhood obesity. Furthermore, the World Health Organization did a global survey on diet, physical health and activity, and proposed several measure to the food industry. Among the provisions has been adoption of healthy diets policies with accordance to global strategies. They had to limit all the levels of saturated fats, salts levels and free sugars. Concisely, even as they do aim at achieving that, their aim should also focus at development of affordable and nutritious choices to their target consumers. Additionally, they had to demonstrate professionalism and responsibility in their marketing procedures. Essentially, a good number of the recommendations have been adopted, but not all of them. Therefore, the industries still have a niche to fill. A case approach- McDonald As leading fast food restaurant in UK, McDonald has been at the verge of crisis form the public and the government, as to having not adopted ideal policies in the fight towards combating childhood obesity. However, it has engaged in diversification of menu to fit health options due to societal pressure. This short piece will analyse how MacDonald utilize corporate social responsibility to fit the consumer demands in stopping childhood obesity crisis. Furthermore, the perception of the consumers towards the approaches will be evaluated. Social constructionism state that, the societal interaction, expansion, and discussions lead to the emergence of ideologies. Such ideologies act as dictates to the policies in the society. The resulting reaction from people after the McDonald posting of quality matters most does force it to it to approach the obesity issue with the utility of CSR as a way of defending self, but still maintaining market domination. Since its inception, the McDonald has shown massive expansion, being in operational in over 119 countries. Most significantly, the fact that its location is in a health and obesity sensitive environment forces it to incorporate health options in the food provided. In addition, they have made an incorporation of nutritional information in all their products. It is hence clear that the restaurant is at the forefront of its campaign towards reduction of health related conditions and promotion of preventive measures to curb lifestyle related diseases. McDonald has had a difficult moment in adoption of appropriate CSR to combat childhood obesity. First, it has admitted that the journey towards the combating the situation cannot be achieved without multi-sectorial approaches and collaborations. Non-governmental organization such as Green Peace have demonstrated interest to link with them, and striving to achieve a better tomorrow. In its path to achieve the objectives, they have adopted the sustainable fish servings, through its collaboration with Marine Stewardship Industry. Through that, they demonstrate that they are keen in being responsible. Primarily, McDonald has demonstrated an impressive record, when it comes to CSR meant to reduce childhood obesity and environmental pollution. However, critics still argue that their initiatives fail to outdo the negative health implication caused by their fast foods. Its prime products still have a close link to child hood obesity and other lifestyle related conditions. The usage of social media demonstrates the perception of the public towards the McDonalds allegations to promote quality food production. The consumers seem disgusted and irritated by the slogans (McDonald 2012). Yes, the restaurant has the drive to combating the health crisis, but they rarely implement it to the end. The post lacks any truth and cannot be trusted by the consumers. They refer the restaurant as one that cares less, hurling insults. They refer to their food as toxic. Most statements are negative, and seem to portray the opposite of their campaigns. The communication by the McDonald seems untrustworthy and does not satisfy the needs of the consumers. The restaurant fails to address the issue with the seriousness it deserves. Essentially, the overall analysis of MacDonald reveals that they have not been in a position to fully address the issue of childhood obesity. More policies need to be put in place to address the issue in full. Conclusion Childhood obesity is an epidemic that has overtaken the health department in United Kingdom. Its causes have a close relation to the diet consumed, lifestyle, genetics and environment within the locality of thriving. It poses a risk to the children, with the research proving a close connection between obesity and cancer, diabetes, and hypertension among other chronic diseases. The adoption of corporate social responsibility is the solution to reversing the upsurge in the trend. The food industry, the government and parents should play their roles effectively, and the trend is deemed to decrease. Contents Childhood Obesity in the United Kingdom 1 Introduction 1 Childhood obesity statistics in United Kingdom 1 Causes of childhood obesity 2 CSR and childhood obesity crisis 3 The purpose of government 4 Governmental role in promoting social responsibility and sustainable development 6 Personal responsibility 7 Food industry and CSR in obesity reduction 8 A case approach- McDonald 10 Conclusion 12 Reference list 14 Reference list Birch, L.L. & Ventura, A.K., 2009. Preventing childhood obesity: what works? International Journal Of Obesity (2005), 33 Suppl 1, pp.S74–S81. Datar, A. & Nicosia, N., 2012. Junk Food in Schools and Childhood Obesity. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 31, pp.312–337. Fraser, L.K. & Edwards, K.L., 2010. The association between the geography of fast food outlets and childhood obesity rates in Leeds, UK. Health and Place, 16, pp.1124–1128. Galvez, M.P., Pearl, M. & Yen, I.H., 2010. Childhood obesity and the built environment. Current opinion in pediatrics, 22, pp.202–207. Harris, J.L. et al., 2009. A crisis in the marketplace: how food marketing contributes to childhood obesity and what can be done. Annual review of public health, 30, pp.211– 225. Hashem K., Haigh C. and Powell C., (2011), The irresponsibility deal: Why the Government’s Responsibility Deal is better for the food industry than public health, Retrieved on 26th March 2014 from http://cehi.org.uk/The_Irresponsiblity_Deal.pdf Institute of Medicine, 2009. Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity (brief report) Iacobucci, G 2014, 'Pay GPs to tackle obesity, doctors urge UK government', BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 348, p. g232, MEDLINE, EBSCOhost, viewed 7 March 2015. Lakshman, R., Elks, C.E. & Ong, K.K., 2012. Childhood obesity. Circulation, 126, pp.1770– 1779. McDonald, D., 2012. Challenging Ronald: McDonald versus McDonald’s. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 48, pp.103–105. Pallan, M. et al., 2013. Development of a childhood obesity prevention programme with a focus on UK South Asian communities. Preventive Medicine, 57, pp.948–954. Parker, L., Burns, A.C. & Sanchez, E., 2009. Summary (Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity). In Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity. pp. 1–12. Walker, O. et al., 2007. A qualitative study of primary care clinicians’ views of treating childhood obesity. BMC family practice, 8, p.50. Read More