Food Addiction, Food Marketing, and the Food Industry - Essay Example

How food addiction, food marketing and the food industry are to blame for the obesity epidemic in kids. How food addiction, food marketing and the food industry are to blame for the obesity epidemic in kids. Obesity is a chronic ailment that is gripping the citizens of the United States, and all over the world primarily due to their unhealthy dietary habits and the sedentary lifestyle. The unhealthy dietary habits however, do not merely stem from personal choice. It has been recently come into notice to many researchers and dieticians that habits which promote obesity are the outcome of a well-researched psychological manipulation of people especially children through advertisements aired on the television. This paper aims at disclosing how the devious manipulation of young minds results in hazardous food addiction which in turn causes obesity, and subsequently diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome, as well as how the government and public health organizations can participate actively in order to curb it. The condition of being obese or over weight is usually defined with reference to the Body Mass Index (BMI), however studies often deem these to be inaccurate since it is considered to be a better determinant of the amount of adipose tissue in one’s body (Eckel, 1997). It has been discovered that over seventy percent of people in the United States of America are obese or overweight (James et al., 2001), and an increasing population among the obese is going to be that of young children. One of the researches has estimated that obesity amounts to eighty percent in children between the ages of ten and fifteen years and may increase in years to follow. This level of obesity is hazardous to the life of children as obesity that is acquired during childhood is often complicated (James et al., 2009) and may culminate in other diseases such as coronary diseases in old age. Researchers have also concluded that the BMI of children and young adults in the United States is one of the primary concerns of health as it leads to high lipid content in their bodies as the children grow up along with high blood pressure (Ogden et al., 2010). Obesity has become a sort of epidemic, that affects children in such a drastic manner that it is expected that this is the first generation of children, who will probably die before their parents (Karin et al., 2014), owing to the immensely grave health issues surrounding them. Obesity may be difficult to cure once it has begun, but it is not difficult to prevent it from occurring in the first place. There are numerous processed foods and lipid rich food contents from children which if avoided, can result into successful prevention of obesity. However, the food industry is one of the most lucrative industries and therefore it often blames people and their inability to control their diet along with the government and society. It has been stated that children who have self-confidence issues, specifically those with low self-esteem tend to be more obese, and this is often the target of management of childhood obesity (Poskitt & Edmunds, 2008). Children develop their eating habits in school and at home, and their eating habits often determine whether they are obese or not. However, often children who have been socially stigmatized begin regimens of weight loss which in turn leads to a cycle which includes both weight gain as well as loss (Mash et al.,2002), leaving the children more psychologically disturbed. The media, government and food industries take advantage of such trends and label all obese children psychologically damaged, stating that it is generally due to their lack of discipline, self-motivation and responsibility of their bodies. However, it is the media that promotes the image of thin and lean over the obese (Kingsbury, 2008), offering them numerous programs and diets to get fit, which often confuses children and they fall into the trap of buying processed foods and become more obese after they discontinue the diet. Being one end of the picture that displays childhood obesity, it is very difficult for children to safeguard themselves from such emotional trauma, hence they often suffer obesity. It is not just the psychological problems that cause obesity in individuals. It has been postulated that eating behavior is often not the fault of, or in control of an individual, specially a young mind. The term “food addiction” is used in this regard (Meule, 2011), stating that the food processing industries often research the kind of foods that will make the individual addicted to it, resulting in increased consumption and eventually in obesity. Certain researches have concluded that addiction towards food may be due to the result of the products used in such foods which resemble dopamine as well as opiates, and result in the interplay with neurochemistry as well as the limbic system in the brain. Such foods include processed carbohydrate and salt-rich foods, as well as fat-laden foods which combine with the nervous system in such a way that people become addicted to them (Corsica & Pelchat, 2010). Moreover, television is a great part of everyday lives of children, and so are television commercials. Marketing food products by making them a part of commercials is also a strategy through which industries can expose children to harmful foods. An interesting study revealed that only thirty seconds worth of commercial time can allow pre-school children to recognize and form an opinion about food products in commercials (Borzekowski & Robinson, 2001). If commercials can have such a strong impact on children of such young ages, then they are bound to affect older children as well. Furthermore, the advertisements and food processing industries keep most of the processed ingredients a secret so even the best of parents are unable to discriminate between healthy and unhealthy foods. Often, there are hidden sources through which the children acquire a habit of eating a particular kind of food. Such foods are part of their everyday interaction such as with friends or in the cafeteria at school. One such example is allowing popular fast food chains into children’s lunchrooms (Fitzpatrick, 2013).Thus, there are several ways in which a child can acquire bad eating habits, the most dangerous of them being the psychological manipulation of the media and the misleading advertisements aired by food processing industries. In order to combat this epidemic and improve the health conditions of the children, the government and educationists should take strict measures and limit the availability of any sort of junk food in schools. Moreover, programs where psychological assistance is provided to those who are obese due to self-esteem issues or are obese and wish to seek a healthy lifestyle should be supported by teachers, parents and social circles alike. The television commercials for children and availability of processed sugars and salt-rich foods could bear specific guidelines for children so as to keep them away from such foods since the very beginning and stop them from indulging in it. Stress should also be placed on physical activity in schools so that children learn the importance of exercise as well as maintaining a healthy lifestyle. With these measures implemented in the lives of the children from the very beginning, children will start with a healthy life and be accustomed to a healthy way of living. In conclusion, it is pertinent to state that childhood obesity is one of the most dangerous outcomes of the sedentary lifestyle, psychological manipulation and capitalistic society. Children are the future, and the future demands to be exposed to a healthy way of life. Therefore, it is necessary for parents and teachers to realize the importance of the kind of foods they are exposing young minds to, their proneness to food addiction and its outcomes. Children therefore need to be taught exercise and healthy eating habits so that they can bid a healthy farewell to obesity. References Borzekowski, DL, and TN Robinson. "The 30-Second Effect: an Experiment Revealing the Impact of Television Commercials on Food Preferences of Preschoolers." Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 101.1 (2001): 42-6. Print. Corsica, Joyce A, and Marcia L. Pelchat. "Food Addiction: True or False?" Current Opinion in Gastroenterology. 26.2 (2010): 165-169. Print. Eckel, Robert H. "Obesity and Heart Disease: a Statement for Healthcare Professionals from the Nutrition Committee, American Heart Association." Circulation. 96.9 (1997): 3248. Print. Fitzpatrick, Kevin M. Poverty and Health: A Crisis Among Americas Most Vulnerable. , 2013. Internet resource. James, Philip T, Rachel Leach, Eleni Kalamara, and Maryam Shayeghi. "The Worldwide Obesity Epidemic." Obesity Research. 9 (2001). Print. James, Larry C, and John C. Linton. Handbook of Obesity Intervention for the Lifespan. New York, NY: Springer, 2009. Internet resource. Karin, Eli, and Stanley J. Ulijaszek. Obesity, Eating Disorders and the Media. , 2014. Internet resource. Kingsbury, Whitney. Associations Among Adolescent Obesity, Bullying, and Media Exposure in Relation to Psychological Adjustment and Body-Size Stigmatization. , 2008. Print. Mash, Eric J, and David A. Wolfe. Abnormal Child Psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002. Print. Meule, Adrian. "How Prevalent Is “Food Addiction"? Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2 (2011). Print. Ogden, CL, MD Carroll, LR Curtin, MM Lamb, and KM Flegal. "Prevalence of High Body Mass Index in Us Children and Adolescents, 2007-2008." Jama. 303.3 (2010): 242-9. Print. Poskitt, E M. E, and Laurel Edmunds. Management of Childhood Obesity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print. Read More