Is obesity about poverty and cheap food? Or lack of moral fibre? I will be elaborating an essay on the points written by Zoe Williams (2011) balanced arguments, on whether there is a link between obesity, poverty and or lack of inner strength. I will be presenting for and against arguments relating the issue.
In the UK as well as in other developed countries, obesity is becoming a growing problem this puts pressure on health services and affects individuals’ ability to work, and contribute to the economy. The government feels the pressure to act by taxing unhealthy foods and drinks, and by setting up educational campaigns, (Stephen Adams, 2011).
In the article Williams (2011) is arguing that the cost of unhealthy food is available at a very low cost, making this more accessible for people to buy. Christmas is seen as a special occasion where the prices for things such as food must cost an incredibly special amount of money. People from deprive areas often have to substitute the real Christmas meal for things like a waffle and wafer thin turkey ham; which contains large amount of salt, that often reminds people of meat, and it only costs £1.90 per head, (Williams 2011).
Furthermore, Abdularhman El-Sayed (2010) also argues that the real reason for the obesity epidemic is down to poverty and cheap food. He describes a study conducted by one university of Glasgow which found that deprived neighbourhoods are twice as likely of becoming obese compare to residents in more affluent neighbourhoods, (El-Sayed 2010).
Moreover El- Sayed states that Kebabs, chips, crisps, puddings, and fizzy drinks are the most calories dense and the cheapest in deprived areas. Researches about the causes of obesity in rich countries have found tha...
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... right time. It is understandable that many people who reach the obesity stage may well be too overweighed to lose it just through exercise and diet alone. If drastic measures, like for example having a bypass is going to change someone’s life for all the good reasons then there should be no opposition to that, having in mind that for all this treatments to work successfully the person should be treated as an individual alone.
Works Cited
"This is not rocket science. Poor health is a well-known feature of deprivation. Mothers are not daft and they do know fat and crisps are bad for children but they can't afford the alternative. The Government has to give them the means. Initiatives are not going to change anything unless you've got the cash in your pocket. If you buy a salad at Sainsbury's, it's still very expensive.
(Bob Holman) as cited in SIRC (2004)
This chapter gives various social and biological reasons for the growing world-wide health concern of obesity. Name them and views - why is the reality of weight for most people so far from the cultural or societal ideal?
Obesity is clinically defined as a body mass index (BMI) of above 30kg/m2 and is the accumulation of excess adipose tissue1. It is currently viewed as an epidemic due to the increasingly large proportion of adults who are now obese, with the incidence rapidly rising in the recent years. In a five year period from 1995-2000 there was a predicted increase of 100 million obese individuals world-wide 2. In UK it is estimated that over 25% of adult males and females are obese and it is thought that these figures will continually rise with estimations that 60% of adult men and 50% of adult woman with be obese by 2025.3 Being a huge burden on the NHS, it has been predicted that £5 billion a year is spent on preventing and treating the complications of excessive weight in the UK, which is almost 5% of the total NHS budget (£5billion/£108billion).4 The cost of obesity on the NHS will rise to correlate with the increasing incidence illustrated.
Everyday Americans die from the diseases they carry from obesity. Many Americans over eat because their social problems or because they are hereditary. Many plans have been discussed but finding the solution is the problem. Junk foods and unhealthy beverages have corrupted children’s minds all over the nation and putting a stop on it could lead to other benefits. Unhealthy foods and drinks should be taxed and healthy foods should be advertised more to help prevent American obesity.
A tax is a compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers' income and business profits, or added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions. Obesity is the state of being grossly over weight. The obesity problem in the UK is becoming more and more of a problem in the UK. Estimates suggest that by 2050 more than half of the British population will be obese (many have said that this is an underestimation). This will have huge effects on the government. Obesity is already digging deep into the pockets of the NHS due to rises in the number of diabetes and heart attacks, so one can only imagine how bad it is going to be in 2050. Taxing fatty foods is not the only way to tackle this issue and it doesn’t seem to be the most efficient and effective path to take either. The other options are: compulsory exercise; increasing exercise; subsidies healthy foods; tax obese people directly or charging obese people NHS costs.
ABSTRACT: It has often been observed that obesity follows a socioeconomic gradient which adversely affects the poor. This paper proposes the outline of a sociological theory of obesity as a consequence of ‘globalisation factors, such as labour market deregulation. Forced to work longer hours – and with lower levels of job-security – workers in low paid jobs have fewer opportunities to burn calories, and are more likely to consume fast-food. This combination has led to higher levels of obesity among the poor in countries that have adopted neo-liberal labour market reforms.
In order to take a sociological viewpoint into account when one examines obesity, first it is important to understand how obesity is recognized in current society. According to today’s news articles and magazines and advertisements and other mass media about health and healthy life, one can easily realize that a great number of people have an eagerness to be healthy. Also, one can assume through these mass media about health that everyone wants to be attractive, and they are even prone to transform their own behaviors to gain attractiveness. This is because most people live a life where social interaction is frequently required and must engage themselves into social interaction every day of their life. Therefore, based on these ideas and proofs throughout this mass media, obesity is regarded as one of the characteristics that is disgraceful and undesirable in society.
Obesity is a rising problem in the United States. With obesity rates on the rise something must be done to prevent this massive issue. There are ways to help including educating at young ages, improving nutrition facts at restaurants, and providing more space for citizens to get physically active.
...re options to go for, we cannot say that they eat healthier that lower class. They might have the money to buy quality food and still make the wrong choices when it comes to their diet. There is absolutely no evidence that higher social classes eat healthier. On the other hand, according with evidence given above, the lower class might not have a lot of options but they do have choices which are a bit more difficult make and unfortunately people don’t make those choices and blame the easiest, but not the most obvious thing “money”. There is a lot of free accessible information for everyone and we should stop making excuses. Someone once said:” we are what we eat”. Despite of witch social class we belong to making the right choices about our diet will definitely improve our eating habits and promote a healthier Britain without having to look at our social status.
The question of whether the public’s health is an individual’s responsibility or the government’s responsibility has been a sticky topic for quite some time now. In order to get closer to an answer, it is important to evaluate the roles individuals have in protecting and improving their health versus the roles the government has. To better understand the situation, I will discuss the case study of obesity. Is it the individual’s responsibility to exercise in order to avoid being obese or is it firstly the governments responsibility to provide safe environments with parks, for example to improve the individuals’ health? This paper will discuss the causes of obesity, what makes obesity an individual’s responsibility, what makes it the government’s
Obesity and overweight remain the two major social problems in the United States. Apart from the fact that obesity and overweight are dangerous by themselves, they also cause a variety of negative health consequences. Our lives our overloaded with tasks and obligations, and we often choose to eat something fast. “Fast”, however, does not necessarily imply “useful”, and more and more people face the risks of becoming obese even at young age. Because obesity has already become a national i...
Since 1970, the obesity rates in America have more than doubled. Currently two-thirds of (roughly 150 million) adults in the United States are either overweight, or obese (Food Research and Action Center). According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25 whereas obesity is defined as a BMI greater than 30.” There are numerous factors that contribute to obesity such as: biological, behavioral and cultural influences (Food Research and Action Center). While these factors all have a large role in obesity, there is no factor with as great of an influence as poverty.
...member of a family on average receives less than two dollars per meal is absolutely unrealistic for the average family. With an increase in the budget allowance for food benefit programs in the United States, this will allow many kids and teenagers to eat a nutritious meal compared to choosing between a meal with enough calories or a meal with more nutrients. All together this will reduce the cost spent on obesity related health care in the United States which could be put elsewhere such as education, roads, social security etc. With putting money back into the education this will allow many schools to have better physical education programs and fitness programs that will not only educate kids on how to have a healthy lifestyle, but also keep them active in physical education, thus preventing and lowering the number of obese children in the United States of America.
Social attitudes of today’s society have changed the way people live, people now are working longer hours to sustain the financial demand that is needed in-order to keep up a higher standard of living, “One quarter of working men and 11% of working women in the UK now work more than 50 hours per week” . This is a social problem because it encourages people to eat ‘fast food’ type products such as pasties, sausage rolls, pre-packaged sandwiches and microwavable take-away items such as burgers & hot dogs etc, which all have high percentages of saturated fats, sugars and salts. These ‘fast foods’ are eaten because of their convenience and due to time shortages from working longer hours these food are the easy option. This implicates less healthy diets and obesity in the UK population. Tesco’s have and still currently sell these items but to combat this problem in 2000 Tesco launched their ‘Healthy Living’ brand of foods which are lower in fat, no added sugar and low in sodium, and in 2004 launched their ‘Healthy Living Club’, which has over 350, 000 members and offer over 500 ‘Healthy Living’ Products. The club offers customers information on diets, weight loss and other health issues.
In the UK, 64% of the adults are classed as obese and nearly two third of men and women are either obese or overweight(BBC Health,2014). Obesity has always been indeed a serious problem in the western world and is increasing day by day. However, the poor population in the western society is the most effected one and still their number is increasing. This essay will investigate firstly, what is obesity and its causes, moving on to the poor population of the western society who are the most effected one and why they are effected and finally a contract/comparison of the western poor society with the poor population of Pakistan that why poor in Pakistan is not effected by obesity.
Modern poverty is so closely related with obesity for many reasons. First of all, poor people are ignorant and uneducated about their health and nutrition. Obviously, because of that they don’t really know what they are doing or even how they are taking the risk of eating some kinds of food. Poor people go for good tasting food without paying attention to the food’s freshness and safety. Moreover, children grow up without a proper understanding of good nutrition, so it is time to reintroduce nutrition to families and even in schools to kids. Second of all, poor people cannot afford buying healthy food. A person who is poor and hungry is going to buy the cheapest calories that he or she could find. In fact in today’s world, the cheapest calories come from junk food. It is cheaper and ...