Regulating Unhealthy Food

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Regulating portion sizes of foods served in restaurants

Currently, the lack of nutrition education and regulation of unhealthy food is the problem for public health nutrition in the United States. Over consumption of unhealthy foods is a public health problem because it contributes to many negative impacts such as obesity, hypertension, higher health care costs, inefficient nutrition management, increased spending, and increased food waste. Specifically, this problem is correlated to issues such as obesity, diabetes, food insecurity and a plethora of harmful health outcomes. For instance, overconsumption of unhealthy foods often leads to lack of regulations of sodium, sugar, fat, and carbohydrate intake. This is especially an issue for …show more content…

Populations who are most affected by this issue are food insecure households and individuals who lack nutrition knowledge. There are several causes for this issue. Factors such as poverty, food insecurity, obesity, lack of nutrition knowledge, increasing portion sizes, ineffective nutrition labeling, and lack of regulation on served portion sizes in businesses are all causes of this important issue. The root causes of this issue is combination of lack of nutrition knowledge and regulation of businesses on portion sizes served. Similarly, with the obesity rate increasing in the United States, regulating the consumption of unhealthy foods has become more important than ever. The general public is effected by this problem. Specifically, food insecure people or ones who lack nutrition knowledge and education are mainly affected by this problem. Several policies have been enacted to address the issue of over consumption of unhealthy foods. In March of 2010, congress passed a law which required chain restaurants of twenty or more to …show more content…

For instance, the idea behind by changing the serving sizes to realistic portion sizes that the average person is consuming hopes to increase awareness of the high caloric content of the food item. 2 This is also similar to the nutrition information labeling requirement for restaurant menus. Although these policies intend to reduce the consumption of foods and encourage healthier eating habits, it does not solve the issue. The law which requires that chained restaurants provide nutrition information fails to realize that the average consumer may lack basic nutrition knowledge to accurately make healthier decisions while eating out. The FDA’s menu labeling law is relevant to this issue because it addresses one of the root causes of this issue which is that there is lack of regulation of portion sizes for food service businesses. Food companies’ have progressed over the years toward larger food packages and food portions. Americans in today’s society views a normal portion size larger than it did decades ago and that is because portion size education and recommendations have not been well established for the general public while companies’ continue to serve increasing amounts of

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