Increasing Rates of Obesity in the General Population

Obesity: A Lifelong Disease

Obesity is a lifelong disease caused by an abundance of body fat, which is determined by genetic and environmental causes that are difficult to regulate even while dieting. It is defined by a BMI of 30 or higher. BMI is a unit of measurement used to assess obesity and its extent in humans. Excess weight was recognized as a cause of premature death by life insurance providers as early as the 1930s, so weight was used as a criterion in deciding policies. The 20th century saw a surge in rates of obesity among Americans mainly due to industrialization and an increase in sugar and fat intake which was aimed at reducing malnutrition by providing low-cost source of calories. Later in the 1990s, Obesity was approximated at 30% among the population in America mainly because of increased access to fast foods and sedentary lifestyles. Among the major causes of obesity are: energy imbalances due to lack of enough body exercise, some medical conditions, Genetic syndromes such as Prader-Willi syndrome, endocrine disorders, increased intake of processed foods as well as excessive eating in fast-foods, unhealthy food choices and excessive stress in some people. The major effects of obesity include: coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea and breathing problems, some cancers, and metabolic syndrome.

Obesity and its Consequences

Obesity and overweight conditions are the second leading causes of preventable and early deaths in the United States with an estimate of over 300,000 deaths per year. A third of people in the US are obese.

Curbing Obesity in the General Population

Food prices have a marked influence on food buying behavior and consequently nutrient intakes. (Swinburn et al. 134). Fiscal food policies should be introduced in every state to make healthy foods affordable and accessible to the general population. Healthy foods are generally more expensive than less-healthy foods. Such foods include foods and beverages with low energy density and low calorie, sugar, fat, and sodium. This can be attributed to the medical value and the accessibility of the healthy foods. Because of this, healthy foods become hard to acquire for middle income and low-income earners who form the largest percentage of the population in the US. The solution is to make healthy foods available and affordable to all people while reducing the consumption of non-healthy food.

Introducing National Policies

Introducing national policies to lower the prices of healthy foods and beverages. Children, students, and adults form the largest population of people who consume beverages and snacks from supermarkets and vending machines (Lee et al. 1038). Local governments should apply pricing strategies on public service venues such as public vending machines and cafeterias public institutions to lower the prices of healthy foods and increase the prices of non-healthy foods.

Introducing Discount Coupons

Introducing discount coupons in supermarkets and retail stores on healthy foods and beverages. People are fond of purchasing low priced consumables due to economies of scale and affordability. (Lee et al. 1038). Such coupon would translate into huge purchases of healthy foods as people would opt to buy the healthy food in place of the calories-dense foods and sugar-sweetened beverages. Corporates looking to promote their brand should focus on offering vouchers redeemable for healthy foods and beverages. Corporate organizations and retails should restrain from offering vouchers on non-healthy foods and sweetened beverages.

Implementing Policies Restricting Promotions

Implementing policies restricting promotions of non-healthy foods and beverages on media televisions and billboards. Such policies should lower advertising tariffs and giving discounts on advertisements of healthy foods. Over half of the advertisement viewed by children and young adults on television and social media are food related. Most of these adverts promote fast foods, processed-foods, snacks, sweets, sugar-sweetened beverage products, and other less healthy foods that are easily purchased by youths. As such, these adverts dictate the purchasing judgment in children and young adults when in parks, schools or on trips thereby increasing the consumption of unhealthy foods among these lot. Limiting advertisements of less healthy foods and increasing advertisements for healthy might cause a positive impact on the choices of purchase made by children. (Swinburn et al. 137).

Introducing Incentives for Local Farms

Introducing incentives for production, distribution, and procurement of foods from local farms. Currently, the US does not produce enough grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, daily and poultry products for its citizens. (Lee et al. 1038). Providing incentives to produce and distribute farm produce at lower costs will lead to an increase in farm produce production. This will lead to an increase in availability and consumption of fresh farm produce by locals. It will lead to increased procurement of farm produce by vendors from underserved areas at low prices, thereby leading to increased access to affordable farm produce among the general population.

Improving Availability and Accessibility

Improving mechanisms for availability and accessibility to enable purchasing of foods from farms. Such mechanisms involve establishing of farmers' markets, farm stands, community-supported agriculture, and farm-to-school initiatives. (Swinburn et al, 137). These kinds of mechanisms could increase opportunities to consume healthier foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, by reducing costs of fresh foods through direct sales; and making the produce readily available for the population in underserved areas direct from the farm when the products are rich in nutrients.

Promoting Healthy Eating

By introducing food policies to reduce prices of healthy foods, and increasing prices of non-healthy foods, the larger population of people including the middle and low-income earners will be in a position to afford healthy eating. This will lead to a drastic reduction in the number of obese adults from over a third obese adults in the US to a reduced 5%.

Reducing Obesity in Children

Incentives restricting the advertisement of non-healthy products and increasing advertisements of healthy products and sale of non-healthy calorie-stuffed snacks and sweetened beverages is targeted to lower the population of obese children in public institutions from 40% to less than 3%, the percentage of obese children in the US according to CDC. This is because most children from middle and low-income homes attend public schools. Most middle and low-income families have limited power to purchase healthy foods, therefore restricting types of foods offered in school cafeterias and offering the healthy foods at reduced cost will grant the children access to healthy foods.

Identifying Effective Solutions

Banning the sale of high-fat sandwiches and entrees into fast-food restaurants would reduce the rate of obesity in the general population. (Lunsford et al. 282). While this is a viable solution, it will not provide a long-lasting solution because people in the streets of the towns still need to take quick lunches at affordable prices. Furthermore, banning entrees into fast-foods will mean closure of fast foods leading to the loss of jobs increasing the unemployment menace in the US. Therefore, increasing the prices of non-healthy food products and reducing the prices of healthy foods through incentives would be the best solution. As such, the fast food operators will be compelled to prepare healthy foods due to their low prices and the high cost of preparing non-healthy foods, the high-fat sandwiches will be replaced with low fat and vegetables healthy sandwiches. Increased advertisement of healthy snacks will compel customers to prefer purchasing healthy foods more, therefore the fast-food operators will retain his customers and retain employees.

Conclusion

Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable and early deaths in the United States. A third of the total population in the United States is obese. The best plan to prevent obesity among the general population is to put a check the foods consumed by the whole population from the low-income earners to the high-income earners. The plan is to introduce fiscal food policies that ensure reduced priced for healthy foods and increased priced for non-healthy foods in order to make the foods affordable to low-income earners. Restricting advertisement of healthy foods and encouraging more adverts on healthy foods at reduced tariffs will help change the purchasing judgment in children and young adults as most purchase products they see being advertised. Imposing incentives to production and procurement of farm produce will lead to an increase in availability of farm produce. Creating mechanisms to enable buying of foods from farms will enable people in underserved areas gain easy access to cheap healthy products.

Works cited

Lee, Rebecca, et al. “Development of the Policy Indicator Checklist: A Tool to Identify and Measure Policies for Calorie-Dense Foods and Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Across Multiple Settings.” American Journal of Public Health 105 (2015): 1036-1044. ebscohost. Web. 27 May. 2017.

Lunsford, Andrea, et al. Everything’s an Argument. Texas: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2016. Print.

Swinburn, BA, et al. “Diet, nutrition and the prevention of excess weight gain and obesity.” Public Health Nutrition 7 (2004):123-146. WHO. Web 27 May.2017.