| FUNFOODS! "Our ancestors had to expend a lot of
energy just to get through the day… But now (in many places) food is always
available, and technology has made it easy to be sedentary. So it's really the environment
that's causing the problem."
—James Hill, Centre for Human Nutrition,
University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre |
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| The
interests of agribusiness and fast food are now merging with media and entertainment
industries. Food is pre-packaged family entertainment. |
 What does food mean to children of the TV watching generation? Enjoyment?
Entertainment? If one looked at all those TV commercials, then one could be forgiven for
thinking that junk foods lead to exciting, strong and brainy kids. TV, newspapers,
magazines billboards all point in that direction.
Fast food giants spend tonnes of money and make sure that they perpetuate a lifestyle
that suits their pockets even at the cost of making millions of people fat. McDonald's, in
a single year, spent about $500 million on TV advertisements alone.
The truth is frighteningly different. As teenagers consume more and more colas and
burgers, the number of those becoming obese is alarming. While America leads the pack in
teenage obesity, India doesn’t lag far behind.
America’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention found 15 percent of children
between 6 and 19 to be overweight, thrice the proportion 20 years ago. And a WHO-backed
survey of Delhi public schools found that 53 per cent children aged 10-14 eat junk food on
a daily basis.
In fact, the WHO calls childhood obesity a global epidemic that is spreading into the
developing world. In fact, it is catching up with smoking as the leading cause of illness
and death.
Food Industry =
Entertainment Industry
Sports, entertainment, news, fast food and movies have become barely indistinguishable.
According to Public Health Reports, "advertising, pricing and packaging, and
availability all encourage Americans to eat more food, not less. The design of
neighbourhoods promotes using motor vehicles rather than walking."
Environmental risk factors that may influence our everyday behaviours include increased
exposure to high-calories fast foods, "junk" foods, and refined sugars.
Low-income families must often depend on smaller stores that have a limited selection of
fresh foods, often at higher cost. Supermarkets have two times the amount of healthy foods
as neighbourhood grocery stores, but there are four times as many supermarkets in white
neighbourhoods than black neighbourhoods.
| Fast food giants like
McDonald’s fight hard to retain hundreds of millions of dollars of government
subsidies for "training" their workers. A worker has only to work for 400 hours
for the chain to receive its $2,400 subsidy. In essence, the American taxpayer subsidises
low wages, automation, and turnover at fast food chains. Farmers get just 21% of the food
dollar in the US, the rest goes to corporations. 
A WHO-backed survey of Delhi public schools revealed that 53 per cent of children
between 10 and 14 years of age snack on junk food every day. |
That’s pretty getting to be the story of the
world. As teenage obesity is on the rise, it is seen that rather than preventing them, the
environment and many other factors are actually guiding children to the path of obesity.
The End of Small
Farms
The fast food revolution impacts agriculture and environment. For example, McDonald's, the
fast food chain is the largest purchaser of beef and potatoes in America, apart from being
the second largest producer of poultry. It goes without saying that they influence the
policy on agriculture. So fast food companies are industrialising agriculture and pushing
small family farmers off the map. In fact, since 1980, America has almost lost one million
medium to small-sized family farms. Thanks to the industrialisation of agriculture the US
is losing farmers so fast that it now has more prisoners than farmers.
The Cheap Food Argument
Another argument which the fast food industry throws is that fast food is cheap and it
helps the economy. The truth is far from that. The American fast food industry is heavily
subsidised and there are steep hidden costs of long-distance transportation for other
countries.
Issues of Minority
In America, it was found that when it comes to obesity, minorities are disproportionately
affected. Studies consistently report a higher prevalence of obesity in African Americans
and Mexican Americans compared with the white, non-Hispanic population. In the National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2000, 23.6% of non-Hispanic blacks
and 23.4% of Mexican American adolescents were overweight, a startling near-doubling
increase (from 13.4% and 13.8%, respectively) in the past decade. This contrasts markedly
with the prevalence of overweight in non-Hispanic whites of 12.7%.
The rates for obesity are also greater for minority children. Over 25 percent of Black
and Hispanic kids are overweight as against the national average of 15%. |
