Evaluate the View That Present Day Lifestyle Is Largely Responsible for Increasing Levels of Obesity in the Uk. How and to What Extent Is Diet a Contributing Factor?
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- Category: Politics: Moral Issues
- Date Submitted: 02/23/2014 01:19 PM
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Evaluate the view that present day lifestyle is largely responsible for increasing levels of obesity in the UK. How and to what extent is diet a contributing factor?
Obesity is one of the biggest health crisis’ affecting the UK at present. The UK has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, coming in only second next to America and number one in Europe. To say that the present day lifestyle is largely responsible for increasing the levels of obesity in the UK is quite ambiguous as there are other contributing factors as to why people become obese and why it has increased in the past few years. Over the past eight years there has been a noticeable increase in obesity rates; in 1993 13% of men and 16% of women were obese and in 2011 this rose to 24% for men and 26% for women.
A reason as to why our present day lifestyle could be the reason behind the rise in obesity is the price of living. The price of healthy food has increased in the past few years. According to a 2010 study published in ‘Psychological Science’, the cost of healthy food such as fruits and vegetables has increased almost 200% since 1983; whereas the cost for unhealthy foods has changed less. For example, carbonated drinks cost just 30% more than they did in 1983 and sweets and sugars have increased in cost by about 65%. These statistics show why more unhealthy foods are being consumed than healthy with the simple fact being that healthy organic food is too expensive to buy for a middle class family. Adding to this the ready-made meals from the supermarkets are much simpler to do, especially if both parents (or one parent) are working all day, they don’t have the time to come home and make a meal from scratch that has all of the nutritional value that the children and them need.
On the other hand, there are two halves to the whole of present lifestyle: one half of the present day lifestyle is to be unhealthy and eat junk food (fast-food lifestyle), but the other half is to be healthy...
Obesity is one of the biggest health crisis’ affecting the UK at present. The UK has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, coming in only second next to America and number one in Europe. To say that the present day lifestyle is largely responsible for increasing the levels of obesity in the UK is quite ambiguous as there are other contributing factors as to why people become obese and why it has increased in the past few years. Over the past eight years there has been a noticeable increase in obesity rates; in 1993 13% of men and 16% of women were obese and in 2011 this rose to 24% for men and 26% for women.
A reason as to why our present day lifestyle could be the reason behind the rise in obesity is the price of living. The price of healthy food has increased in the past few years. According to a 2010 study published in ‘Psychological Science’, the cost of healthy food such as fruits and vegetables has increased almost 200% since 1983; whereas the cost for unhealthy foods has changed less. For example, carbonated drinks cost just 30% more than they did in 1983 and sweets and sugars have increased in cost by about 65%. These statistics show why more unhealthy foods are being consumed than healthy with the simple fact being that healthy organic food is too expensive to buy for a middle class family. Adding to this the ready-made meals from the supermarkets are much simpler to do, especially if both parents (or one parent) are working all day, they don’t have the time to come home and make a meal from scratch that has all of the nutritional value that the children and them need.
On the other hand, there are two halves to the whole of present lifestyle: one half of the present day lifestyle is to be unhealthy and eat junk food (fast-food lifestyle), but the other half is to be healthy...