What should governments do about obesity?

Answer 1

I think for starters we need education for kids and most of their parents. Definitely starting in the schools by getting rid of all the junk they let our kids eat when they are away from home. Vending machines and cafeterias need to be more mindful of what they are feeding and to who. Secondly, I think that more programs, like smoking cessation, only on obesity for adults with problems. Obviously we cant make people stop eating or make all the companies that produce junk food stop. But we can educate people and teach them that they can live healthy and have the junk food too, just in moderation. I think they also need to regulate more fast food companies. Make NI more available or more visible. Kind of like how McD's started putting info on their boxes!! I think that htere should be more restrictions and higher deductibles with insurance companies. Kind of like how they do for smokers. Obesity is a huge problem causing alot of medical issues and it is going to get worse!

Answer 2

Good question. Smoking my pipe is illegal almost everywhere, so I fail to see why lardballs should be able to roam free and eat what they like. Tax junk food in the way alcohol and tobacco are taxed is my answer. Make people pay for their addictions. Make the junk food outlets and supermarkets pay for selling lard.
I live in a small town with about 10,000 inhabitants. There are abot 4-5 Chinese take-aways/restaurants, a similar number of Indians, 3 or 4 Italian/Greek places and about 10 McNastyBurger shops. We have 2 or 4 vans coming round every day peddling ice cream.
So why are there no "Government Health Warnings" on every packet of beefburgers? You know the sort of thing: "Lard Eaters Die Younger", "Fat Can Seriously Damage Your Health" etc. It is PC at the moment to be anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol. There are 12-18 year old kids waddling around my neighourhood, who are about my weight. I'm middle aged and 1.88m!
Fatties should be punished in a similar fashion to drug addicts, alcoholics and smokers.

Answer 3

Councils should stop allowing so many licences for fast food outlets on the high street in every town. The government should make it easier for farmers to sell their produce locally rather than to the supermarkets. Fewer junk food adverts on TV. More cafes/take aways that offer tasty and healthy food for everyone. Lunchtime is a nightmare for me, there are few places to buy a decent lunch and i end up having to make something the night before. Cafes selling good soup and salads rather than burgers would be great. I have no idea why there isn't a healthy fast food chain on the go yet? Like McDs but without the muck?!

Answer 4

Not as much as they should. But then health education is very difficult and not very effective overall anyway, unfortunately. Years ago I went to a meeting where the main lecturer was the head of Glasgow's Health Education Department. ( Glasgow may be close to holding the developed world's award for poor health. It has high levels of smoking, drinking, inactivity and obesity ). He said in his view health education didn't work. To be fair he resigned soon afterwards and may have been a man understandably disillusioned with his job.

The biggest failure of health education to stop people basically killing themselves are the anti-smoking campaigns. 50% of current smokers will die from their habit. Despite every packet being labelled ' Doing this is going to kill you pa!'. a quarter of the population continue to smoke. Addiction alone cannot be blamed for this in 1982 25% of 15 year olds smoked. 25 years later 20% of 15 year olds still smoke! It is difficult to believe that even at 15 they are not now aware that it is addictive and harmful when they start.

The rewording and revamping of the anti-drugs campaigns, having spurned ' All are bad ', and tried less general messages, have also failed to stop in this case an increase in teenage drug taking. Similarly with the drink sensibly campaigns. Generally it appears that trying to appear cool, beats health warnings every time! Also if you can abuse it and its available humans will do it, which of course covers food as well!

Answer 5

They can't do anything more than educate people on healthy eating, beyond that it's a personal choice. The Government should not have the right to, or be expected to interfere in every aspect of people's lives.

Answer 6

Let every body know about the best kept secret on the planet. That is that 99.9% of all mind and health issues are acid problems. Acidic foods and drinks and acidic thoughts are mankinds downfall. Almost all food and drink that this part of the world in particular ingest is mildly acidic, if not highly acidic and poisonous and mostly toxic to all human beings. This starts the cycle of inbalance which leads to the symptoms (or diseases that most people believe) of an over acid body (colds,flu,cancer,acne,diabetes etc etc the list goes on). The same with the mind. Acidic thoughts namely anger,frustration,selfishness,resentment,hatred,irritation,depression,racism etc etc the list goes on lead to the demise of the mind. Headaches are stress are acid. You cannot have pain without acic like you cannot have acic without pain.

The most important, and the most destructive/constructive piece of knowledge on the planet and it is not told or spoken about or given free to every single human being on this planet by the governent. Good luck!

Answer 7

nothing except get the garbage food out of schools and get some real education and accurate information on Health/Fitness out to the youth ...

it's the responsibility of the individual to maintain the health and to select the right foods to eat not the government

Answer 8

They can't do anything about it. People are going to eat what they want. Its up to the individual to lose the weight. Not the government.

Answer 9

Government should encourage the population to learn about good nutrition, exercise and fasting. Other than that, nothing.

Answer 10

Mull it over during a working lunch. A couple of bottles of wine and a good cheesecake always helps with the thought processes.