Essay Sample: Calls for Government Engagement in Food Industry Sector

The former president of the USA, Bill Clinton makes it clear in one of his known documentaries that the necessary action that every individual need to take into action is to change the diet for the USA (Clinton). Despite the increasing number of persons leaving with obesity, both the government and the leaders for the food industries have failed to come into a decision to reduce to eradicate the fast-growing problem. The rate of prevalence of obesity in America has steadily gone so high in the recent past, and for this reason, government expenditure on health while trying to treat the obese has also significantly increased. Besides making massive expense in the health sector, American citizens have also suffered from many detrimental effects resulting from the presence of obesity.

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In a real sense, this can be considered to be a significant failure by the American government, as there are countless number strategies that in collaboration with the industrial food companies and health organizations can implement to reduce the rate of obesity and other numerous health concerns associated with children at their development stages to control the foods health experts consider as significant effects for the disorder. Fast foods are dangerous because they usually take extremely less period for its complete preparation process. The majority may like to know how and why these foods do cause obesity so that they can protect themselves at individual levels. The possible chances are that may be wrong and harmful ingredients are typically applied to fasten the process, produce more and consequently earn a massive amount of profits from the potential consumers. Another possible cause is that the abnormal shorter time of preparation usually leads to foods with active chemicals in them. These chemicals are the ones that if proper preparation and processing are done, then they may become essential on the human's body. For instance, sugar, when it is placed in cold water and served as a coffee, the consumer might get infections of unprocessed sugar, while at the same time another consumer may use the same sugar but in boiled water and will not get the effects.

It is therefore essential to note that, obesity in America is a disaster that can be prevented progressively to a final stop, but only if correct measures against the potential causes of the disease are eliminated, otherwise, fighting the disease at its peak may be nothing else, but a waste of time and resources. Nevertheless, despite the ongoing problem, many attempts and suggestions have been made in the past to help in fighting the disaster. In the year 2005, Wexler revealed that legislators had once met in the same year of the article production to discuss the ways that the national government can use to fight the cause of obesity.

At the topmost, their number one cause was poor diets, specifically the fast foods that seemingly contained excessive munt of sugars. In their response to this situation, they highlighted that the government would only achieve this, by first implementing policies governing the food industry, and applying significant fines and punishments in the court of law for those who fail to comply with the stated requirements and rules (Wexler). In their recommendations, they noted that the food companies should include the labels while selling their foods, and these labels have to display the correct information without punishments must be taken.

However, the question of who to blame in the increasing rates of obsess people remains a great debate on American intellectuals, citizens, government, and authors. For example, Wexler makes it clear that, at all circumstances, food industries should never be blamed for the effect of obesity in America. The author claims that health status is pegged on an individual basis, through the making of choices. Wexler states that the significant role of industries is only to manufacture foods, while the rest of the decision of a buyer to purchase the food or not lies on them (Wexler).

This view was also supported with other specialists and lawmakers who also believe that food industries are not to blame in this critical condition of fighting the problem. Similarly, but on the contrary opinion, some other lawmakers also feel that having obesity makes one have a kind of unhappy life, as he/she may contact other deadly diseases that may lead to premature deaths. The duo problems, obesity, and other health concerns are thus a direct effect of government and food industry as some say. From this point, their view can be summarized to say that, by government, food industries or both taking measures to help the situation, the health status of many people will be saved, and prevalence percentage can also reduce.

One of the American student bloggers also has the view that that government plays a huge role in people's lives either negatively or positively. The positive side of it may mean that the government takes appropriate measures against the possible causes of obesity. Does the primary question arise on how the government impacts the healthiness of the American citizens negatively? The student explains it. Any business organization would aim to make profits (Silva). Food industries being inclusive of a business organization will only take a direction where there is a low cost of manufacturing or production, or rather where the government seems to offer massive subsidies. All of this will raise the profitably of the industries and will also make them expand the companies.

In the USA, the majority uses fructose corn syrup, instead of naturally obtained sugars or natural sweeteners like honey, nor because they do not recognize the side effects of corn syrup but because the prices for the natural sugars or sweeteners are comparatively high beyond majority level of socio-economic status. The government of USA, usually provide subsidies for the companies using corn, since it is believed that, the product has got several uses, and it's also capable of producing many more valuable products like ethanol and food products. The products may be sold to earn income for the nation. For this reason, many companies have decided to shift from their use of natural substances to the use of corn since here, they only spend less on processing and manufacturing and earn awesomely.

A real-life example of a corn syrup alternative is natural cane sugar. It is healthier when consumed, easy to digest and contain a relatively lower amount of sugars, compared to the corn syrup, fast food that contains much sugar and is also very hard to understand (Silva). From these illustrations, government and the food industries can again be blamed on the issue a total diversion of the Wexler's point of view.

On the other hand, Brady differs with both of the previous authors, and he neither blames the consumers nor on the government and the food industries. The author says that the growth of culture problem is s culture generated issue that children are born to inherit in every new phase of generation. It is thus almost an impossibility to fight the problem at its peak level with the individuals who are already affected, leaving the safe young children without the prevention knowledge and techniques.

To the author, convenience, pricing, and the quantity of food have a significant impact on children and their parents towards how they are making decisions on the kinds of foods that they offer to their children. Although, by considering these factors, children's health are subjected to high risks of acquiring the widespread detrimental effects in their old ages (Brady). Brady distantly agrees with the student's opinion on the fact that the price for the fast and poorly processes foods usually are lower, and this often drives most of the parents closer in also making quick decisions to buy them despite knowing all the side effects of the foods themselves. He also makes his argument seem more realistic by stating the reason as to why obesity frequently ended up to other fatal diseases like cancer.

He further states that, for the fast foods, preservatives and methods of heating which are usually used are usually the prohibited ones, and regularly introduce rays on the food that can easily lead to cancer problems. In his article, Brady quotes "The Employer-Friendly Case for Pricier Big Macs" that, "fast food chains have raised their game with healthier menu offerings . . . but they continue to thrive by selling high- calorie food."(Brady).In the fight against obesity, it is sad to observe that people are continuing to suffer from obesity-related illnesses like heart failure, cancer, and high blood pressures, yet the food industry is showing no concern of trying to fight the disease by also continuing to produce and manufacture obesity causing foods, which are rich in sugar. As American and worldwide concern, world health organization have taken the duty to inform people about the risks of taking unhealthy foods. In their campaign plan to create awareness, they have formulated a research team who have identified that processed meats which are sold in tins are harmful and can be referred to as carcinogens. They have also revealed that red meat is another dangerous cause of cancer. Moreover, red meat or processed meats do not only lead to cancer but may first cause type 2 diabetes and later advance to disease.

Creating public awareness is, therefore, a great tool of fighting obesity not only in the USA but in the whole world. The majority are not yet informed of the causes, signs and symptoms, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment mechanisms of obesity. Some also do not know what categories or kinds of foods can cause obesity; they, therefore, consume the fast foods blindly only to realize later that they have been infected with obesity. This not enough, some consider price to be more important than the side effects, but it is because they don't understand how costly it is to finance for the treatment of obesity, or how ineffective it sounds like losing live prematurely when one still has got the potential and power to transform the nation and take part in the nation-building strategy.

Generally, considering the topic of obesity at its peak than never before, it is high time that the all that parties beginning from the individual level emphasize actions to help in fighting the disastrous disease which has increased death rate in the USA since its introduction. Food industries being the core players, the government stands at higher chances as the only party which can best regulate the menace and neutralizes the situation.

One of the ways of achieving this is probably by enforcing string rules against the offenders. The government can link up with the health department agency to help in regulating the food products before they reach the hand for the consumers. By doing this, basic standards can, therefore, be set by the health departments that must be followed by the food industries during their process of processing food to make the food eligible for sales. Though, this may not correctly work as some sectors may still use shortcuts to pass their products into the market. To deal with this, the government in partnership should join the world health organization in creating awareness on the fake food products that are not verified. This will help the consumers in understanding basically how preferred products should look both in appearance, branding, taste, and package. It may be easier for them to make distinctions of the counterfeit products in the market and the genuine products.

Works cited

"Political, Legal, and Social Issues of Overweight and Obesity." Weight In America: Obesity, Eating Disorders, and Other Health Risks. Barbara Wexler. 2007 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Information Plus Reference Series.