I think it could be because unhealthy food that can cause obesity is more addictive and therefore more profitable.
Yes absolutely. Fast food chains literally make their food more addictive in order to generate more profit. There is little to no incentive by our governments to make healthy food cheaper or to severely limit the influence fast food companies have, because that would disturb the ‘free market’.
To summarise, it is a combination of many related factors
- Overly sedately lifestyle. In America, you are forced to use your car everywhere. Even in other countries, sports and gyms aren’t usually cheap, and you also need the spare time to engage
- Diets contain too much sugar, other people have given resources for this
- Stress is linked to overeating (and other disorders).
- There is an overabundance of snacks and drinks. A better regulated society would probably cut down on the production of these unhealthy items.
All of these are results of capitalism.
Yes. What else would have caused it
One thing people haven’t touched on is how socialism could be more effective at fighting obesity. At the end of the day, farmers produce surplus calories for the rich world far beyond the per-capita caloric needs. Sellers are able to create demand so farmers can get paid by making high calorie foods unsatiating and ubiquitous, which creates an energy surplus as the population level. An obesity epidemic is implicitly a policy decision.
Production could be planned to meet caloric and nutritional needs for the entire population if a society looks past the profit motive. Furthermore, certain food ultraprocessing methods could be better-controlled to contain foods that are basically poison for the body’s energy balance
It is. So are a lot of other issues with diet.
Barriers and Enablers for Healthy Food Systems and Environments: The Role of Local Governments
Yes
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Generally, yes. Profit over health.
100%. That’s what happens when you normalize overconsumption and unhealthy eating habits.
It’s not just that, often times those unhealthy foods are all that are available to people. Food deserts are a thing, people do their grocery shopping at convenience stores.
Overworking people to the point where they might not have time to cook a meal is also an issue.
The US subsidizes dairy and beef, when in reality putting that money into subsidizing grains and vegetables is so much more beneficial for people in the long run.
Can you imagine getting 4 heads of fresh lettuce or kale for 1$, it could be so much better.
Yeah if I had control of subsidies the government would make stuff like lettuce kale and fruits and vegetables cost as little as possible to make it accessible for the poor and the working class in general.
In a variety of ways, yes.
Yes, unhealthy food is made to be addictive and convenient.
There are other factors that go into it too though. People work far too long hours with far too long commutes and either don’t have the time or energy to do any cooking and/or grocery shopping. Even if you live in an area where you have good markets to buy food from, you may not always be able to.
I love to cook, it’s one of my main hobbies and I still find I don’t really have much time to cook during the week after work. My office provides lunch that is reasonably well balanced, luckily for me. If I could spend less time going to/from/at the office I would happily go to the market to buy fresh produce every day. But that simply isn’t feasible.
