Food Legislation is an Effective Way to Protect Public Health Discuss Essay

Food Legislation is an Effective Way to Protect Public Health Discuss - Essay Example Childhood obesity is growing concern amongst the other public health issues. Research shows that obesity is responsible for several other ailments and disorders such as diabetes, cardio vascular diseases and heart attacks. Hence controlling obesity from the very early years is an important thing to be ensured by the government of a nation. Obesity is spreading fast as a symptom of health crisis. It is a significant problem for mostly the developed nations but the developing countries are also catching up. Three of the G20 countries have an obesity rate above 30 percent. These are United States with 46.5 percent of its inhabitants suffering form obesity, Argentina with 37.6 percent and Mexico with 35.5 percent. Across the world above one billion adult populace are obese and the obesity rates have risen three fold or beyond in areas of North America, East Europe and the Middle East mainly due to lack of proper nutrients and reduced level of physical activities. Seven among the G20 nati ons have obesity rates lying above 25 percent. These comprise Saudi Arabia (29.7 %), â€Å"Australia (28.8 %), Canada (25.6%) and the United Kingdom (25%)† (The Globalist, 2010) In 2008, the BMI benchmarks were reviewed in England and following this revision, obesity amongst 2-15 years old children increased from 11 to 17 percent for boys and from 12 to 15 percent amongst girls (19). The 5-DAY program in UK has been proven to be an effective preventative way of improving both diet and nutrition amongst the population. Amongst those who follow this 5-DAY program, women (29 percent) comprised a greater share than men (25 percent). The survey also revealed that consumption increased in proportion to age. The group taken between 16 to 24 years of age comprised of 18 percent men and 21 percent women consuming the 5 portions intake of fruits and vegetables while the percentage for men and women are 32 and 36 percent respectively for the age group ranging from 55 to 64 years. Consid ering children aged between 5 to 15 years, one in five boys and girls were able to meet the government’s prescribed goal for consumption of a minimum of five serving size of fruits and vegetables. Fresh fruits were more commonly taken in these portions. The consumption of fruits was observed to decrease with increase in age (Craig, Mindell and Hirani, 2008, p.19). Now, obesity, especially in children is a problem, which needs to be controlled solely through a proper diet. Inclination towards fast food at the individual and the family level has mostly resulted in this problem. Often it has been observed that obesity, which develops in the childhood, tends to continue throughout life unless the eating habit and monitored at this stage. This makes childhood obesity an issue to be dealt with the help of regulation on food covering various aspects. Childhood obesity Over the past 30 years, the occurrence of plump children is identified as those having a body mass index (BMI) more than the 85th percentile for age and gender have tripled. Above 30 per cent of toddlers in the United States are plump or obese (BMI > 95th percentile). Childhood plumpness results from a malfunction of the body’s self-dictatorial system to adapt to environmental controls characteristic of the person’s genetic backdrop. Various aspects in the process of the multifaceted