• Question: do you think that the increase of obesity is partly the manufactures fault for what is in the food and how it is made as well as our own fault

    Asked by ella to Andy, Dwaine, Natt, Priya, Tatiana on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Tatiana Trantidou

      Tatiana Trantidou answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I would say there are 4 reasons why fast food causes obesity; a) the manufacturers put a lot of synthetic (not natural) ingredients in this type of food to make it tasty but at the same time fattening and unhealthy. b) The portion sizes are usually larger, c) the cost is small, so people are tempted to eat more of those and d) it is much more convenient (faster, easily accessible) for people to eat fast food than prepare something at home or eat healthy in a restaurant.

    • Photo: Priya Hari

      Priya Hari answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Obesity is very complex. As well as the food we eat, it is partly due to our genetics and how well your mum ate when she was pregnant. For example, if the mum doesn’t eat very well when she was pregnant, the child will grow up to conserve more fat in their body because they want to be prepared in case there is a lack of food. On the other hand, I bet we all know someone who can eat and eat and eat and never put on weight!

      But to answer your question, yes the manufacturers are at fault because of the content of processed foods, but they produce this food because there is a demand for it and a lot of British people are either too busy or too lazy to cook their own fresh food, especially when we can buy prepared food. In some countries, where obesity is the lowest, there is no such thing as packaged prepared food, people make everything from scratch. There is actually nothing stopping us from doing that here, except the fact that we know its easier not to bother. Manufacturers are out there to make money. They are not going to make healthy food that tastes horrible, because if nobody buys it, then they won’t be able to make money!

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