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Obesity Prevention In The United States

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Obesity Prevention in the United States How can obesity be prevented? One of my co-workers eats unhealthy food and she barely engages in physical activities. I wonder how this affects her health. The risks of obesity doesn't only affect the physical health of a person but also emotional and psychological. Obesity has become a major public health challenge in the United States. Obesogenic habitat have increased due to the eating of low calorie foods of low nutritional value and the cutback of daily physical activity (e.g., the increased portion sizes of food eaten inside and outside of the home and the reduction of physical activities at home or in schools). Public health experts and personages need to know the best procedure and have the …show more content…

In other to prevent obesity, cities and counties have to encourage food retail establishments to promote healthier options through law and inducement. Retail food establishments like, chain restaurants, corner stores, supermarkets, farmers markets, and mobile vendors affect public health. Public officials have advocated a range of policy options to cities for improving access to healthy food and decreasing the popularity of unhealthy food in various retail food settings (Diller and Graff). Paul A. Diller and Samantha Graff convey to readers that “Regulating retail food establishments can be a powerful tool for improving a community’s food environment, especially in low-income “food deserts” — areas that lack full-service supermarkets and restaurants and are saturated with fast-food restaurants and liquor stores.” Cities challenging unusual obesity rates are considering numerous governing policies for expanding the convenience and accessibility of nutritious food, and diminishing the universality of fast-food restaurants and obesogenic packaged food. According to the article “Regulating Food Retail for Obesity Prevention: How Far Can Cities Go?” Diller and Graff indicate that “most states grant cities or counties some form of “home rule,” allowing for broad local policymaking authority. In many home-rule states, cities or counties exercise the “police power” — that is, the authority to regulate for the health, safety, and welfare of the community — concurrently with the state legislature.” This home rule is a form of dividing state and local power that allows municipalities to exercise only those powers directly assigned by state law. In most states, there is solid legal authority at the municipal level that accept obesity-prevention

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