The Impact Of Food Companies On The Food Industry

When it comes to the topic of obesity, most experts and critics will readily agree that it can lead to more severe health issues. Where the agreement usually ends, however, is on how much obesity really contributes to illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Whereas some are convinced that obesity is a major cause in such diseases, others maintain that it is only one factor, of many, that lead to other diseases.

What really are the effects of Obesity? The risks include cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic, osteoarticular, and psychiatric illness, as well as cancer, diabetes, and death.

Food companies make millions just from advertising junk food to kids. Food companies advertise using very known cartoon characters to appeal to kids that contain high-sugar levels that can cause many different disorders that can affect them in a server way. Kids tend to beg their parents for junk food and other types of foods just for seeing that they would receive a toy. In the article “10 Things the Food industry Doesn’t Want You to Know” states “On TV alone, the average child sees about 5,500 food commercials a year.” With these advertisements, kids can get the idea of going to eat in places that have unhealthy food. Advertisement like these can cause children to view fast food as something they can be constantly eating without having any problems.

Obesity is a disease which is associated with enormous body fat that severely escalates the exposure to health issues (Google). Obesity-related conditions can potentially involve heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, and other conditions that are avoidable (cdc).

Obesity can cause a plethora of health issues. When BMI rates rise so does the rate of disease and disorders. Obesity can lead to health ailments like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and various types of cancer. Obesity caused ailments are preventable. Around 300,000 deaths occur each year from obesity related issues. This makes in one of the top causes of preventable death in the United States. In 2010 estimated cost of obesity was 190.2 billion and accounted for nearly 21% of the annual

Obesity is connected with an increased risk of a number of diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, stroke and several types of cancer, and with decreased longevity and lower quality of life. For example, the increased production of oestrogens in the fat of older women who are obese is associated with an increase in breast cancer risk.

Obesity has a negative influence on blood pressure and cholesterol, and may lead to diabetes.

Some kids are picky eaters. They tend to only eat certain things, a certain amount, or nothing at all. At home, kids have limited food choices, so they tend to eat the same things and that causes them to not want to eat. That can cause serious health issues. Fast food advertisement can present food that is appling to that child. That is a chance for the child to eat something

It is easy to tell somebody to just stop eating that type of food, but in reality it is hard to stop because we can't get away from the constant advertising. Us teens and the children growing up now, are seeing three to five advertisements for fast food everyday. Children are always around these advertisements. They learn from an early age that these products are good. We are at the era where everyone has internet and social media, so we will see even more that what we see on T.V. I feel bad for the children that are growing up with these influences. We are bombarded by unhealthy commercials everyday. Consumer affairs came out with an article about just this. It gave great insight to the commercials that we see, it said “Of all food ads in the study that target children or teens, 34 percent are for candy and snacks, 28 percent are for cereal, and 10 percent are for fast foods. Four percent are for dairy products and 1% for fruit juices. Of the 8,854 ads reviewed in the study, there were none for fruits or vegetables targeting children or teens." I think this is horrible because those foods that we are not inspiring kids to eat, those food that we are not advertising on T.V, those food are the foods that are not addicting and harmful to us.

Being obese in adults has consequences for health in both the short term and long term. Obesity is usually asscociated with a large range of diseases, especially diabetes (type 2), hypertension, cancer, heart disease and stroke. Futher more, obesity is also connected with poorer psychological and emotional

Obesity occurs over time when you eat more calories than you use. The balance between your genetic makeup, overeating, eating high-fat foods, and not being physically active. Being obese increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, and some cancers. If you are obese, losing even 5 to 10 percent of your weight can delay or prevent some of these diseases. For example, that means losing 10 to 20 pounds if you weigh 200 pounds. All of this can come from eating unhealthy foods.

here is many health issues with being obese even if a person does not get the none disease such as diabetes, CHD, hypertension, cancer. The weight that can affect them like shortness of breath, hard to do exercise or neglect them, because in doing them also has arthritic pain in joints from obesity.

Just think about it, how many commercials do you see for some sort of fast food restaurant when you watch television? How many billboards do you drive by for a “2 for 2” at McDonald’s “off exit- insert number here-” or something of that nature… Considering that most children cannot drive, they read those billboards; they see the bright colors and the photo shopped food that never looks the same way when you open the wrapper. Also, children generally have, what could be called, an addiction to television; their faces are essentially glued to it. The fast food industry spent $4.2 billion on advertising in 2010 alone. (Fast Food FACTS in Brief) Children see about three to five advertisements for unhealthy food every day. Only about a fourth of the fast food commercials seen by young children are for ‘healthier’ options. (Fast Food 360 Briefs)

There are currently two types of food systems that exist in our food shed. TINA, which comes from Maggie Thatcher, who said, “There Is No Alternative” to global economy—T-I-N-A” (Shuman, 2002). And LOIS, which stands for “Local Ownership and Import Substitution” (Shuman, 2002). TINA is the system that has been used for the pasted 60 to 70 years, and throughout that time the way we produced are food has become both productive and efficient; but it has also become destructive and unhealthy. In A TINA-based food economy, food is either mass produced through the process of industrial farming or it is imported from other countries. These lead to adverse effects on the food, the environment and the economy. However, in a LOIS-based food economy, food is “produced locally through locally owned businesses, then the more you can minimize your vulnerability to nasty surprises, the more you can maximize your economic multiplier, and the more you can maximize tax proceeds to the public sector and the many good things that come from it.” (Shuman, 2002). So in simpler terms the more you produce locally, the better local economies will be and if local economies have a large income then the nations income will increase by way of tax. Along with being good for our economy, LOIS has little to no adverse effect on our environment or health. Compared to TINA, LOIS looks like paradise, but just like every dream world, the LOIS system is currently an impossible system to live by.

The Food Industry in the U.S is not the same as it was back in the 1900’s and before where most of our food would mostly still be organic and wouldn’t use as much antibiotics, today a lot of our livestock and poultry is enhanced and injected with antibiotics that help increase livestock in a rapid increasing rate to avoid a shortage in food. Recent studies have been made that show that the use of antibiotics in live stock, as in farm animals is tied to creating the emergence of many antibiotic resistant infections that sicken many Americans in quantity each year (CDC). The article coming from the Los Angeles times talks about the state of California in restricting the use of antibiotics on farm animals thanks to governor jerry Brown and also in making it the first state in the nation to do so and becoming effective on the 1st of January, 2018 (Patrick McGreevy, LA Times, 2015). As this issue is that the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals threatens public health doesn’t just happen in California but in the whole nation itself and even worldwide.