by Barry Marcus

Created on: June 16, 2009   Last Updated: July 02, 2009

Fast food restaurants have received much of the blame for the obesity epidemic sweeping through America with Europe and Japan fast catching up. Can these restaurants be held responsible for this epidemic or are the people that over indulge simply looking for someone else to blame?

No one forces anyone to eat at a fast food restaurant. Shouldn't those that indulge share the responsibility? Some argue that the fast food chains simply offer good food at reasonable prices.

The evidence shows that wherever the fast food chains go, obesity follows. In spite of evidence to the contrary, fast food restaurants are still seen by many as a reasonable alternative to a home cooked meal.

Fast food restaurants spend billions of dollars each year marketing their foods to children and adults alike. While parents have the power to say no, many children have their own money and when fast food is an option at school, why not use it?

Obesity is spreading around the world like a plague. According to the World Health Organisation well over one billion people world-wide are overweight and over 400 million clinically obese adults at the time of writing. Obesity is a growing problem. The reasons that obesity levels are rising so dramatically are complex. Changing lifestyles are at the root of the problem. Fast Food restaurants may share the blame for rising levels of obesity but are not cannot be held solely responsible for the epidemic.

Obesity figures have trebled in parts of North America, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, Australasia and China since 1980. Worst hit is the United States where two out of every three adults is classified as overweight and one in three is defined as obese. Mexico and Britain are fast catching up.

Obesity is caused by a combination of diet and low physical activity. More people than ever are involved in sedentary work. This is coupled by a sedentary lifestyle at home. Increasing affluence gives rise to the opportunity to eat out more often and to take advantage of the multitude of fast food restaurants to be found in every mall and on every street corner. In many cases home cooking has been replaced with ready to cook convenience foods.

Countries such as France and Italy where fast food chains have had relatively little impact, have largely escaped the impact of the epidemic. These are countries where people traditionally live to eat. The countries that are most impacted are perhaps those where people

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