by Daniel Cooper

Created on: November 09, 2011   Last Updated: May 04, 2012

As much as many of us would like to say that eating healthy should be the choice of the individual, not the government, there are so many implications to society of people eating unhealthy foods that the government should intervene. Obesity causes a significant burden on the health care resources of any society so it should be considered with great seriousness.

If society goes on the path of obesity that it is currently on, it is inevitable that our hospitals will be overwhelmed by countless people, suffering from the many diseases that an unhealthy diet can produce, such as heart disease, which  is one of the biggest preventable causes of death worldwide. Supersize me illustrated this point very well.

While everyone cherishes and values their independence, at what point do we as humans need to concede that we lack discipline and self control in some instances and need the support of other parties such as the government to help us.

Another example of a debate similar to the unhealthy food debate involves the government banning smoking. Surely, a parallel can be drawn between smoking and eating unhealthy foods because both produce heart disease and are known to be dangerous. In this instance, society is prepared to accept that smoking is addictive and we lack the self control for the tobacco cigarette industry to be regulated.

Interestingly, studies are beginning to find that unhealthy, fattening foods are addictive in a similar manner to nicotine. If this turns out to conclusively be the case, then what distinguishes smoking from unhealthy food and why should one category be treated differently from the other?

Every year, the obesity rate climbs worldwide and the global obesity epidemic is exacerbated. As policy makers around the world look for solutions to this problem, it is clear over the past several years that we as individuals have not been accountable enough to ourselves to prevent obesity from increasing in our communities.

As food costs continue to rise, there will be an even more pronounced impact of obesity on our societies and begs the question of when this problem will finally be solved.  It seems as though we are left with no other option but to regulate foods that are determined to be unhealthy to insure that they are consumed less.

Hopefully, health organizations worldwide begin to work on criteria which will define what is considered healthy or unhealthy in order to better educate the public and finally put an end to the growing obesity problem affecting the world. If this advice is followed, the future will hopefully be brighter.

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