Obesity has long been problematic in the United States, but the breadth(no pun intended) of this dilemma manifests itself in a new study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The study predicts that obesity will affect the majority of Americans in thirty-nine states by the year 2030. Although obesity affects both industrialized and non-industrialized nations according to the World Health Organization, the United States is particularly vulnerable to this condition and its accompanying diseases due to the mass availability of easily prepared, low-quality food at affordable prices. This is especially tempting to Americans, many of whom have sedentary lifestyles and hectic schedules that correspond with the apparent need for this type of dietary practice. This has in turn given rise to the diet industry, whose critics claim thrives on the failures of its participants. Despite this predicament, lawyer and legal activist John Banzhaf maintains his stance against the current nutritional fiasco by instigating legal actions against fast food companies. Banzhaf expresses both the need for political courage and integrity to be directed toward the well-being of consumers and optimism for the reduction of obesity, given that the former occurs and increases.
Power held by the wrong individuals is a recurring circumstance throughout history, usually marked by the deaths of many innocent people at the hands of their ruler(s). Yet this can occur in other, subtler ways that are much more difficult to recognize. The diet of the United States is largely influenced by advertisers, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture. The diets of other countries, while still containing their own traditional nourishment, have caught on increasingly to the diet of the United States- especially in large cities where Americans tend to visit, resulting in its spreading into less populous areas as well. Therefore, those who make decisions on what and how foods are being hugely promoted in the United States possess influence extending beyond their own country. Rather than local foods, these decisions-makers have promoted pre-made foods, the ingredients(or whole entities) of which may come from other countries. This globalization of food has fomented the production of processed foods that last much longer than food ever has before. Clothing and other products are required to have labels stating where they were made, but food is not. Perhaps these food corporations feel that by stating where a pre-made food comes from, it will detract from its value. However, much produce will blatantly state where it is from, no matter how far away. Therefore, there must be a stigma around those foods that were assembled in another country, as opposed to simply being detached from the earth and transported. Stating where a processed food is from, if distant, would possibly in the eyes of the consumer make the food akin to eating a toy or piece of clothing, if not a bizarre refined amalgamation made by unknown hands(or machinery). Food manufacturing companies undoubtedly know this, and for that reason elect to perpetuate the ignorance that has clouded American plates since the rise of food's globalization, leading to a ballooning obesity epidemic that affects the United States and is spreading across the world.
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