Fast food and health promotion Essay

Abstract wakeless(prenominal) decimateing is a major concern of the normal and has been under-researched for decades. A thriving hale take c reference Aaign can help to raise sentience and in the bulky run, retard and minimize long- destination diseases such as advanced blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. This can in addition tighten up the burden on the issue Health Service. For all of these reasons, this dissertation aims to concomitantize what mountain eliminate, why they spot to eat the instruction they do and whether they tactile property the political science has d wholeness luxuriant to kick upstairs situationful eat.Initially, this national examines the trends of contemporaneous solid nurturender culture by sociologists and the grocerying powers of promotion to extend assimilator aw atomic number 18ness on wellnessy take. A discussion on regime policies indicates the efficacy of the G everywherenment to reach disciples with their siza ble eating promotion in this country. This memorise uses qualitative research methods to determine the aw arness of the students, on salubrious eating and their opinions on the organisations attempt to win a heavy nation. Based on the data ga in that locationd in this research, an evaluation was sham on whether healthy eating promotion is effective in todays student parliamentary procedure.In this study, student pickaxes of pabulum were sh sustain to be primarily make a motioned by price, taste and peer pressure. This is in bank line with the gettable literature which suggests that kind mob, culture, the fodder industries and Goernment campaigns argon the of import influences on quite a littles eating habits. Introduction This dissertation aims to comprehend how pabulum is promoted and obliterated by the humanity. Our preferences of feed argon affected by several(prenominal) factors such as our social clear up, our culture, and the media and Governmen t campaigns.Over the past xxx course of instructions a surge of interest has arisen and an increase in the spending of agile nutriment. However, to a greater extent recently health concerns regarding fast(a) fodder inhalation has surfaced. Sociologists often jibek explanations for human behavior and try to link this with the environs in which they wear in. Similarly, sociologists such as Alan Warde receive examined contemporary feed culture and suggested reasons that influence peoples choice. Initially, changes in regimen intake patterns and healthy eating promotions from diverse dimensions were examined.The 2006 The International daybook of urban labour party and leisure time 1 dissertation then describes the interviews that were conducted with regards to healthy eating. Some pigment recuperateings were revealed to support the sociological theories. Finally, the discussion sums up and reflects the findings in congener to these theories and see if in that res pect is any correlation amidst the cardinal. This research was undertaken at a University and based on ten one-to-one interviews. It is important to examine whether we ar eating healthily. diet is the basic necessity in life reality consume daily.In this dissertation I want to seek students knowledge on healthy eating and whether the Government is doing enough to promote a better nation. Sociological forward motion. Perspectives on nutrient usance and rosy-cheeked Eating Current Trends in viands Consumption sustenance breathing in relates to the substances that argon taken in to vex energy, stimulate gain and maintain life. It consists of essential eubstance nutrients, such as carbohydrates, proteins, plunks and vitamins or minerals. Healthy viands is con aspectred to be bluely beneficial to health, especially a pabulum grown organically or free of additives.Food using up has flex towards fast diet culture over the past few decades delinquent to its price, c onvenience and the shortage of eating time. In this section, general consumption trends leave alone be studied and the change of consumer culture over time al emit for be discussed. Sociologists like Bourdieu and Bauman baffle written literature and devised their own theories on the consumption of victuals. Many of them study that this is a structureagency debate. In other words, how social structure specifys our actions and how we, in turn, shape the social structure (Germov, 1999302). 1 of the modelings disposed by Pierre Bourdieu is that the way we consume fodder reflected our social class and background (Warde, 19979). He pointd that consumption is based upon ethnical upbringing and is accordingly socially embedded. Bauman, on the other hand, saw consumption as less restricted rather than a nonher part of life (Warde, 199710). In reality, Bauman claimed that there is a small role for choices, for example, we can non choose to be born into which family, exclusively w ithin consumption, we generate more than power to alter our choices.Bauman deliberated that individuals are imagination to gradually detach themselves from the social regulations and create their own personal identicalness by making their own choices. These two theories differ in relation to social environment and habits, to freedom of choice on the consumption of fodder. Bourdieus theory is more comm solitary(prenominal) practiced in modern society as distinct social classes dominate our choice of sustenance for thought. The workings class tends to eat food which has a high amount of animal exposit, equald with the middle and upper classes (Mennell, 199254).Besides, people from inadequateer backgrounds whitethorn comprehend that impertinent food is healthier however, they could not afford to travel hike to purchase fresh food (Whelan, 2002 2083). Therefore they tended to purchase cheap quality food with a high complete content, from nearby shops. 2006 The Inter national diary of Urban project and Leisure 2 There establish been rapid changes in food consumption over the past few decades. Alan Warde, in his book, Consumption, Food & Taste suggested four theses for the changes in eating habits. Firstly, people energize more freedom on the choice of food, but are un plastered of what to eat.In modern society, we ready a wider range of food available to us. As technology is constantly improving, we are no longer restricted by the seasons and harvests, which had affected people previously (Beardworth, 200033). However, Claude Fischler saw this as an omnivores enigma (Warde, 199730). Human beings want a variety to choose from however, they feel eager and unsure just about trying forward-looking foodstuffs. This can be further explained by the changing theory of food destitution. In the past, food poverty was referred to as lack of food, under- nutrition (Adams, 200048).In the contemporary society, food poverty means overabundance o f polished foods, lack of balance diet (Adams, 200048). Before, we love under nutrition, and now, we raise from an unbalanced diet. Although we may have more food than before, we do not know what to choose. This reflects the lack of education in healthy eating. The second thesis suggested that in a jackpot producing society, people would consume similar outputs and gradually lose their identities. Individual producers tend to dominate particular industrial marketplaces, for example big brands like McDonalds and Coca-Cola target customers en mass.Mass food production can be explained by McDonaldisation, where customers experience the alike look, said(prenominal) service, same products and same taste (Germov, 199912). This thesis is support by a report by the Financial Times Exporter in 1995 (Adams, 200247). In the report, sixty-five part of people in China recognised the brand name Coca Cola and nearly half of the people k rising big brands like Pepsi. This concluded that rangy corporations mould our taste and have great control over our choice of food. One may argue that supermarkets bring a wider selection to people.In fact, some of the varieties are created by dumbfounding alternative forms of packaging and storing methods, such as canned fish, stock- free fish and fresh fish (Warde, 1997167). Therefore, we entrust enjoy many versions of the same products. In a broader view of the food industry, the five largest supermarkets in the UK, dominates cardinal percent of the grocery market. (Adams, 200247) This large market share led to the small town of many local stores. Single mothers or elderly people who live in rural areas depart suffer a further demarcation of food due to the restriction on mobility and financial support (Whelan, 20022083).Since mass production has moulded our tastes and choices, consumers start losing their personal taste and identities. To react against this passive devour pattern, people are driven towards the post-For dist view on consumption, which is the main focus on of the third thesis. In the post-Fordist world, all commodities are expected to be more consumer-orientated. As the consumers expenditure increases, they expect the quality of food to be higher. People require greater contrastingiation of the commodities in different markets.For example, McDonalds serves a different menu across the world to accommodate differing cultures with distinct tastes. This is illustrated by McDonald franchises in Germany, whom also serve beer as refreshment. Customers hope to buy food that serves their interests and their local traditions. Businesses increase their pro locomotes and the consuming power by produce the right products for the targeted consumers. A more suitable product for the customers, equates to more purchases which in turn equates to more income. 2006 The International Journal of Urban labour and Leisure 3.The final thesis describes the persistence of social differentiation. Warde uses Bourdieus theory to prove that food consumption is a means of expressing distinction and has social meanings seat it. For example, class differences play a role in dictating eating habits. In this way, food consumption has more social meanings than a consume-to-survive model. In compare the eating behaviour of manual workers and white collar workers, Bourdieu observed that clerical staff paid more attention to body maintenance and narrow margin whilst manual workers, paid particular(a) attention to their waistline.This observation is seen in France. In Britain, Warde suggested that class distinction in relation to food has been more manifest in recent decades. Finkelstein supports this idea by saying that dinning out is an flavour of individuality, choice, spontaneity and that we select restaurants for food and price in ways which examine our discrimination and what we value and desire (Beardsworth, 1997119). The interest of the media, increasing eating-out habits and foreig n cuisines are becoming more common, food consumption has made a substantive distinction in the midst of classes.There is a clear line between the richer and the brusker, and who can afford to taste different types of food. These theses have helped us to understand the reasons behind changes in food consumption. Fast food outlets are one of the popular choices for dinning out and have had a big impact on our food consumption. In the fol emiting paragraph, the significant effects that fast food has on our choices of diet pull up stakes be examined. A Fast Food Nation? Fast food culture has penetrated into our lives and influenced our eating habits. The fast food industry grew fast in the 1990s.In 1991, fast food had reached cardinal percent of the global consumer catering market (Tansey, 1995 133). From 1992 to 2003, expenditure spent on eating and drinking outside home has increased by 89. 9 per cent. (Website 1) These food shops provide roast grumbler, pizza, etc. However, th ere is a limited choice of food and most of them have a high fat content (Millstein, 1993 220). Excessive consumption predisposes individuals to a great accord of health problems in later life. Foods high in fats can cause high blood pressures, cancer, atherosclerosis and heart disease.In recent years, the increase in consciousness of healthy eating has forced the fast food chains to change their menu in influence to survive. For example, McDonalds now offers a new menu which includes green salad, carrot sticks and a fresh fruit pack. This was do in response to public concern about the nutritionary set of its food, following the film Supersize Me. This programme follows Morgan Spurlock who lived on nothing but McDonalds for an constitutional month. Spurlock encountered his health the sake of this project and it resulted in numerous visits to the doctor. (Website 2) Increasingly, fast food chains have started to advertisewith the concept of light or low fat meals. As a custom er, we are often misled by these statements and believe that the low fat meal is a healthier survival. The Times report compared the fat content and the price of a standard burger with a chicken caesar salad. (Website 3) With regards to the price, the salad embodys twenty nine pence more than a Big Mac. information shows that a chicken salad with dressing and croutons contains 21. 4g of fat, whereas a standard burger only contains 7. 7g of fat. regular adding a portion of chips to the burger will result in a small amount of fat (16. 7g) than the salad.(Website 3) One may think that the salad dressing causes the high fat content of the salad however, this is not true. 2006 The International Journal of Urban take and Leisure 4 From the McDonalds website, a chicken caesar salad without a dressing still contains more fat than a burger. (Website 4) Another shocking data is the season content of the crispy chicken ranch salad is more than half of the Governments recommended daily allowance of 6g. (Website 4) Therefore, the salad which seems like a healthier option to the consumer is in fact more expensive and less healthy than a burger. other(a) than fast food chains, consumers can purchase fast food from the supermarkets. Ready meals, frozen or canned food can be categorized as fast food (Millstone, 2003 94). With the invention of the microwave, pick upy meal culture has been further developed. There was a rapid increase in the sale of microwaves from five million in 1981 to seventy million in 2000 (Milldstone, 2003 94). Microwaves enable food to be ready within minutes whereas it may take at least half an hour to cook a meal using the oven. In 1997, an Australian newspaper demonstrated how different social classes chose different fast foods (Germov, 1999 137).Wealthier and well educated people believed that choosing takeout foods such as Thai and Japanese are higher in nutrition (Germov, 1999 137). On the other hand, people in the lower socioeconomic st ate tended to consume food with a high fat and flavor content, for example, pizzas and burgers. Therefore, we could find nutritional underprivileged with distinct eating patterns (Germov, 1999 137). Nutritional underclass refers to the difficulty of lower socioeconomic groups in making choices about food and diet. This is turn ensues to a poor nutritional intake.By comparing different consumption patterns of takeaway food between people in different classes, two features have been developed. Firstly, fast food is consumed and well developed in all classes but wealthier people tend to have more choices available to them. Besides, most fast food does not provide the consumer with balanced nutritional values that we need from a meal. That is a reason why the public label fast food as unhealthy food. Our food consumption patterns are affected by different media in our society.These are a powerful way of educating the public with the knowledge of what is healthy to eat and how to eat healthy. The following paragraphs examine the effectiveness of the healthy eating promotions. Health Promotion (By Government, Media, Food Industries). Different groups have tried to promote healthy eating in their own distinct ways. Several groups take control over our choices of food and actively promote healthy eating. These include the Government departments, the food industries and the media. The progress and the effectiveness of the healthy eating promotion campaigns within these sectors will now be examined.The Governments the dominant wait outment body has introduced many healthy eating promotion initiatives to push the nation to eat more healthily. Its aim is to enforce regulations on food production in a bid to prevent illness (Mennell, 199240), so as to reduce the costs and burden on National Health Service. The Government has come a long way on the healthy eating campaign. The emergence that some of 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 5 our diet s are responsible for certain diseases such as cancer, new food policies were created to improve and promote healthy eating (Baggott 2000,168).From the early 1970s onwards, the Government became more aware of the publics diet and set up several organizations such as the mission on the Medical Aspects of Food and Policy (COMA), the National consultive Committee on Nutrition Education (NACNE) and the Joint Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education. (Baggott, 2000136) Their mission was to provide nutritional advice to the public and promote healthy eating. (Beardsworth, 2000136) However, the Government departments interference with the work of these organisations resulted in little supremacy being achieved (Baggott 2000170).With the increasing public interest in health and food safety in the 1990s, the Labour Government introduced tougher policies on food and health when they came to power in 1997 (Baggott, 2000175). The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has been authorized a new set of p owers to give nutrition acceptlines and labelling advice. The FSA recommended six grams of season per day and treasured to introduce the colourcoded corpse on ready-made foods, so customers could identify the fat, saltiness and sugar content of the food by the labels.The FSA believes that specific seasoning contained within the food, will determine whether it is healthy or not. Food with a low salt, fat and sugar content is considered to be healthy by the FSA. (Website 5) The colour-coded system will show consistency for all food packaging therefore, it is easier for everyone, including children, to separate the foods which are considered to be healthy and also reduces any confusion. In February 2004, the National Health Service (NHS) published a free booklet called fiver a Day Made Easy to promote a healthier lifestyle.(Website 1) It believes that eating five portions of fruit or vegetable per day, is eating healthily. Therefore, the Government considers fruit and vegetables as the key element of healthy food. In November 2004, the FSA drop forward the traffic light labels to the Public Health White Paper. (Website 7) However, there are a lot of pressures around this recommendation. The food and farming industries were sick that full labelling indicating the fat, sugar and salt content will increase their cost and cause restriction on their marketing strategies.(Baggott 2000171) Moreover, the Food and Drink alliance (FDF) who is the largest representative of the food and drink manufacturing companies pointed out that the traffic light labels are too simplistic, subjective and potentially misleading. (Website 8) Rather than help consumers fit the labelled food into a balanced diet, it is likely that they will solely view the food as good or dismiss it as bad. There are pressures that prohibit the Government from implying more regulation on food labels.Since the closure of food industries do not simply lead to less food choices, but also a great deal of job losses and plunging of the economy, the Government is take to think carefully about the implications of new regulations and whether the new ecumenical food label would working on not. The media also plays an important role in promoting healthy eating concepts. The term media refers to television, radio, poster advertisements, and newspaper and magazine articles. With the medias wide spread of power, the issues they brought up helped to give information on diets quickly.However, it is debatable whether all the media are cold-eyed and helpful in improving our diets. Since most of the media 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 6 relied on the denote revenues to survive, concerns are made to the effect of their advertisers (Tansey, 1995183). In the advertising aspect, American children watch 20,000 commercials a year where at least 10,000 of them are food products. (Millstein 1993219) In Britain, food industries have spent forty billion every year on ad vertising (Millstone, 2003 98).Food advertisements are wide spread on television, magazines, radio, internet and posters on the street. Most of the advertised products are branded and treat. More importantly, compared with the perishable food, they are high in sugars, refined starches, fats and added salt (Millstone, 200398). These advertisements persuade consumers to buy more. Food products such as chocolates and crisps are promoted to the teenage market (Conner, 2002120). Children consume the confectionaries between meal times which lead them to miss out their meals, consequently, not getting enough nutrition (Dobson, 199419).The effects of advertisements are powerful, but not unendingly helping to promote healthy eating ideas. Media can be a film tool to help the public understand the scientific reports and apprize about food safety and what is healthy to eat. However, sometimes the headlines of the news reports are misleading and exaggerated. One of examples is the headline from New York Times Low fat diet does not cut health risks, where that heading is referring to a study of women aged fifty to seventy-nine years old with respect to tit cancer research (Newsweek, March 2006).People who do not read the details will presume that low fat diet is otiose in maintaining health, whereas if you read the whole article one will find out that low fat diet does not reduce your risk of breast cancer. The media penetrates every household and although it might not always guide the public on healthy foods, they are definitely helping to shape the future food consumption patterns. Food industries and the retailers produce and sell the food. Food industries promote their products in a healthy manner only because of the markets need.The major concern of a food business is to make profit. There is a limit on how much a person can eat and consume, therefore the overall demand for food will not increase much. However, the food industries can further expand their marke t and make more profit by adding value to fresh food and turning them into commodity goods such as canned food, frozen food etc (Warde, 1997191). Food processors have a set of ingredients to add-value, they are sugar, starch, fat and flavourings (Tansey, 1995111). Consequently, processed food is not as healthy as raw food.In order to fulfil the customers health desires, supermarkets use healthy eating as one of their promotional strategies. Tesco has improved their company image by initiating healthy eating and has launched food labels on its retail products (Murcott, 1998119). Although its original aim was to increase profit, it did arouse peoples attentions to eat healthier. On one hand, the supermarkets are promoting healthy eating on the other hand, they develop all salmagundi of processed food such as chilled and ready meals at the same time to exploit another market. Most supermarkets have developed their own branded products.This is to enlarge their market share rather than providing customers with a wider choice. One of the examples is chilled ready-meals where this kind of product was completely new in 1980s (Murcott, 1998119). mark and Spencer, as a pioneer, developed this market. By the 1990s, this market was worth over three hundred million pounds per annum 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 7 (Murcott, 1998119). These ready-meals are one of the processed foods with added salt and sugar. With mistake food labels on the packaging, consumers can hardly calculate how much salt they consume.Since the central aim of food manufacturers and retailers are to make profit, their intention to promote healthy eating is not convincing enough. There is still a baffling question of what to eat is value for money and good for health (Jenkins, 1991 54). Do We Have a Choice to Eat Healthy? Although we are responsible for looking after our own health, the public, private and voluntary sectors have directed our choice of food. Our choices o f food are affected by social, cultural and political factors rather than individuals preference. Social factors included class, age, family backgrounds considerations.The direct social-economical restriction of our choice of food is the amount of money we have available to spend on food. Jenkins supports this idea by noting that knowledge is a source of consumer power, but only when you have got money to spend (Jenkins, 199172). Our choices of food are based on the amount of wealth. He pointed out that poorer people tended to pay more for food. This is not only due to the limitation of transport, but due to the amount of product they could afford to buy (Jenkins, 1991 74). Small purchases are more expensive compare with bulk sales. Poor people suffer from the consequences of supermarket sale strategy.For example, the price for two packs of chicken thighs is 148 pence per pound, whilst the price for eight packs of chicken thighs is 135 pence per pound (Jenkins, 199173). Customers wi ll get a better deal if they buy products in bulk. This illustrates that poor people know how to eat healthily, but they cannot afford to do so. Other than getting food that is not value for money, poor people suffer the fact that they know what is good for them but cannot afford to purchase it. For poor people, food expenditure is elastic and paying for other bills to maintain the vivification is more important (Murcott, 1998177).Cutting the food budget is the most direct way to save money. Therefore, even though parents know that fresh succus is more nutritional than squash, they can do nothing about it. At the end of the day, even if the government has successfully promoted the healthy eating concept to the public, certain people still do not eat healthily due to the financial constraints. Different age groups have various food consumption patterns. The elderly prefer to stick with the traditional food for type roast meat, whereas young people adopt new things such as rice or c urries easily (Murcott, 1998175).There is a rapid festering of convenience food, but it does not necessarily mean that people in all age groups enjoy more choices to eat healthy. The elderly is an example that demonstrates a negative perception on fast food and ready-meals and they believe that home-cooked food is healthier. Therefore, a larger range of processed products do not mean a greater choice of food for everyone. Our eating habits are also constructed by the environment in which we grow up. Therefore, our families have a direct effect on our diet.A research was carried out in the early 1980s, on all major aspects of family food provision and consumption (Rodmell, 198673). This study found that the role of the housewife did not 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 8 automatically give you the power to make a decision of what to prepare for meals. Surprisingly, most housewives claimed that they would cook some(prenominal) their husbands liked, in orde r to please them. Some wives claimed that even though they did not like the unhealthy diets, they would still cook it for their husbands to reward them for a long working day.As a child, there was less choice they had to eat what was stipulation to them. As a result, our tastes of food are customized by the working men. Recently, with the increasing number of single parent households, where many of them are each unemployed or earn a small amount of money, the choice of food remains to the individuals who purchase food for the rest of the family. Cultural differences affect our choices of food and whether we know how to eat healthily with our ethnicity backgrounds and traditions.There is a variety show of health implications and how people define healthy choices among different cultures. People have their own traditions in choosing and cooking food. One size fits all health education programmes do not fit all the ethnics. One of the examples is that in Chinese traditions, food is divided in to yang (hot) and yin (cold), where eating yang food when our body is in yins condition and vice versa (Germov, 1999150). Therefore, the health professionals have to study the background of minority groups and teach them to eat healthily without spoiling their culture.To inform the ethnic minority groups with the nutrient value, specialists about particular cultures are required to educate the minority group with healthy eating knowledge. There have been a few changes in food labelling policy, but these regulations have neer requested manufacturers to provide a comprehensive nutrition label. As a customer, we have the right to know what kind of ingredients are in the processed food that we are consuming. However, food industries remain powerful and can honour the customers in ignorance.The Health Education Authority performed a survey with regards to food labels in the early 1990s (Hea, 199619). In this survey, twenty five percent of the informants have never read the nutritional information on food packages. This shows that the food label is important in directing food choices, as three quarters of those questioned follow guidance from the nutritional advice. Therefore, providing a comprehensive label on food packaging is essential. In recent years, a great deal of new products has had dishonest slogans on them, such as low fat, freshly squeezed, and no artificial additives (Jenkins, 199143). For example, olestra is a type of oil used to produce low fat products.However, it brings significant side effects such as abdominal cramps when we consume it in large amounts (Germov, 1999303). As a customer, reading the food label is not adapted to conclude whether a particular product is healthy or not, we have to under the meaning behind these low fat products. In a food market where food labels are not universal and some of the packaging is misleading, there is no way to ensure that the product we choose is healthy.Knowing what is healthy is not good enough for the contemporary food market, consumers also have to learn and savvy the meanings behind the food labels. Therefore, understanding how to eat healthily is important, but regulations on food labels are also essential. 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 9 Methodology. search Aim There are a few aims for this research. This study aims to explore perceptions on the healthy eating concept and review the reasons behind peoples choice of food.Furthermore, it seeks to examine awareness of Government policies on healthy eating promotion. It is also important to examine the reliability of food labels and the popularity of fast food culture. Semi- merged Interviews. It is important to see if there is a correlation between the literatures in chapter one and the research I do, therefore, selecting an appropriate way to carry out this research is essential. Semi-structured interviews were held on a one-to-one basis where interviewees were given a few topics t o discuss. This interview consisted of three main parts.Part A is concerned about the interviewees healthy eating concepts and their view of contemporary eating culture. By understanding how they defined a healthy diet, participants were asked to review their food consumption habits, restrictions on food shopping and their opinion on fast food culture. In the final of the interview, I enquired about their knowledge on Government policies and supermarket promotions on healthy eating. This research aimed to understand peoples view and opinion rather than to test their knowledge and numerical data. Therefore, it is more suitable to use a qualitative approach.Qualitative research helps to develop interviewees personal opinions and experiences for this research. The research is based on one-to-one semi structured interviews, which allows me to have more freedom in developing the interview and imitate further questions in response to the replies received (Bryman, 2004543). Each interview lasted round an hour in order to allow interviewees to express themselves fully. In order not to interfere with the interview, I did not express my opinions on the topics. I guided the discussions with the same topic questions for everyone.