Is The Hospitality Industry Addressing Obesity?

Is the hospitality industry addressing obesity?

What is obesity and how is it caused?

Obesity is defined as, according to Dictionary.com:

Very fat or overweight; corpulent.

The condition of being obese; increased body weight caused by excessive accumulation of fat.

Weight is measured by BMI or Body Mass Index and takes into consideration your height and weight and gives you a number from the formula:

Weight in Kilograms

BMI = (Height in Meters) 2

A number is formed from this calculation that indicates whether you are underweight, normal, overweight or obese. If the number turns up below 18.5 then you are underweight, between 18.5 and 24.9 is normal, 25-29.9 is overweight and 30 and above is considered obese.

Obesity is caused by eating more food than you can burn energy for. This is why fatty foods can cause people to become obese because there is more fat going into the body than the person can burn. Obesity can also be genetic but it doesn’t mean that you will become obese for sure.

There also major health consequences such as musculo-skeletal problems, cardiovascular disease, some types of cancer, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

In Australia it is estimated that 1.5 million people or 20-25% of people under 18 years of age are considered overweight or obese. It has started going up since the 1980’s and it is not just in Australia that this trend is happening it is happening all over the world. Obesity levels in the whole of the Australian population have doubled between 1985 and 1997.

It is predicted that if this continues that by the year 2020 that 80% of all adults and a third of all children in Australia will be either overweight or obese. 50% of adolescents will continue to be obese during adulthood.

What can restaurants and fast food outlets do to help?

Restaurants and fast food places, such as Mc Donald’s and KFC, provide millions of people with food every day. With the world becoming a faster place, food is also becoming fast, people want their food quickly without doing anything but eat it. But this can come at a price. Food such as hamburgers and chips are quick to make but are by no means healthy. Deep frying, preservatives to keep it longer, additives to make it more appealing, the list goes on.