Is The Hospitality Industry Addressing Obesity?

Over the last 10 years there has been a lot of awareness of the ever growing obesity problem and people trying to get the big fast food companies to provide healthy options, which they have done to an extent such as adding salads into their menu. Australia is not the world’s “fattest country” and if something isn’t done soon this could get worse.

Fast food restaurants have added a nutritional label to all their foods to show how much of different things they have in them and how much the average person requires everyday in kilojoules.

Some celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver have been promoting and protesting against fast foods and genetically modified foods, especially chickens and is trying to show parents and young people how to make healthy nutritious meals.

Fast food has played the biggest part in obesity with more and more restaurants than ever before. In 1980, 1 in 14 Australians were obese. This has now jumped to 1 in 5 in 1995 and if this keeps going by 2025 1 in 3 people will be obese.

What is being done about it by the government?

The Australian Government is committed to promote healthy lifestyles and obesity throughout out the community. They are promoting initiatives such as ‘Get Set for Life – Habits for healthy Kids’, ‘The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden National Program’, ‘Healthy Spaces and Places’, ‘Community and School Grants Program’, ‘Learning from Successful Community Obesity Initiative’, ‘Healthy Weight Information and Resources’ and ‘how do you measure up?

In 2004 the Australian government launched a school program which will give $15 million to schools across Australia. This equals to $1500 for each school. The money is used to promote healthy eating and fund healthy eating projects in schools.

Obesity costs Australia over $11 billion a year. This cost takes into consideration the money put forward by the government to combat obesity and also the loss of productivity in the workforce due to the effects of obesity.

Conclusion

Everyone needs to make their own decision whether to eat fast food or not but it seems like people want to choose the faster alternative rather than cook a meal themselves. To change obesity it needs to start in the home, people need to cook their own healthy meals instead of going out to fast food restaurants only then will fast food restaurants start to cut back.