Blog #4 United Nations Fights non-communicable diseases

In concerns to health and disease a major global issue that is affecting the world today is non-communicable diseases. World leaders at a meeting of the United Nations agree to try to curb the spread of these preventable diseases. The World Health Organization claims that these diseases are rapidly spreading across all parts of the globe, fuelled by obesity as a result of bad diet and sedentary lifestyles, together with alcohol and smoking. These diseases were responsible for around 36 million of the 57 million global deaths in 2008, including about 9 million before the age of 60 – and many are preventable. Countries such as the UK have imposed smoking bans and have taxed cigarettes and alcohol heavily. They also have restricted junk food advertising to children but many of the developing countries have yet to address these issues. This is the second call ever of a high-level summit on a health issue that the UN has ever called. The last one was in concerns to AIDS in 2001. This only shows the disastrous potential of these diseases. There is talk of reducing salts, fats, and sugars but nobody is seeking to minimize the seriousness of the problem. Among an avalanche of reports released before the summit, one by the World Bank warns that these preventable diseases "increasingly threaten the health and economic security of many lower- and middle-income countries". These countries could lose their next generation.
There is no doubt that this is a serious global concern and needs to be fixed, but it is important before fixing any problem to determine some of the main causes. How did the world come to love fatty foods, sugars, cigarettes, and alcohol? One cause might be the detriment to the economies around the world. People with their low incomes, resort to fatty fast foods which are cheap to buy. Also if these foods were not so well advertised to not only adults but to children people would probably cut down on their intake. A main cause for the use of cigarettes and alcohol is the exposure children have to TV, movies, and games. These sources make drinking and smoking look like the cool thing to do but they never show you the effects they could have on your life. Behind these sources of entertainment are companies with their urges to make more and more money. These companies funnel tons of money into entertainment in hopes to produce more money for themselves. Money really is the root of all evil because the companies that produce these products do not care about the health of the users they just care about the money flowing into their pockets. If we had a system that did not revolve around money I can assure that these deaths from these diseases would be cut in half if not more.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/16/un-summit-spread-lifestyle-diseases?INTCMP=SRCH