According
to the World Health Organization, a staggering 70 percent of Mexicans are now overweight
and about a third are obese. These high
rates of obesity, which are almost the same as in the United States, has caused
for legislative action to occur. President Enrique Peña Nieto has proposed a
tax on sales of all sugary drinks which congress is schedule to vote on this
week. The expected tax increase will be of 7.7 cents per liter which is half of
what public health advocates will like. If the tax goes through, the tax will
make Mexico a rare test case of a national soda tax directed at a severe
obesity problem. The mayor of New York, Michael R. Bloomberg, has offered to
give a three year $10 million grant to use towards supporting anti-obesity
advertising and also for the purpose to use Mexico as a pilot project that
could be adapted to other developing countries if it is successful.
In
the past Mexicans often suffered from under-nutrition or malnutrition due to
the high percentage of people living in poverty who were unable to afford
purchasing enough food to maintain a healthy diet. Therefore, Mexico’s obesity
issue is a recent problem that has arisen in recent years. The increase in
obesity seen in Mexico and many other underdeveloped countries are not due to
an improvement in financial stability but rather to a shift in a diet towards more
consumption of processed foods. On the surface it appears that the obesity
issue many countries are experiencing is due to a change in preference for
processed food but once we examine the underlying causes, we are able to
clearly attribute this epidemic to a problem that was created by society.
Overpopulation
in our world has caused there to be a demand for inexpensive filling food. This has created a rise in production of processed foods which are convenient
because they did not go bad as quickly as vegetables and other healthy foods do and are a lot cheaper and faster to produce. This has made it possible for people
living in poverty to be able to afford purchasing more food than they would have been able to before. Unfortunately this is what has led to the rise in obesity seen mostly within this population because they are constantly only being able to consume these foods which are high in calories, sugar, fat, and salt Globalization
also pays a role in this process because factory workers are being exploited by
being forced to work in horrible conditions at low wages in order to keep food prices low. This has especially affected families in poverty because
not only are they suffering from health problems related to obesity, but this
is also affecting their ability to work and make the little money they would
make in factories. Ultimately this is a never ending cycle for people in
poverty who have no choice but to consume these processed foods because it is mainly all that they can afford. Karina Velazquez
10/18/13
3.35 am
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