When grocery shopping, we constantly get exposed to labels telling us that our food products are for example “low in sodium” or doesn’t have any “added sugar”. The point of this is to inform the consumers in order to make healthy food choices. Meanwhile, deaths from obesity are racing worldwide. Something need to be done. What if we would start label processed food that contain substances that are not good for us and start with nutritional warnings on these products instead?
According to a study by The New England Journal of Medicine, the prevalence of obesity has doubled in more than 70 countries since 1980. In 2015, 603.7 million adults were obese. While death is the most extreme consequence of obesity, it also causes personal discomfort in the individuals physical and psychological health and are a tremendous weight on countries’ economies. There have been multiple studies that claim that processed food causes cancer and increasing the odds of getting affected by cardiovascular diseases (The New England Journal of Medicine, 2019).
Although, the individual person is not to blame. The food industry and our governments are. For years now, science-based knowledge and facts has been presented about the harmful consequences from consuming processed food that is too high in sodium, fat and calories among other alarming substitutes. However, not enough hearty commitments have been done and our grocery stores are still filled with food that makes us sick. Food with a high nutritional value is available, but at a much higher coast. How come, a bag of chips cost 3 dollars while a package of kale cost 6 dollars. The price regulations make it harder to purchase healthy food and easy associable to buy junk food. It’s time to make a change.
On the other hand, processed food is not the only criminal in the war against obesity. Obesity and our unhealthy lifestyles are also caused by our non-existing portion controls and the lack of exercise. One concern to label the junk in our food is that nutrition in food products are both complex and individual, which can cause that some people feel victimized.
In a blogpost from Food Pharmacy, they mention Chile as a role model within this. Chile is the second fattest country in South America were 74% of adults versus 50% of children are obese. In 2012, after the country been hitting skyrocket rates on obesity, the Chilean Senate decided to introduce the National Law of Food Labelling. The aim was to increase child obesity, spread awareness and knowledge of processed food and increase the cost of health care with front-of-package food label legislation. All food that contain more than the recommended amount of sugar, saturated fats, sodium and calories get a black warning label on. In 2016, the law went into effect after it had been implementational for three years. Since the food labeling established, 68% of the Chilean population have changed their purchasing habits (Wiley, 2017).
To conclude, warning labels on processed food can help people to avoid harmful food and make healthier food choices. Our governments need to take responsibility. We need to learn that food is the medicine and it is time we stop ignoring the source of many health issues millions of people suffer from around the world.
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