{"id":634102,"date":"2014-02-04T10:45:47","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T15:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=634102"},"modified":"2014-02-04T10:45:58","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T15:45:58","slug":"fast-food-need-government-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/fast-food-need-government-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Should more governments take aim at fast food?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Policies that counter fast food consumption might offer governments a way to tackle the growing obesity epidemic, a new study proposes.<\/p>\n
The research is the first to look at the effects of deregulation in the economy and increases in fast food transactions and BMIs over time.<\/p>\n
The findings show that fast food purchases were independent predictors of increases in the average body mass index (BMI) in the United States and 24 other wealthy nations from 1999 to 2008.<\/p>\n
[related]<\/p>\n
Nations with stronger government regulations\u2014such as producer protection, price controls, intervention on competition, and taxes\u2014experienced slower increases in fast food purchases and average BMIs.<\/p>\n
“Unless governments take steps to regulate their economies, the ‘invisible hand of the market’ will continue to promote obesity worldwide with disastrous consequences for future public health and economic productivity,” says Roberto De Vogli, associate professor in the department of public health sciences at the University of California, Davis.<\/p>\n
Rather than looking at the density of fast food outlets or self-reported fast food consumption as researchers have done in the past, De Vogli and colleagues compared data on fast food transactions per capita with figures on BMI, a standard measure of body fat based on height and weight. A person with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, while a BMI of 30 or more is considered obese.<\/p>\n