Healthy Eating and Obesity Policies

This assignment explores health policies in the UK aimed at combating obesity. It focuses on initiatives like '5 A Day', encouraging fruit and vegetable consumption, and the 'Change4Life' campaign promoting healthy diets and exercise. The analysis delves into the effectiveness of these policies in reducing obesity rates among adults and children, considering their impact on public health.

In the early age, cultural aspects, learning languages and travelling challenges restricted (Capacci, Scorcu and Vici, 2015). In 14 century Christopher
Columbus sailed westward and vasco da gama cruised to country for earn money then business travel has been integral part of tourism industry(Cave
and Brown 2012).Early tourism started with Nomads who travellearound the world in
search of food and shelter. Main intension of this traveller is to gathered food and traded
around the world and gave rise to the barter system
(Capacci, Scorcu and Vici, 2015). 1500 BC is marked as
the era when the Europeans visited pyramids and thus
developed the tourism for pilgrimage. Early tourism
started with Nomads who travelled around the world in
search of food and shelter. Main intension of this
traveller is to gathered food and traded around the world
and gave rise to the barter system (Capacci, Scorcu and
Vici, 2015). 1500 BC is marked as the era when the
Europeans visited pyramids and thus developed the tourism for pilgrimage.
Current health care policy of UK government and its impact on patients
Issue – In UK, there are many people who are either overweight or obese. This include 62% adults and
28% of children.
People who are suffering from obesity or higher
weight, they have a higher chance of having
diabetes, certain type of cancers and a good deal
of other health related problems. Obesity can
make it very difficult for the people to keep
their work and this will hurt their self-esteem as
well. The policy suggests that by 2020, they
want to see a downward trend in obesity and
decrease in the weight of adults as well as
children.
By having such kind of policies, people are more aware about what kind of product and food they want to eat, which is more nutritious and
good for health. At the same time these policies will tell people about the amount of workout they have to do in order to be fit and healthy.
Government will keep on giving guidance so that people will be more aware about the symptoms of being overweight and they should focus
on their health more often.
Change 4 life: It uses various marketing
mediums like radio, televisions, social media
for the marketing of healthy diet and healthy
food, in order to keep them healthy. Change in
life make sure that people should adopt six
specific policies in order to keep themselves
fit. These policies are; 5 A day, watch the salt,
cut the fat, sugar swap and get going every day.
By adopting all these policies, people will keep
themselves healthy and away from obesity. All
these policies will reduce the intake of calories
and make people healthy.
5 A day Policy: Policy suggest that a person
should eat fruits and vegetables 5 times a day.
This will keep them healthy and fit. Fruits and
vegetables contains less calories, so this will
reduce the calorie intake and make people
healthy.

HEALTHY ADULT

Introduction
Health is the main concern in adults, and they are more focused on being healthy and eat
healthy food, so that they can able to do the work with more energy (Braveman, 2014). Obesity is
the major health problem nowadays, as this can cause various health problems in adults. At the
same time obesity will make the person feel tired and lack in energy. This is an important health
issue because an obese person can suffer different health related problems like, the person will
experience breathing problem, they will develop may kind of skin related problems, and will have
tough time in sleeping and on frequent basis that person will feel the back and joints pain, which
can cause reduce in their mobility (Morris, and et.al, 2015). According to the national health
surveys, more than 69% of people are suffering from obesity, and this is the major concern for the
government (Why Obesity Is a Health Problem, 2017). In this essay – the major factors like socio-
economic factors, psychological factors, socio-economic factors have been discussed here, which
will have an influence on obesity. This report shows the demographic conditions of people affected
with obesity.
Epidemiology and demography
According to Patterson and Hilton, (2013), Epidemiology and demography are two isolated
position but it is very hard to differentiate between them. Demography is more focused on the size
and the structure of the population and the main factors which affect demography is the force of
morality. Epidemiology is not focused on the population but it is more convergent on the disease
that is affecting the population (McGlynn, Petrick and London, 2015). Demographic obesity means
the size of the population which are overweight or obese. This will be described as the part of the
population or adults which are facing the problem of obesity. Epidemiology obesity is mainly about
the individuals which are suffering from obesity. Epidemiology is on the micro level (on small
scale), where it can focus on the individuals, and demography is on the macro-level (total aggregate
of the population). The people who are higher class and rich, they will be facing more problems on
obesity so this will come under epidemiology, and the part of population which are slightly middle
class, they will be facing much less health related problems related to obesity, so this can be
described as demography (Yeo, 2015). In UK, there was a huge increase in the level of obesity,
which was 13.2 % in 1993, to 26% in 2013, this is for men, and from 16.4 % to 23.8 % for women.
In recent years it was noticed that the proportion of children which are obese is higher, almost 9.3 %
in 2013, which was only 7 % in 2006 (Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet - England,
2015 [NS).

Socio economic factors that influences health
According to the health report which was published in 2008, health inequalities are different
and Obesity is experienced either by individual or a group, which is facing the same health problem
(David and Stephen,2017). Obesity can happen either by genetic factors or some biological factors
(Lobstein and et.al., 2015). Some key cause like income, education, unemployment can also
influence the health problems like obesity. Health can be influenced by some key component like
age, heredity or sex. Obesity can be influenced by the choices we are making, but it may happen
that sometimes after making the best choices, obesity can only be depended and influenced by the
factors based on economical, environment culture. The social and economic factors like income,
education, work environment can have the direct impact on obesity (Frederick, Snellman, and
Putnam, 2014). There are some socio-economic determinants which can directly affect obesity and
any improvements in those factors will result in the transformation in health. The people who are
low on income, they are not able to buy the nutritious food, and the resources to the healthy food,
that have direct impact on their health and obesity (Ntuk and et.al., 2014).
On the other side, if people are having adequate income, and their economical condition is
well settled, they can also suffer from obesity, because of the demand they are getting form their
home, the pressure they are having from the company, and the decisions they have to make, all
these factors will affect the health of that person and this will result in the increasing weight and
obesity (Eileen and et.al., 2017). Society structure and the culture can also influence the health of
the person via the distribution of the goods and resources (Coblijn and et.al., 2016). There are many
challenges for an adult in life like stress, employment, mental health, low literacy, their income, all
these factors can affect the adult health and that will finally result in increase in weight and that
person will become obese (Gregg and et.al., 2017). There are certain determinants which have the
direct impact on the obesity, they are income, their working environment and condition, their
education, the quality of food they are getting, their social support, and their access to the health and
care services etc. The variations in obesity are directly influenced by the socio-economic factors
(Robinson, Sutin and Daly, 2017). There is a strong connection between high obesity and poor
income, if a person is not happy and is feeling depressed then they will not be able to do their work
and this will result in increase in their stress and later on it will result in the increase in weight and
the person will become obese. This socio-economic status also plays an important role in the racial
and ethnic differences, which will occur between obese people and non-obese people. In obesity
gender and equity is also the factor which can affect the mental condition of people (Anderson and
et.al., 2017). Some times it is possible that the companies will give the priority to healthy people,
this will affect the condition of obese people, because they will feel that they are left out from the
society.

Impact of health inequalities- gender and/or culture
Obesity can be defined as the excess body fat the person is having. To measure obesity we
have to know what is body mass index? It can be defined as the ratio of the weight of the body to
the height in meters. If the body mass index (BMI) is in between 18-25, then the person or adult is
declared fit and healthy (Freedman, Horlick and Berenson, 2013). If the body mass index is in
between 25-30, the person is overweight, body mass index going above 30, this is the condition of
obesity (Peter, 2012).
According to Rhonda (2011), Now adults prefer more junk foods, and they will drink more
alcohol, this is due to change in the culture but they are not able to realise the fact that this will
increase their obesity. Different food industries are serving the food, which is having higher fat
content, and they are unhealthy, but adults prefer those food products because it tastes good but at
the same time it is junk food, and this will increase their weight. On the contrary, the culture is
changing now and adults are becoming more aware about their health conditions and weight but
they are not able to resist themselves from eating that junk food, which is the main cause of obesity
(Stewart and et.al., 2017). The proper procedure by which the socio-culture is affecting the obesity
is not well understood by adults but this will result in increase in their weight.
Psychological and psychosocial factor that influences health
Marino (2017), explained the psychosocial factors such as stress, depression, hopelessness,
hostility are the main factors which influences obesity. Such type of factors includes many social
traits and mental state of the person, which are affecting the health of that person. Social traits are
like unemployment and the unhappy working environment are the main factors which can increase
the obesity (Sukumar and et.al., 2016). If the person is unemployed, then the person will be in
tension all the time and this will result in increase in stress and the person will not be able to focus
on his health life and this will result in increase in weight and that person will become obese. Same
time if the working environment is not good, and the person is not feeling happy there, this again
will cause the tension and that person will be unable to do his work, this will increase the pressure
of work, and the health condition of that person will be disturbed and thus they will not be able to
focus on their health and the obesity will increase (Emery and et.al, 2015).
Obesity is as much a physical problem as it is psychological. Food or junk food is the main
reason, people are becoming more obese. This happens when some people feel sad, or they lonely
and stressed (Mohamed and et.al., 2015). These are the psychological risk factors which are making
an impact on obese people. Depression can also cause the problem of obesity. Other than these
factors, the eating behaviour also affect obesity, like mindless eating, high calorie foods, nigh
eating, over eating etc. Night eating can also be termed as a disorder which can cause the gain in

weight of people (Lobstein and et.al., 2017).
There are some psychological factors which can affect the health either in direct manner or
indirect manner. Directly these factors can influence the changes in hormones or can increase or
decrease the heart rates (Dare and et.al., 2017). By indirect way, these factors will influence by
changing the behaviour of that person that can have effect on the health of that person, their eating
time, sleeping time etc. if the person is not getting enough sleep time then this can affect the obesity.
Stress is another major concern, which can cause the long term problems, which can include either
physical or emotional responses, inability of that person to concentrate and their decrease in
memory (Hanson, Mullins and Modi, 2017). All these is happening due to stress and later on as the
time passes the person will not be able to concentrate on his health and this will cause the increase
in weight. Another psychological factor is depression, because if any person is feeling depressed
due to any of the reason, that person is not able to do the work, not able to focus on what he is doing
and this will result in the health problems and the person will suffer from obesity if he is not well
aware of his health (Williams and et.al, 2015).

Conclusion
From this summative essay has been concluded that in today's time, adults should be more
focus on their healths rather than eating junks and being careless. Some physiological and
psychological factors such as stress, depression, anxiety affects the health of the adults and children.
Some socio-economic factors like gender, ethnicity also affect the health of people and can cause
obesity. Obese people will not find a job easily, because of the preference of people. People will feel
stressed and can increase their weight by this. Adults should remain healthy by eating low calorie
food, so that they can maintain a healthy society.

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