The Global Fast Food Market and its Harmful Health Effects

Running head: THE GLOBAL FAST FOOD MARKET AND ITS HARMFUL HEALTH
EFFECTS
The Global Fast Food Market and its Harmful Health Effects
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THE GLOBAL FAST FOOD MARKET AND ITS NEGATIVE HEALTH EFFECTS 2
Assessment 3
Solutions to Global Fast Food Market and Its Negative Health Effects
The principles of catholic social thought are aimed at ensuring that human dignity is
maintained. In addition, they aim at ensuring justice and fairness. One of these
principles is on achieving common good. The global fast food market has terribly
failed at maintaining the principle of achieving common good. This is because it has
contributed to more negative than positive effects. Fast foods have been associated
with rising cases of obesity and chronic illnesses all over the world (Whitney and
Rolfes, 2018). Chronic diseases of lifestyle used to be common among the wealthy
individuals. In the contemporary society, both the wealthy and the poor are affected.
The main reason for this is poor dieting. The fast food market has greatly contributed
to unhealthy eating patterns. According to health experts, a healthy diet should be
high in fibre and have plenty of nutrients. A poor diet on the other hand is rich in fats
and sugar. The fast food market is saturated with foods that are unhealthy. Due to this,
selling and buying of fast foods does not contribute to the wellbeing (common good)
of people in the society. On the centrally, it lowers human dignity through causing
illnesses.
There are several ways to achieve solution. The government could intervene through
revoking the licences of fast food companies. Governments reserve the right to issue
or revoke licences. Therefore, licences for fast food companies and firms could be
revoked to push them out of the market. If this is done, the market will be free of fast
foods. What would follow is a reduction in consumption of the unhealthy fast foods.
With this, the principle of achieving common good is likely to be achieved. Health
outcomes would improve and therefore lead to a maintenance of human dignity.

THE GLOBAL FAST FOOD MARKET AND ITS NEGATIVE HEALTH EFFECTS 3
Another way through which the government may intervene is through setting food
standards. These standards could be set in such a way that they require companies to
process highly nutritious foods. Governments should also require all food industries to
adhere to international food standards such as the codex Alimentarius. Establishing
food standards would be a great way of ensuring that the food industries produce
foods that are of high standards (Heasman and Lang, 2015). This way, the health of
the citizens is protected. What follows is the achievement of common good, that is,
companies receive their profit while the consumers flourish in good health. From
these observations, it is true to conclude that the government has a very important role
to play when it comes to the issue of eradicating fast foods.
Health education campaigns would be another method of ensuring that the common
good is achieved when it comes to the issue global fast food market (McClements,
2015). Communities should be empowered with information on healthy dietary
practices. In addition, they should also be educated on other appropriate lifestyle
practices that are essential in ensuring good health and wellbeing. There exists
extensive evidence to show health education contributes to positive behaviour change.
There is no doubt that such education would contribute to achievement of the
principle of the common good. There are several ways through which health
education could lead to lower consumption of fast foods. One of these is through
influencing individuals to take healthier diets. When people ate educated on proper
dietary practices, the information is likely to change their attitudes towards healthy
foods (Talwar, 2018). The change of attitude is likely to be positive, that is, one may
see the importance of consuming healthy foods. This is likely to translate to practice.
When many individuals change their dietary practices, the consumption of fast foods