Analyzing the Global Fast Food Market and Its Harmful Health Effects

This essay delves into the detrimental health effects associated with the global fast food market. It highlights the market's contribution to rising rates of obesity and chronic illnesses worldwide, emphasizing the prevalence of unhealthy eating patterns. The essay explores potential solutions rooted in Catholic social thought, including government interventions such as revoking licenses and setting food standards, as well as health education campaigns to promote healthier dietary practices. Furthermore, it discusses the crucial role of nurses in addressing this issue through client advice, referrals to dietitians, community outreach, and written materials. The essay underscores the necessity of customized nutrition education and collaborative efforts to combat the negative impacts of the fast food industry and promote the common good, ultimately advocating for improved health outcomes on both local and global scales.

Running head: THE GLOBAL FAST FOOD MARKET AND ITS HARMFUL HEALTH
EFFECTS
The Global Fast Food Market and its Harmful Health Effects
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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.

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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

THE GLOBAL FAST FOOD MARKET AND ITS NEGATIVE HEALTH EFFECTS 4
is likely to lower. Heathy people reflect a situation where the principle of the common
good has been maintained (Schlag, 2017)
The other way through which education could lead to lowering intake of fast foods is
through community efforts. Once the members of a community are educated on the
importance of avoiding fast foods, they could come together and devise ways of
ensuring that they consume healthy foods. For instance, they may decide to engage in
farming of healthy foods. The net result is that the community would become
healthier. If this is done by communities all over the world, the global problem of fast
foods and the negative health effects associated with them would end. There exists
evidence to show that education is a powerful tool of liberating people from poor
dietary habits (Geissler and Powers, 2017). A person who is knowledgeable is likely
to change their dietary habits for the better. There is great need to ensure that people
can be taught in their own languages. If the principle of the common good is going to
be achieved, nutrition education should be customized to meet the unique needs of
communities (Mann and Truswell, 2017).
There are several strategies that a nurse can use to help solve the problem of harmful
health effects caused by the global fast food market. These strategies would go a long
way in helping achieve the principle of common good. One strategy that a nurse can
use is through advising their clients on how to take care of their health. As a
professional, a nurse has the responsibility of ensuring that their clients achieve the
highest possible level of health care and wellbeing (Perry, Potter and Ostendorf,
2015). In a bid to ensure that clients do not suffer from the harmful health effects that
result from fast foods, nurses could advise their clients to limit such foods. Instead of
taking such foods, the nurse could advise the client to be taking foods that are rich in
nutrients while being low in sugar and fats. There exists evidence to show that a diet

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rich in a variety of nutrients improves both the health and nutrition status of the client
(Field, 2016). If nurses were to advise their clients, there is no doubt that they would
make a great impact. In addition to advising their clients, nurses could also refer their
clients to a dietitian for more advice concerning nutrition and health. The health care
team should always work together to ensure that the health outcomes of a client are
greatly improved (Perry, Potter and Ostendorf, 2015). The dietitian is a part of the
health care team. They are specifically trained on nutrition and health. Therefore, a
referral from a nurse to a dietitian would see to it that the client gets as much benefit
as possible. If nurses were to join forces to offer such advice and referrals, there
would be great improvements both at the local and the global level (Field, 2016).
Another strategy that a nurse could use is to partner with other health care workers
and carry out community outreaches aimed at sensitizing community members on the
importance of taking nutritious foods. Many people in the community may not be
aware that dietary intake influence their health. By taking such initiatives, the nurse
and other members of the health care teams would ensure that those people who do
not visit health facilities are also informed on the importance of healthy dietary intake.
Such initiatives should be done often, and various communities should be targeted.
Hopefully, this would help improve health both at the local level and globally.
A nurse could also influence people to shift to healthier diets through writing. It is
possible for a nurse to write a book about importance of a healthy diet where the
dangers of taking fast foods could be outlined. A nurse could write such a book
single-handedly or join forces with other health professionals. A book is a great way
to share knowledge both at the local and global levels (Field, 2016). In addition, a
nurse could use modern sites, for instance the social media sites to inform people
about importance of good dietary intake. Modern media have reduced the world to a

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global village. With the use of these sites, there is a likelihood that the nurse will
influence people positively both locally and internationally.

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References
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