Obesity
There is general agreement that humans, especially in western societies are getting fatter and that this trend toward overweight and obesity is causing many health problems. Problems such as diabetes, knee problems, hart disease etc.
There is however disagreement on the root cause of this. One of the key arguments is whether it is driven by too many calories in vs not enough calories out. Who is right?
There is thus a heated debate whether obesity is caused by people eating too many calories or by the fact it is caused by a less active lifestyle
The proponents of the calories in debate say that the availability of junk food , within arms reach combined with the life style of the consumers who eat the whole day vs the past life style of 3 meals a day causes this problem. A problem which is driven by a food industry who advertises a lot and persuade consumers to eat more. There are many NGO's now lobbying with governments to take various measures to limit consumers intake of calories. The measures which they would like to see implemented start with front of pack labeling with warning labels and calories but also extend to limitations on advertising and even taxation on calorie dense products. Clearly the food industry is not happy with
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That everywhere one goes by car, there are lifts and escalators and that consumers are not taking care of themselves. This argument is supported by research that over the years actually the calorie intake has dropped and that the issue is that the burn rate of calories dropped more. Hence consumers get more calories in than out. By promoting a more active life style this imbalance between calories in and out can be reversed. On this side of the argument one also points to consumers freedom of choice and that it is not the role of the government to decide what and how much a person