Introduction
Nowadays, advertising is a constant companion of people’s lives. It imposes rigid ideals of behavior and beauty that have an unconscious and conscious impact on nearly everyone. One of the most critical problems that arouses the interest of researchers is the influence of advertising on the formation of models of food behavior and, above all, its involvement in the formation of food addiction. Thus, while biological factors determine body type, there is an external influence to consider when discussing weight-related health issues – such as advertising and social environment. Today, people are gaining weight from unhealthy food choices broadly advertised everywhere by large corporations. Along with a lack of exercise, the population’s consumption of high-calorie, unnutritious snacks and beverages adds to the global obesity epidemic.
Causes of Obesity Rise
Consuming Excess Calories Beyond the Body’s Needs
Obesity results from a combination of factors, including a decrease in physical activity, constant intake of high-calorie foods, and the presence of genes that influence the possibility of gaining weight. But in the end, eating more calories than the body requires over an extended period of time leads directly to obesity. According to Katzmarzyk et al., “the nutrition transition is characterized by a shift towards a diet comprised of more animal-based food products and processed food high in saturated fats and sugar” (853).
More significant portions in restaurants or prepackaged foods and drinks push people to overeat. Furthermore, these foods are frequently prepared in ways that increase the calorie content of already nutrient-dense goods. As a result, people consume more calories than they think they do. Convenience foods, vending energy snacks, and fast-food restaurants also contribute to an increase in the number of obese people due to the high levels of sugar in them.
Lack of Physical Activity
In first-world countries, physical inactivity is widespread, which also plays a significant role in increasing the incidence of obesity. Technological advances such as elevators, cars, and remote controls have supplanted exercise opportunities. People are spending more time playing video games, watching TV, and sitting at computers. In addition, work is also becoming more sedentary as office and desk work replaces manual labor. Thus, when calorie intake is not reduced according to the person’s inactive lifestyle, they will steadily gain weight, developing obesity.
Obesity as a Trend of Modern Times
Psychological Aspects of Obesity
Obesity has remained a substantial social problem since the end of the 20th century. Wang et al. projected that “by 2030, over half of the men (55.6%) and 80.0% of women would have central obesity” (821). People with obesity do not just have problems with their health and mobility; they also often suffer from depression or other mental disorders due to low self-esteem and quality of life. The prejudice of other people, even when completely irrational, is one of the reasons behind the obese people’s disruption in the fulfillment of dietary restrictions.
Discomfort, frustration, generalized anxiety, and poor social well-being – all these belong to the manifestations of the results of the influence of stress caused by obesity that affects people at different levels: personal, social, and psychological. These emotional issues cause the need to compensate for “suffering” with available encouragement – such as food. This creates a vicious circle of overeating, which produces even more stress.
Change in Nutritional Habits
In the XXI century, people start rapidly gaining weight due to abrupt changes in all spheres of life: a drop in life quality, a rapid rise in unemployment and poverty, and additional stress from uncertainty. Both the overall concept of family food traditions and the nutrition paradigm itself have evolved during this time. Hall adds that “the increased food availability was driven by economic and policy influences to maximize the agricultural production of cheap inputs to an increasingly industrialized food system that intensively marketed ‘added value’ foods” (12). Affordable and cheap products have appeared on the market, and parental control over the nutrition of children has decreased, which has led to unhealthy food becoming more available for children.
Rise of Physically Undemanding Leisure Activities
The usual pastime has also changed, and not in a positive way. The focus of leisure activity – the content side of spending free time – is an essential factor determining the specifics and quality of free time that heavily influences an individual. More physically undemanding forms of spending free time started to prevail: for example, watching TV, listening to radio broadcasts, or just resting on the couch. Without any leisure activity outside the house, people had fewer opportunities to spend excess calories from their food. This issue is widely addressed worldwide as the importance of physical activity is brought back into the spotlight.
Food Advertisements Influence on Food Intake
Several studies have proved a significant increase in food taken under exposure to food advertisements. Because of this, researchers have hypothesized that this kind of advertising may be a contributing factor to the obesity pandemic and other eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Today’s enhanced marketing practices make consumers unconsciously and without hesitation buy junk food, which leads directly to the problem of obesity. The influence of advertising is also confirmed by the fact that obesity is more common among children under the age of seven when the child is not yet able to evaluate the incoming information critically.
Conclusion
Obesity and food addiction have become a widespread and significant problem in modern society, both health-related and social. The acceleration of the movement of society along more and more complicated trajectories of social and cultural development affects the functioning of life values, including the nature of human nutrition. The food industry’s industrialization, rationality, and globalization have conflicting effects on contemporary humanity.
Works Cited
Hall, Kevin D. “Did the Food Environment Cause the Obesity Epidemic?” Obesity, vol. 26, no. 1, 2017, pp. 11–13., Web.
Katzmarzyk, Peter T., et al. “International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE): Contributions to Understanding the Global Obesity Epidemic.” Nutrients, vol. 11, no. 4, 2019, p. 848., Web.
Wang, Youfa, et al. “Has the Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity and Central Obesity Levelled off in the United States? Trends, Patterns, Disparities, and Future Projections for the Obesity Epidemic.” International Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 49, no. 3, 2020, pp. 810–823., Web.
