What is the relation between money and overweight?. Does any one plan to gain weight?. Can weight be gained by swallowing air?. The answers of these questions pour in the stream of understanding the extent of our control over our body weight.
Overweight is derived from food we eat, and certainly-unless underweight- nobody plans to gain weight, then how overweight is affected by money?.
In our present life style, the majority of people working 9-4 jobs are away from their home for long hours, and when their bodies need to replenish their energy, they think about getting some food (fast).
Thinking about the traits of this food is controlled by its place in their lives.It is needed to keep them working, and the revenue of this work should be kept for the bills, and most of the spare should be kept for their personal motivation. Hence this food should supply sufficient energy at the least cost, and if it infers some personal motivations (taste,brand..etc), it is OK.
The fast food manufacturer companies know these favored traits and more In producing fast foods, the companies consider the consumer needs as a competitive asset, yet they put cost as a necessity for existence.
Thus, there is a logic agreement between the consumer and the food companies to trade money. Consumer says "Give me the necessary energy for a small portion of my money", and the company- in a competition for a share in a 140$ billion market in US alone- says"Take the most delicious sufficient energy for the least portion of your money".
To achieve these goals, the manufacturer companies adopt a high degree of "food engineering" that uses additives and processing techniques that substantially alters the properties of raw materials so as to achieve a certain flavor or consistency and to preserve freshness.
Competition forced companies to offer advantages and the primary "benefit" was calorie/dollar content. Some meals composed of a sandwich and a milk shake contains about 1000Kcal which is equal to 1/2 the calorie amount needed by a 70 KiloGrams man for 24 hours. There are less calorie content meals, yet they may lead to some sort of duplication.
The market size and the high demand recall advertisement with its inevitable role in increasing market size.
We can not blame neither the consumer nor the producer, both obey natural laws. Yet, more efforts required by scientific, social and industrial bodies to participate in solving the problem of overweight.
Waheed Elqalatawy writes simple scientific articles on health topics
for any one who wants to expand his reading horizons about health.
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