Summary and response to "Should foods linked to diet-related disease be regulated?"

Summary

The essay "Should foods linked to diet-related disease be regulated?" is an essay which provides the readers different point of views from various professionals towards the topic. First of all, a researcher from a global policy think tank, points out that there is so much food marketing and advertising to convince us to eat, especially junk food. This implies people are consuming too much sugar and leads to a public health crisis because high doses of sugar can be as toxic as high doses of alcohol. As such, some food activists and scholar advocate to put warning labels on junk food, restricting portion sizes and removing candy bars from checkout lines and limit sugar consumption like alcohol and tobacco. However, the food industry representatives argue that it will limit consumers choice if more regulations are being enforced. There is groups of people support the idea that " the less government regulation, the better"and the consumer should take more responsibility for what they eat. Apart from that, there are people from different groups point out that food bans or taxes can do more harm than good to the society.This act will grant the government the right to make choices for consumers and the food taxes will be a huge burden to the lower-income families.

Response

I agree that the government should put warning labels on junk food to remind the consumers that they will have health problems if they continue to consume too much sugar from junk food. The government should also play the leading role to regulate the child food advertisement because the children do not have enough self-awareness to control what messages they want to receive. However, the portion size and variety of food should not be restricted as people have the freedom of choice in their food. Also, food taxes will create a huge burden to the poor families which makes the food not affordable for everyone anymore. Apart from this, the people should put more awareness on choosing their own food. People should change their eating habits in order to avoid obesity.

Text-based questions

1. Why is the consequences if we put regulations on food?

2. Why the government do not more implement incentives programs for people like discount in medical insurance for normal weight people?