The Relation between Fast Food Restaurants and Obesity

ABSTRACT

This research proposal focuses on the effect of fast-food restaurants leading to obesity and other health issues in Ireland based on the data of other countries such as America.

Those with market-liberal welfare systems continue to have the most significant prevalence of obesity among rich countries. It is often cited in clarification to the effect of inexpensive, affordable, high-energy meat. Instead, overeating is a response to stress, and competitiveness, confusion, and poverty make market-liberal societies more stressful.

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INTRODUCTION

Since the mid-1970s, the prevalence of obesity-related diseases has increased rapidly in the U.S. At about the same period, the percentage of fast-food restaurants has more than tripled over the same span, while the number of other restaurants has risen at a much slower tempo according to the Retail Trade Census. In the public debate on obesity, it is often believed that the increased availability of fast-food restaurants is a critical determinant of the drastic rise in obesity levels. Policymakers in several jurisdictions replied by restricting the supply or availability of fast food, or by allowing the caloric content of meals to be reported.

However, there is not strong evidence linking fast food to obesity. Much of it is based on limited sample collections association experiments. In this study, we try to establish the causal effect of changes within fast-food restaurant availability on rates of obesity. Using a comprehensive database on the exact location of restaurants, we question how proximity to fast food affects restaurants.

While it is evident that fast food is always unhealthy, it is not apparent a priority that it should be expected that changes in the availability of fast food will affect health. On the other hand, proximity to a fast-food restaurant may probably lead local consumers to replace unhealthy food prepared at home or eaten in operating restaurants without significant changes in the total amount of unhealthy food consumed.

On the other hand, living close to a fast-food restaurant could minimize the financial and anti monetary costs of eating unhealthy food. Furthermore, proximity to fast food may increase harmful food consumption even in the lack of any cost reduction if individuals have problems with self-control.

Fast food has become a notable feature in children's menus in the United States and worldwide. Furthermore, few studies studied the effects of fast-food consumption on any outcome related to nutrition or health.

There four main underlying reasons as to why fast food is directly linked to obesity

1. Unhealthy Ingredients:

Some fast-food consists of a large number of calories, fats, and carbohydrates, with less minerals and vitamins. Fast-food means how you take large quantities of unnecessary calories in fast-food form, contributing to weight gain and eventually obesity. Many fast foods have excess sugar and fat levels that are directly connected with weight gain.

2. Larger Portions

Fast food's toxic additives are further compounded by increased portion sizes that have risen parallel to a person's average body weight since the 1970s. Even though the portions have become big, the person will still eat the entire meal, no matter whether they feel full or not. That means people eat more substantial parts of junk food that cause an irregular weight gain.

3. Lower Cost

Another of the biggest reasons people are unable to avoid eating fast food is its low cost. A diet with 2,000 calories of fast food costs much less than an intake of 2,000 calories of healthy eating, according to research conducted by the University of Washington. It makes it more accessible than a healthy diet and is a contributing cause of obesity in the lower-income communities.

4. Convenience

The comfort in fast food restaurants. You can always find one near your home, and you can conveniently deliver food to your home as well. Obesity-related allows it a simple choice to use natural foods to prepare food at home.

Studies show that fast food intake has risen at an unprecedented rate over the past four decades. The elevated consumption of calories is a significant cause of obesity in the United States. If regulated, health issues will grow in the years to come as more people are overweight, eating unhealthy fast food.

LITERATURE REVIEW

This research shall mainly focus on the obesity caused by schoolchildren due to the intake of fast foods. The number of fast-food restaurants in America and elsewhere in the world has grown. This research goes through various literature reviews to compare the current and previous data in the growing fast food industry and its implications on the obesity in children and pregnant women.

It is evident that children are mostly affected, and since then, it has been a matter of public debate with politicians trying to transfer blames. It is often seen that fast-food restaurants, with a number in or near schools, is one of the key players to obesity. This has also prompted politicians to move swiftly towards the creation of restrictive regulations to curtail food quality in the food vendors involved.

Also, food manufacturers are forced to give clear guidance on the proportions and amounts of products used to provide consumers trust. Although there is no conclusive body of studies to show that fast-food restaurants are correlated with the rise of children's weight, to find a solution to the particular problem, I hope to research them further.

On research, these questions tend to provide the answer to the growing obesity problem in school children and the negligence of the parents.

METHODOLOGY ( RESEARCH METHODS)

In data collection, the study will use a quantitative design. The data collection process will be conducted through a sample survey intended to provide additional information about how they eat fast foods and how they compare it with their weights from the school-going children.

Ten schools will be chosen to evaluate randomly. Four of the schools are going to be elementary, while the others are going to be high schools. These are perfect for targeting children aged 5 to 18 years. All of the questions are intended to be covered in the questionnaire. This will require the participants to answer the questions provided, whether' Yes' or' No.' A question like, Are you a regular attendee to fast-food restaurants? Over the last three months, have you monitored your weight? If it does, was there an increase? Do you and your parents or guardians frequently visit fast-food restaurants?

In the analysis, 100 parents will also be chosen randomly, ten as members from each school, to examine their contribution to children's intake of fast foods. As the parents come to the school compound in the morning or the evening as they drop and pick up their children to and from school, they will be identified and given questionnaires. The questions will be both open and closed to the respondents. The closed-ended items will allow them to provide a yes or no response.

The questions would include: Are you aware of the diet of your child? Do you always take the child out when the family goes out to fast-food restaurants? Did you observe your child's weight? Many open-ended questions in support of this quantitative survey will help parents provide further answers that will help them better understand the underlying factors. These include; what else would you strongly recommend as the reason for the weight gain of your child?

Almost all of the questions will be organized on a Likert scale so that the different foods and restaurants that are regularly visited can be given ratings. Through the most popular numerical system application used for analysis, also called the SPSS, the closed-ended questions will then be systematically evaluated quantitatively. The empirical method would provide feedback to the fast-food restaurants about the factors that affect their selection of fast foods, and frequency Data reliability is established when using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

The research would concentrate on young children, including their parents, between the ages of five and nineteen.

The research would concentrate on young children in the chosen schools who are obese. The participants are young to sign the consent forms that will require them to enroll in the experimental analysis, so the school administration and their parents or guardians will be requested for official permission.

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