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Obesity: a Global Epidemic

In: Business and Management

Submitted By theredraven
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Obesity: A Global Epidemic

Introduction
This analysis dives deep into the rising trend of obesity, and is designed to juxtapose the actions of McDonald’s corporation and the increasing trend of consumer preference of organic, healthy products. The market of food consumers is becoming increasingly health-focused although the simultaneous increases in obesity in almost all countries seem to be driven mainly by changes in the global food system, which is producing more processed, affordable, and effectively marketed food than ever before (Swinburn, 137). If fast-food chains such as McDonald’s ignore these changes in consumer knowledge and preferences, they will not survive the onslaught of other, new companies who now seek to bring fast, healthy food to the consumer’s table. Many of the labels that Label Print Technologies (LPT) produces are for smaller, organic food manufacturers who seek to bring a healthy product to their customers. The growth of the organic product industry has created large areas of growth in many different industries; the label industry is ripe for the picking and LPT is ready to act. Where once there were big manufacturers looking to have hundreds of thousands of labels produced at once, there are now smaller, health-focused companies looking for more intricately designed labels to adorn their high quality products, and not necessarily in mass quantity.
Obesity is defined as fat accumulation that may impair health. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines overweight as a body mass index (BMI) that is equal to or more than 30. In 2008, more than 1.4 billion adults were overweight and more than 500 million were obese. Over 2.8 million people die every year because of their weight, with the occurrence of obesity nearly doubling between the years of 1980 and 2008. Obesity is linked to more deaths than underweight and

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