TITLE:
Food supply and the obesity scourge: Is there a relationship?
AUTHORS:
Lillian Mwanri, Wendy Foley, John Coveney, Robert Muller, Fiona Verity, Paul R. Ward, Patricia Carter, Philip Mohr, Anne Taylor
KEYWORDS:
Obesity; Food Supply; Food Outlets; Socio Economic Status; Complex Relationships
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.4 No.12A,
December
31,
2012
ABSTRACT: This paper reviews
literature on the relationship between food supply and obesity. The focus is on
the supply, cost, and variety of food through various types of food outlets and
the impact of these factors on obesity in developed countries. The article
reveals complex relationships between food supply factors and obesity. A numer of factors related to lifestyles including the mobility of populations and
the use of motor vehicles greatly reduce the impact of the local environment
on family and individual eating patterns. However, obesity is also affected
by factors such as the type and density of food outlets, the cost of food,
the travel distance and means of transport to the food outlet. While the relationship
between food supply and obesity in the literature
reveals complex and mixed findings, this paper concludes obesity is
complex and food supply is only part of this phenomenon’s predictors. Because the relationship between food supply and obesity is mediated by such multiple and complex factors including
population behaviours, beliefs, lifestyles, knowledge and both food and
physical environments; multiple strategies including policy development and
other strategies aimed at manipulating food environments, physical
environments, populations’ beliefs, behaviours and practices must be considered in searching for evidence to effectively combat obesity.