Fat & Food Wars

To what degree should we rely on consumers to make an “informed choice” about what they eat or should manufacturers carry a bigger burden of responsibility?

Personally, I think it is up to the individual to make the choice of what they eat and it is their responsibility to ensure that what they choose is the best choice for their lifestyle and health. Over 170 companies including leading supermarkets have signed up to the “responsibility deal” to promote healthy living. I believe there is only so much these companies can do, they cannot force consumers to choose the healthier option it is a decision that must come from the consumers themselves. There are strict guidelines on labelling which enable consumers to be aware of which foods or drinks are better for them. The labels clearly display the ingredients included and show how many calories are included and how much salt etc the product includes from this consumers should be able to make an educated guess of what is the healthier option.

It could be argued that some labels are not clear to the consumer which can cause confusion on which foods are actually healthy and which are not however, I think that most consumers are generally well educated on what foods they should be eating and what they shouldn’t be. There is only so much the government can do; people know that smoking will kill you and there are numerous campaigns to get people to stop smoking but the consumer still does not listen to this and continues to smoke.

I think that manufactures should promote healthy living as a responsibility but it would be unfair to hold them responsible for the obesity in this country. The only way to completely stop people from making bad lifestyle choices would be to take away the choices and leave them with nothing but the healthy option. With the amount of unhealthy products this would just not be possible. 

Another option that could be explored would be to stop the advertising of unhealthy products like chocolates and sweets as when it is in everyone’s faces it is hard to resist temptation. For some families the issue is money. It is a lot more expensive to lead a healthy lifestyle of eating fruits, vegetables and fresh meats than it is to eat processed foods and snacks. Is it too much to ask the government to reduce the price of these foods to make leading a healthy lifestyle attainable for the majority of people?

This is an issue that clearly needs to be addressed as obesity is such a problem but the question is who should be addressing this problem? Please comment and let me know your views.

N

Substance abuse

‘Should drugs be legalised?’

Junkies, illegal use, addiction, black market, gangs, crime...what comes to mind when you think of the term ‘drugs’?

When I think of the term ‘drugs’ I most certainly think of all of the above, but there is so much more to it than meets the eye, there are benefits of using drugs but these are often looked past because of the negative stigma drugs have. Like using drugs for medical use and to boost tourism, do you ever think of that? But are these positives considered important enough to stem legalisation by the UK Government?

Introducing legal drugs would also help to fuel the economy as tax would be added onto the substances; this would help society as more money could be spent in services such as health and schooling. In an extreme situation the legalisation of drugs could boost tourism in the UK like in Holland where the legal use of marijuana attracts travel makers from all over the world.

Not to mention the medical advantages legalising drugs would carry, for example helping drug addicts put an end to extreme hardcore drug use such as heroin by giving them a softer alternative that will work in the long term run.

The legalisation of drugs in the UK could also see reduced crime rates due to illegal acts such as drug possession and smuggling being abolished; this could lessen the cost to society as there would be a decrease in the use of police officers’ time, court hearings and keeping criminals imprisoned.

If drugs were to become legalised it would help to erode the black market in which drugs are illegally bought and sold under, this would hold a number of advantages including fewer street gangs, and decreased crimes stemming from these gangs such as violence, burglary and weapons trafficking. The drugs sold within the black market can also be very unsafe, leading to health problems and sometimes even death, if drugs were to become legalised it would help to eliminate the health risks as they would be safer and of better quality.

But on the other side to this, would it just be encouraging further drug use? Cigarettes and alcohol are classed as drugs and cause a whole host of problems; but do they make users any better and actually help society? Do we really want to add a third ‘evil’ into the equation? If we allowed further drug use this could contradict the point made about helping the economy, as the money made could go straight back into treating drug users as many more could get addicted. Would the economy really be able to relive more drug users if the substances were legalised?

We must also think about the countries that are illegally exporting drugs at this current time, when their income is sourced from the illegal trade of drug exporting if the UK began manufacturing its own drugs this would hinder others’ economies and diminish their income. So, although it may help the UK’s economy, it could have a serious effect on those less fortunate in the world, can we really justify making the economies’ that are bad even worse?

Legally or illegally drugs will still be recreationally used, it just leaves us with the question, could all the benefits of drug use actually help our society if legalised, or should they still be left to trade under the black market?

I would like to hear your views on this subject, and for you to answer the question ‘should drugs be legalised?’ Please comment below.

Thank you for reading,

C