Research shows that overeating can be just as harmful as smoking. Thus the advertising of certain food products should be banned

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问题     Research shows that overeating can be just as harmful as smoking. Thus the advertising of certain food products should be banned as cigarette advertising is banned in many countries. To what extent do you agree or disagree? (2014-11-13)

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答案 Overeating can lead to obesity, being seriously overweight, and this is an increasing health problem, which is as serious as the effects of cigarette smoking. The latter has become less fashionable, partly due to bans on advertising and smoking in public places, but there is still a long way to go to stop it altogether. Obesity has not been seriously addressed. Obesity leads to all manner of difficulties for the individual. Finding outsize clothes, not fitting into airline and bus seats, and discrimination in the job market are all problems faced by such people. Far worse is the threat of serious health problems, such as diabetes, strokes and cancer, which all have a huge cost to the individual, their family and the community as a whole. One suggestion as to a solution for this problem is to ban advertising of certain foods, mainly junk or unhealthy food, and this could be done either voluntarily or as a result of legislation. If advertising encourages people to buy, which it must do, a ban would help, but this alone is likely to be insufficient to prevent obesity. It is important to consider why people overeat, or eat unhealthy food, and try to address these problems. This may well be difficult as there are many causes. For some people a limited budget means they need to buy cheaper food, which might not be healthy. Lack of time to shop properly and prepare food is a difficulty, especially in cities where people live a long way from good food shops. Ignorance of cooking methods and nutritional needs are cited by others and seem to be a problem. Parents taking the easy way out and giving their children food that they know they will eat rather than providing healthy, nutritional food is another. TV dinners, fast food and not eating together as a family all encourage this. Portion sizes in restaurants and takeaways all contribute, as do supermarket ’buy one, get one free’ offers. All these things need to be discouraged. To balance this, there needs to be a huge campaign to get children to accept healthy habits, knowing about growing food and keeping animals and reducing waste are all part of it. Adults need to know how to prepare and cook nutritious food. Food labelling is important, but people need to know what to look for. There are a number of pressure groups that try to persuade people to eat properly and this is probably more effective than legislation, although this really can help. An alternative view is that such a ban on advertising, which would probably have to be brought about by enforceable government legislation, is not acceptable. People should be responsible for their own health and wellbeing. There is information available from a wide range of sources and there is really no excuse for ignorance of it. However, because of the huge cost to the community in terms of days lost at work, incapacity and serious illness, perhaps the government has to take action and banning the advertising of such undesirable food would be a start. It would have to be done alongside other measures to educate people about food choices and encourage them to eat healthily, whilst at the same time making supermarkets and food outlets take greater responsibility for the effects of their sales methods on their customers.

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