Changing eating habits: IELTS Task 2 essay #14, band 8.5

The average BMI in many developed countries like the US and UK has seen a massive rise in the last few years. As a result, the number of people diagnosed with morbid obesity has skyrocketed. The reasons for the rise of this issue are different and even though they might, at first sight, seem challenging to overcome, I believe that through education and subsidies we can successfully tackle the problem of obesity.

One of the principal reasons why obesity is so much more prevalent today is the availability and affordability of fast food. There are hardly any towns and cities today that do not have a street that’s not full of fast food outlets. Not only can people access fast food restaurants fairly easily, customers usually do not have to wait a lot for their order to be served as fast food is usually made within a few minutes. Another advantage that fast food offers is its cost-efficiency. For a price of a whole meal in a typical family restaurant one can afford to eat out in a fast food outlet several times. Thus, it makes sense to eat junk food as it offers a lot convenience.

Another prevalent issue that contributes to the growing concern around obesity is depression that many people have to deal with today. Break-up, loss of a loved one, abusive relationships and lack of socialization all result in people being depressed and for great many the only escape from the pain seems to be binge-eating fast food. True, there are thousands of obese people whose health could have been better had they only had the support of professional therapists. Many resort to food as a way forget their problems and this coping mechanism tends to only exacerbate their existing mental as well as physical issues.

Despite being a long-standing and challenging issue, the epidemics of obesity can be solved or at least mitigated. One of the starting points could be governmental intervention. More specifically, governments can impose additional taxes on fast food while providing business that make healthier food with tax exemptions. In doing so, not only fewer people will be eating out in fast food outlets, there also will be more people encouraged to eat healthily since healthy alternatives will be cheaper.

Apart from subsidizing, I believe that less affluent parts of the population should be provided with healthier alternatives more often. Unfortunately, fast food chains oftentimes build their restaurants in the close vicinity of disadvantaged neighborhoods as those are the ones that prefer to eat junk food. Therefore, by replacing fast food restaurants in those areas we can target a much larger portion of the population and significantly decrease the likelihood of obesity in those less fortunate areas.

Last but not least, more and more awareness should be raised around the significance of eating healthy. There are still thousands and millions of people who are unaware of the repercussions of excessive fast food intake. People should be educated about the consequences and different alternatives that can successfully replace fast food.