The U.K. government's public health policy has been trying to counteract obesity by means of implementing a set of initiatives designed to inform people about the downside of what being overweight and obese involves, and also monitor the average weight of different populations over time. Apart from that, in order to contend with "obesogenic environments" (Colls & Evans, 2010), a series of measures has also been enacted in relation to improving eating habits and enhancing physical activity in targeted communities. For instance, there is the attempt to improve the quality and content of school dinners portrayed in the Channel 4 program series named Jamie's School Dinners, and other national awareness campaigns, such as NHS' Change4Life, which avidly encourages families to eat adequately and take part in various physical activities, while also gathering funds for areas that have been targeted to convert into "Healthy Towns" (Colls & Evans, 2010).
Nevertheless, these measures are exclusively derived from the relationship between weight and health, namely relying solely on the certainty that a balanced Body Mass Index is healthy, whereas an above-limit value is unhealthy. Yet, there is a vast array of research that preoccupies itself with the manner in which obesity is perceived as a social issue, concentrated in a body of work generically known as Fat Studies (Colls & Evans, 2010), which criticizes and draws attention to the fact that, in identifying obesity as a problem, thus categorized persons' bodies come to be socially judged as deviant and in need of alteration. This practice can easily result in some form of discrimination, social stigma, and even cause personal harm.
As a matter of fact, the owners of overweight or obese bodies are frequently referred to in settings that paint them as stupid, ugly and unwilling to change their self-inflicted unhealthiness. Upon reflection, one might reach the conclusion that the Western civilization's established ideal of a thin body automatically...
Therefore, it can be stated that any effective measure intended to combat obesity ought to take into account these social aspects.
Interestingly, healthy food may be less available in low-income neighborhoods, and modern families' limited time availability due to working-schedule commitments may also act as an impediment of buying and preparing healthy food. Thus, only the measures that consider these fluctuations of availability across policy domains can be expected to address individual behaviors, and finally affect a nation's health on a long-term basis. (Nicholls et al., 2011)
Overall, it is safe to assert that, in the instance where differences in food price are to some extent responsible for unfavorable weight trends, U.S.A.'s example of setting a tax on unhealthy products could provide a viable means for the prevention of obesity. However, U.K. is equally right in contending that fiscal policy's utility is yet to be validated. Behavioral and cultural change, on the other hand, remains the most widely-implemented long-term goal, requiring the converged coherent efforts from the part of governments, individuals, and food industry altogether.
References
Banning, Maggi. Obesity: Pathophysiology and Treatment. (July 2005) the Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, Vol. 125, No. 4.
Colls, R.; Evans, B. Challenging Assumptions: Re-Thinking 'The Obesity Problem'. (Summer 2010) Geography, Vol. 95.
Efrat, M.W., Efrat, R. Tax Policy and the Obesity Epidemic. (Summer 2012) Journal of Law and Health, Vol. 25, No. 2.
Nicholls, S.G., Gwozdz, W., Reisch, L.A.; Voigt, K. Fiscal Food Policy: Equity and Practice. (July 2011) Perspectives in Public Health, Vol. 131, No. 4.
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