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Annotated Bibliography – Role of the American government in solving obesity
Article 1: Borovoy, A., & Roberto, C. A. (2015). Japanese and American public health approaches to preventing population weight gain: A role for paternalism?. Social Science & Medicine, 143, 62-70.
Article Summary
The article tries to analyze how the Japanese and the American public health approaches the issues of obesity. The article states that weight gain control in a population is a major concern, especially for the industrialized countries due to the associated health risks. It cites that Japan is experiencing a rising prevalence of obesity and overweight as compared to past data; the nation has experienced a low prevalence of weight gain and obesity relative to other nations. Due to this, Japan, therefore, provides an interesting case study of the strategies to curb obesity. The article uses both observation and ethnographic interviews as a means of research where 19 interviews were conducted. The respondents of the study were mainly physicians, human resource managers, welfare nurses employed by the health insurance organizations, school nurses who also represented the government as employees, school nutritionists as well as school counsellors. The study highlights the role of social norms and culture in promoting healthful behavior in Japan through a focus on the ministry of Health, labor, and welfare’s metabolic syndrome screening program. The Japanese government allocates optimal body metrics for full Japanese citizens and also relies on the institutions such as schools and health insurance organizations, which are at times closely associated with the workplace to carry out education. The Japanese social, cultural approach propels the reflection on the cultural and social conditions that make different policy prescriptions more politically feasible as well as potentially effective. The study also provokes citizens of the United States to question whether the limited behavioral modifications and nudging would be able to change the case of weight gain in the United States, where fewer broadly shared socio-cultural norms concerning acceptable behavior exist.
Article Critic
Despite the article analyzing the case of obesity in Japan and highlighting the various socio-cultural issues that Japan has put forth in addressing the issue of obesity, the article does very little in showing how the United States’ government have done or are doing to curb the rising obesity epidemic in the nation. However, the article does a great job of using Japan as a case study and postulating that the United States should adopt similar strategies to control weight gain.
The relevance of the article
The article is relevant as it contains scholarly materials regarding obesity and weight gain control and also highlights the possible solutions that the United States can implement to curb the progression of obesity in the U.S by copying Japanese strategies. The various strategies include involving the key stakeholders such as counsellors, teachers, and nurses who are all employees to the government. Through this, the article thus highlights the government’s role in controlling obesity in the country.
Article 2: Powell, D., & Gard, M. (2015). The governmentality of childhood obesity: Coca-Cola, public health, and primary schools. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(6), 854-867.
Article Summary
The article policy formation and outcomes in regards to the control of obesity among children. The article examines the emergence of what seems like the unexpected policy outcome which involves a large multinational corporation that is frequently blamed for the increased case of childhood obesity and thus operating as an officially sanctioned driver of anti-obesity initiatives in public institutions such as primary schools across the world. Based on Foucault’s notion of governmentality, the study examines the pedagogical work of two international programs that were devised and funded by the Coca-Cola company. Through this, the article demonstrates how the two programs work simultaneously as marketing campaigns as well as governmental strategies to position children as responsible for their own health, especially for obesity, and strategically employ the concept of energy balance. The author argues that the programs do not only act to unite the interest of corporations, governments, and schools but as well seek to reshape the very ideas of health and the consequent healthy life. The study concludes by considering two sets of ethical and political issues that come sharply as corporations such as Coca-Cola continue to exploit the policy space that is created by the obesity epidemic.
Article critic
The article does a better job of highlighting how corporations such as the Coca-Cola company have continued to exploit the policy formulated by the government in an attempt to reduce childhood obesity. The greatest strength of the study is that it has highlighted a positive impact from corporation interventions as the marketing of their product is aimed at reducing childhood obesity through ensuring energy balance. However, the study has not exemplified the case for adult obesity as it has highlighted on the school-going children.
The relevance of the article
The article is highly relevant to the topic of study in that it highlights the role of government in controlling childhood obesity. The government collaborates with corporations such as Coca-Cola by formulating business-friendly policies that have made it possible to balance the energy in children, thus helping them live a healthy life. Therefore, the reason why I picked the article is that it is related to the government responsibility in controlling obesity in the United States.
Article 3: Logel, C., Stinson, D. A., & Brochu, P. M. (2015). Weight loss is not the answer: A well‐being solution to the “obesity problem.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(12), 678-695.
Article Summary
According to the article, the American citizens have been gaining weight in the recent decades, and this has triggered widespread concern about the health implications of the obesity epidemic. The government, health practitioners, as well as the general public, are in dire quest to know the best ways to reduce the health risks that are associated with higher body weight. The dominant weight loss solution to the obesity problem has encouraged people to lose weight through behavioral change. The weight-loss solution is based on the assumption that higher body weight impacts negatively on the health of the individual and that permanent weight loss can be easily attained. Also, the solutions assume that weight loss has the ability to improve the health of a person. However, the comprehensive reviews of the scientific evidence found mixed, weak, and sometimes contradictory evidence for the above assumptions, and therefore, the author suggests for a different solution concerning the obesity problem. There is a need for a solution that acknowledges both the multifaceted nature of health as well as the complex interaction between an individual and the situation to which characterizes the connection between weight and health. Due to this, the study incorporates social psychological science to propose an alternative solution which the well-being solution. The well-being solution to the obesity problem has a greater potential in improving the health of individuals through encouraging positive behaviors such as eating and exercising for optimal health rather than weight loss. The government hereby, along with other stakeholders, develop interventions that will help in reducing weight stigma as well as discrimination and also through helping higher body-weight individuals cope with the stress associated with stigma and discrimination.
Article critic
Despite the article spending a lot of time focusing on the possible solutions through which the government can employ in reducing the obesity epidemic, it has not stated whether the solution has been a success has it been tested. The article, however, has provided two major solutions that include the weight-loss solution and the well-being solution. However, the weight-loss solution has been deemed less significant as it does not improve the health of a person but instead works on assumptions and this gives an upper hand to the second solution well-being solution that emphasizes on workouts and dieting for weight reduction.
The relevance of the article
The article is relevant to the content of my paper as it has helped in providing possible solutions to weight reduction and to which the government can adopt in reducing the obesity epidemic. The article emphasizes on the well-being solution due to the positive impact it has on the health of individuals calling the government to develop interventions to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with higher body weight. Among the possible solutions provided include dieting and exercising to promote both health and reduce weight.
Article 4: Kennedy, E., & Guthrie, J. F. (2016). Nutrition assistance programs: cause or solution to obesity. Current obesity reports, 5(2), 176-183.
Article Summary
The article highlights the possible solution to controlling obesity among the populations. It highlights three nutrition assistance programs that include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and the National School Lunch Program that serve as the backbone of the nutrition safety net in the United States. The programs have been successful in achieving most of the initial goals of improving the food purchases, food intake as well as the nutritional status of low income and vulnerable Americans. The emphasis on the three programs has broadened so as to include the obesity prevention with the recent programs exhibiting changes from the revised objectives. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and the National School Lunch Program have increased the economic access to adequate diet although access alone cannot solve or be used to prevent the obesity problem. An ecological approach, therefore, has been adopted in order to avoid the obesity problem by incorporating the nutritional programs which act as a boost to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and the National School Lunch Program.
Article critic
Despite the article demonstrating to greater heights the possible solutions to be used by the government in reducing obesity, it has not indicated whether there were previous tests that were successful. However, the article has acknowledged that nutritional assistance projects are a key measure of reducing obesity among the populations. By targeting the programs on schools and the vulnerable population such as women, the article thus provides a possible solution to weight gain through emphasizing on dieting whereby the government is required to make food purchases affordable.
The relevance of the article
The article is relevant to the content of my paper in that is highlights the solutions that are used by the United States government in an attempt to control the obesity epidemic. The government is obliged with the responsibility protecting its citizens from ill-health and therefore, the government uses the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children and the National School Lunch Program as a way to control obesity, which makes the article relevant to the topic in question.
List of References
Borovoy, A., & Roberto, C. A. (2015). Japanese and American public health approaches to preventing population weight gain: A role for paternalism?. Social Science & Medicine, 143, 62-70.
Powell, D., & Gard, M. (2015). The governmentality of childhood obesity: Coca-Cola, public health, and primary schools. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(6), 854-867.
Logel, C., Stinson, D. A., & Brochu, P. M. (2015). Weight loss is not the answer: A well‐being solution to the “obesity problem.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(12), 678-695.
Kennedy, E., & Guthrie, J. F. (2016). Nutrition assistance programs: cause or solution to obesity. Current obesity reports, 5(2), 176-183.
