Healthy Vs. Unhealthy Foods

By Author: Sherry Roberts
Total Articles: 153
Comment this article

Eating unhealthy diet among many Americans has drastically increased the incidences of obesity and chronic illnesses. The poor dietary patterns mainly originated from early eating habits developments among young people and newly independent adults. This research paper examines the patterns of unhealthy and healthy foods in Oglethorpe Mall. The mall includes restaurants like Chick Fila, Subway, American Deli, Sarku Japan, Great Wraps & Cheesesteak, and Charley’s Philly Steaks. The research paper will evaluate the eating patterns both healthy and unhealthy of customers visiting the food restaurant according to the food and calorie counts, race and gender.
Introduction
Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) reports indicate that the rates of chronic diseases such as heart diseases, cancer, and obesity have increased over the last decade. The proportion of meals being eaten outside the home environment has increased in this country, among adults and children in this country. The high dependence on restaurants has potential health and negative nutritional consequences since individuals eating in restaurant frequently eat foods with the higher average of fat and calories and lower vegetables, fiber, and fruits consumption. Additionally, the nutritional foods are way more expensive in their prices than the junk foods. Eating in restaurants frequently has a positive relation to increasing in weight or weight gain. It is mainly because of the unhealthy choices that restaurants offer and energy consumption. It is a main concern especially in the fact that these diseases are the leading causes of death all around the United States, yet they are preventable and related to diet. This study aims to understand the relationships between eating patterns in food environment and weight patterns by examining the attributes of the food environment in the restaurants. Measurements will be taken to evaluate the range of environmental stimuli that customers faces in restaurants that may affect the choices of food.
Problem
Restaurants selling fast foods are the main contributors of the high prevalence of obesity. The high concentration of such restaurants in poorer neighborhoods (29). Also, the less healthful options provided by these fast food restaurants do explain the high prevalence of obesity in Savannah- Georgia. Savannah, Ga. has an incident rate of 25.8 according to Gallup-Heathway Well-Being Index (Live science.com, 2011). The fast foods restaurants are the potential contributors of a higher prevalence of obesity. The restaurants have been counted to have a variance of 6% in obesity prevalence all across the United States (31). This evidence today shows the relationship between the weights of individuals to their surrounding neighborhoods with weak restaurant density. The study by Sturm and Data (32) shows that young children increase their body mass index about more estimates of the metropolitan level of vegetable and fruit prices, unlike the overall restaurant type density. This paper describes the evaluation and developmental of an observation of customer nutrition environment in Oglethorpe Mall restaurants. The measurements are on race, gender, food type and calorie counts
Literature review

Reference
Live Science. Com and Jenna Bryner (2011) the List: The Most Obese Cities. Retrieved from
http://www.livescience.com/18886-obese-cities-list-2011.html
29. Edmonds J, Baranowski T, Baranowski J, Cullen KW, Myres D. Ecological and socioeconomic correlates of fruit, juice, and vegetable consumption among African-American boys. Prev Med 2001;32:476 – 81.
30. Cassady D, Housemann R, Dagher C. (2004) healthy choices on restaurant menus measurement instrument. Am J Health Promot 2004;18:444 –9.
31. Drewnowski A. Obesity and the food environment: dietary energy density and diet costs. Am J Prev Med 2004;27:154 – 62.
32. Drewnowski A, Specter SE. Poverty and obesity: the role of energy density and energy costs. Am J Clin Nutr 2004;79:6 –16.
33. Glanz K, Sallis JF, Saelens BE, Frank LD. Nutrition Environment Measures Survey Stores (NEMS-S). Am J Prev Med 2007;32:284 –91.
34. Frank L, Sallis J, and Bachman W. Multiple pathways from and walkability associations with body mass, and air quality. J Am Planning Assoc 2006;72:75– 87.

35. Drewnowski A, Darmon N. Food choices and diet costs: an economic analysis. J Nutr 2005;135:900 –

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in 24 hour college papers services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order for a custom research paper from custom nursing essay services.