Many drinks and ready meals contain a lot of sugar, salt and other non healthy ingredients. Do you think governments should try and control this development? Give reasons for your answer.

Salt, sugar and saturated fats are dangerous to health, causing high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems and obesity. It is not in any nation’s interest to have an unhealthy population so there is a strong argument for government involvement. However, this does not necessarily mean the introduction of legislation but, rather, a programme of education. Most people care about their health and if they become aware of what a healthy diet, it will probably aspire to it. This education should start in primary school so that children become aware of the dangers of unhealthy food from an early age. They should learn how to cook and should also know where their food and drink comes from. This needs to be backed up by schools removing any soft drink vending machines they have and ensuring that all school dinners are nutritious and healthy. This philosophy should continue right through to senior school. This is a form of government control and should be encouraged and, in this case, backed up by legislation that controls the acceptable levels of salts, sugars and fats in everything we eat. Nobody wants to be overweight and unhealthy. It is in everybody’s interest that the entire population should be aware of the dangers of consuming too much sugar and fat. The distribution of accurate information is therefore key, and schools, the general public and the government all need to be involved in doing this. Legislation rarely works and, therefore, should be avoided.