Obesity is a serious problem in many countries, especially in rich countries. Discuss ways to solve the problem. Provide specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

A number of obese people, in particular in developed/wealthy countries, has been rising increasingly in the recent years. While breaking consumerist’s habits seems to be an intractable problem, powers that be have to make an effort to nip the problem in the bud by increasing the prices for products detrimental to society’s well-being. Unfortunately for the humanity, the desire to gorge ourselves on fatty and unhealthy food is deeply ingrained in our DNA, since our ancestors used to stuff themselves as soon as they could find any source of calories. With regard to this, it is virtually impossible to get rid of bad habits developed 70, 000 years ago. Therefore, there might well be only two solutions to the problem. First of all, it might be worth a try to impose norms beneficial to public’s fitness. For instance, in some schools of Orenburg, Russia teachers are supposed to report to doctors in case they notice any dangerous changes in children’s health/ weight. Parents and children on the verge of being overweight are to be talked in private in order to take timely measures and avoid risks. This new strategy has already resulted in a sharp drop of overweight students. However, if these rules were to be applied to modify adult’s habits, the statistics would certainly be less positive. In case of grown-up individuals, draconic measures is the only way to go, as the language of money is the only language we all seem to speak. There have already been some new taxes introduced in order to avoid consuming too much sugar and sugar drinks, after that, recent research concluded consumption of sugar dropped by 20% in the USA alone. I believe fast food must also be subject to much higher taxes to make it more difficult to succumb to temptation of buying it. In conclusion, craving for delicious food has always held sway over common sense. That is why, authorities had better not wait for individuals to start controlling their own behaviour and just put up/ raise prices for products ruining our health.