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Annotated Bibliography
D. Fussenegger, A. Piertrobelli, K. Wildhalm. “Childhood Obesity: political developments in Europe and related perspectives for future action or prevention.” Obesity News, 29 August 2007.
The authors state his main point that “obesity, especially among children has become a major health problem throughout Europe. One in five children and half of all adults in the Europe are overweight.” (Fussenegger, 2017, 1)
Obesity causes other medical problems such as (heart issues, cancer, diabetes, stomach issues, leg/mobility issues, low self-esteem and depression issues) Recent studies show that around 2.8 million death per year in Europe result from causes associated with obesity. (European Union, 2014, 2) Additionally, the over- weight factor and the damage to your organs can cause early death. Hospital and medical costs are high due to the widespread epidemic of obesity.
The authors findings discuss the changes in the family’s lifestyle in Europe and how it has changed over the years from eating well-balanced, home-cooked meals to now eating in fast food restaurants and processed foods like Americans. A sedentary lifestyle is now part of children and young adult lifestyle in Europe whereby they are lacking physical exercise and sports. As in the

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US, many middle schoolers are addicted to computers and spend less time outside playing and getting fresh air and exercise.
Therefore, a meeting was held, The European Ministerial Conference on Counteracting Obesity to discuss implementing a plan of action to reverse the problem throughout Europe. The authors detail the issues that were addressed: international partnerships with other members of the European community, focusing on obesity in young children and adults, lower socio-economic populations and obesity, affordability of healthy choices, creating an environment and opportunities for more physical activities in schools, restriction of communication in media regarding bad foods to children, effective monitoring, evaluating and increasing research. (Watson, Shubhada, 2006, 7)
The significance of this article is that the authors argue that without management and accountability of the Action Plan by all countries, results will be limited. “Given the current lack of appropriate evaluation, it is important to have global national research centers to gather the information from the countries, so strategies can be established to combat the problem of obesity in Europe,” states the authors. (Watson, Shubhada, 2006, 10) If all the European Nations implement a strategic action plan and monitor its results and make changes our children will be healthy and continue their good health into adulthood.

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Fussenegger, D, Pietrobelli. A, Widhalm, K. “Childhood Obesity: Political Developments in Europe and Related Perspectives for Future Action on Prevention”. 29 August 2007.

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Watson, Shubhada. “WHO European Ministerial Conferences on Counteracting Obesity.” 11 November 2006.
European Union. EU Action Plan on Childhood Obesity. 24 February 2014.

Baker, Phillip. “Fat Nation: the rise and fall of obesity on the political agenda.” The Conversation. 25 May 2017.
The authors main point of the article is that “obesity has become a health crisis in Australia and evidence is mounting that “tackling obesity” should now be a political priority”. (Baker, 2017, 1) It has been a political fight because there are a diverse group of key individuals or corporations that could still win or lose from any policy changes implemented by the government in Australia, so they prefer to keep things the same.
He findings detail that currently in Australian the government has not made obesity a priority on their health agenda and that few regulations have been passed into laws regarding the labeling of foods on food packaging, education on the benefits of proper eating, health issues and regular exercise.
Also, he states that there has been a lot of political attention on over-weight issues but powerful lobbying groups such as food distributor groups, health groups and advertising agencies, strongly fight the problem because they have nothing to gain. He finds that the lack of commitment from Australia’s health organizations, industry groups and members of Parliament discouraging.
He affirms “that progress/results will only be made if cohesion among public health groups and advocacy groups is paramount, acknowledgement of the powerful food industry to
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impede progress and that obesity must receive high marks of political attention in the future to move the agenda forward.” (Baker, 2017, 5)
Baker, Philip. “Fat Nation. The Rise and Fall of Obesity on the Political Agenda.” The Conversation. 25 March 2017.

Fumagali, Elena, Mentzakis, Emmanouil, Suhrcke, Marc. “Do political factors matter in explaining under-and overweight outcomes in developing countries.” The Journal of Socio-Economic. October 2013 ,48-56)
With obesity and malnutrition becoming global issues, the authors discuss the main point of this article regarding how the role of political factors determine health. The author states that “systems with democratic qualities are more likely to reduce under-weight but increase overweight/obesity.” Fumagalli, Mentzakis, Suhrcke, 2013,1)
The authors state that political factors are important to consider when explaining over weight and underweight in developing countries. This study contains well researched and organized data necessary to understand whether politics is a contributing factor with weight issues.
Their research dictates that political freedom and democracy are positively associated with different measures of health-reducing under-weight but increases overweight/obesity. First, he states “that democratic government are more efficient and can design pro-poor health program and spend more on healthcare. Second, in democratic countries, elected policy makers and health policies they implement are superior to authoritarian countries. Third, a non-

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autocratic regime can translate economic growth into a higher number of calories for their people”. (Fumagalli, Mentzakis, Suhrcke, 2013, 9)
This essay leads us to believe that democracy aids in reducing at least under-nutrition. However, a democracy may be good for many health aspects, but it may have an adverse effect promoting fatness in America because of a culture based on the intake of processed foods.
Under-nutrition is caused not by choice, but mostly by economics and limited food surplus or lack of finances to purchase nutritious foods. Individuals in countries with strong economies have a reduced risk of malnutrition. For example, countries like Venezuela now are struggling to eat and don’t have a steady food supply because of the dictatorship and economic problems in that country. At one time, Venezuela was a democratic country and had plenty of foods and people were healthy and not relocating to Columbia to survive.
Fumagalli, Elena, Menttzakis, Emmanouil, Suhrcke, Marc. “Do Political Factors Matter in Explaining Under and Overweight Outcomes in Developing Countries.” 6 June ,2013.

Goryakin, Yevgenly. The Impact of Economic, Political and Social Globalization on Overweight and Obesity in the Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Social Science and Medicine. May 2015.
The author states that globalization has been the blame for the increase in obesity in the developing countries. The main purpose of this paper is to look at the three different dimensions of globalization that the author found and how they contribute to obesity: economic, flows of goods and services, political, government policies, social, the spread of ideas. (Yevgenly, 2015, 1)
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To further detail those three categories the essays states that globalization contributes to obesity by stimulating and increasing calories and decreasing levels of energy. For example, globalization is a driver of technology so there may be a correlation between obesity and the increase of technology around the world and the loss of energy intake from exercise and sports. Most young people are addicted to computers.
Additionally, economics is the opening of markets and the increase in agricultural business by creating more food processing leading to an obesity problem. Americans have a problem of eating processed foods and so do other developing countries.
And third, the author discusses in detail the political factors by creating trade blocks and the opening of food markets have led to nutritional changes around the world. We now have access to a diverse food chain.
Social and culture globalization changes have also contributed to a lot more consumption of sugar and fast foods. Being exposed to how other cultures eat and their diet has had a great impact on diets globally.
After reviewing his research that was conducted on all three categories, his summation concludes that more research is needed to better understand how social, economic and political issues influence overweight in developing countries. The world and everything that impacts it changes so rapidly, that research must be conducted in the most current environments. Research dictates that there is no reason to halt globalization but coming up with ways of limiting the adverse health consequences while embracing its positive things.

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5. Summarize what the four articles stated and how the research articles offer an economic, sociological and political science perspective for the problem of obesity.
All the authors have stated that there is an epidemic around the world regarding obesity in children, young adults and adults. Obesity can lead to other health issues such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Besides the health issues across the global health costs at hospitals and medicines has become increasingly expensive for countries.
These articles looked at different countries like Australia, European countries and all of them discussed the same issues of lack of government support, food labeling, more exercise and health awareness in their countries. Some of the barriers in their way to fix the problem is that many stakeholders don’t want to make changes because they will lose a lot of money by doing so.
The European Union has met and are setting up Action Plans to beat the problem, but more research and awareness must be completed to see any real results. Some authors looked at politics and how political factors influence obesity stating that democracy can limit malnutrition, but it has many more cases of obesity. Also, the impact of economic, political and social factors has played an important role in obesity in developing countries.

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There has been a lot of research completed but after reading these reports we must hold governments accountable to come up with strategic plans to fix the problem. Reaching across the globe to our partners and developing goals and objectives together will benefit the world globally and help us have healthier citizens and savings on health costs.

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