All-You-Can-Eat Restaurants Encourage Overeating

The rise of the all you can eat culture, has also seen a rise in obesity – with predictions of 2.3 billion people being overweight by 2015 and more than 700 million of them will be obese.

Gluttony:

An inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. Are Brits becoming sinful in the deadliest way?

All you can eat may sound like a great idea but some people are taking the term too far. The phrase is ominous, on one hand the idea of infinite food sounds like paradise on earth. On the other hand it sends out dangerous instruction to overindulge.

It’s no surprise that restaurants are closing at an estimated rate of 100 a month with the growth of all you can eat for a fixed price. The growth of these over indulging restaurants has seen a sharp increase in the number of overweight people who are willing to make the journey in order to ‘fill their faces’.

One of the main problems of these types of restaurants is the mentality that many of the customers have, with some saying they feel they have to eat as much as they can because there is such a selection they don’t want to miss out.

Overweight people have also been hit by claims that they are increasing global warming as they are more likely to drive than walk, adding to environmental damage. UK health surveys estimate fatness has increased from an average body mass index of 26 to 27 in the last ten years - that's equivalent to about half a stone for every person.

Food Fight:

All you can eat restaurants believe they are helping the public fight their self-esteem issues, and are hitting back against allegations that they are fuelling the obesity crisis by pointing out that they are merely helping improve the self-esteem of their customers.

Society thinks there is a fight against anorexia but figures actually show 1.3 billion people worldwide are overweight compared to 800 million that are underweight. The NHS is concerned about these figures, with the number of people who had weight loss surgery on the NHS increasing by 40% last year.

It is true that all you can eat buffets can be a delicious indulgence as long as you eat at one infrequently. Also as well as junk food you can also find fruit and vegetable- however research has shown that people seem to bypass the healthy food and head straight for ‘carbs and calories’, then wonder why obesity is on the rise.

The ‘obesity’ issue doesn’t stop at adults; the spread of over indulging has now reached children in the UK. At least 20 million children under the age of 5 years old were overweight globally in 2005.

An increase in all you can eat restaurant may be catastrophic if, as expected, the prevalence of obesity continues to rise around the world.

Is Britain slowly becoming a ‘fat nation’ thanks to all you can eat restaurants? With figures showing weight loss operations rising by 40%, number of obesity cases up by 30% and 1.2 million people on dieting drugs.

- K.J.N -