Abstract
The chapter addresses the issue of how governments of democratic states might seek to assist their citizens to reverse the serious trend towards overweight and obesity. Recent reports have stressed the contributory role of the obesogenic environment that characterises contemporary UK society, and suggested that to be effective policy interventions need to be implemented on several fronts. The chapter explores the multidimensional capabilities of the ethical matrix as both a procedural and a substantive tool in such programmes, focusing on food production, marketing and consumption.
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Notes
- 1.
Obesity is generally assessed on the basis of the body mass index (BMI), defined as body weight (kg) divided by height (m).2 The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines “normal weight” as a BMI of 18.5–24.9, “overweight” as a BMI of 25.0–29.9, and “obese” as a BMI of over 30.0.
- 2.
The author’s submission to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics public consultation exercise may be viewed at: http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/fileLibrary/pdf/Professor_Ben_Mepham001.pdf
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Mepham, B. (2010). The Ethical Matrix as a Tool in Policy Interventions: The Obesity Crisis. In: Gottwald, FT., Ingensiep, H., Meinhardt, M. (eds) Food Ethics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5765-8_2
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