Citerank: (15) 352388Advertising and marketing reinforce new eating patterns Marketing and advertising instil and reinforce new cultural norms about what (e.g. fast food) and how to eat (e.g. snacking), and how much (e.g. larger portions) to eat.555CD992, 352390Industrial way of life is obesogenicRapid societal changes—for example, in food production, motorised transport and work/home lifestyle patterns—have placed human physiology (which has evolved to cope with an under-supply of food and high energy expenditure) under new stresses, and revealed an underlying genetic tendency to accumulate and conserve energy (i.e. gain weight) in a high proportion of the population. In this sense, obesity can be construed as a normal physiological response to an abnormal environment.555CD992, 368175Targeting advertising at childrenAdvertising and other marketing approaches are targeted at children and other vulnerable groups.62C78C9A, 370363Unhealthy foods are cheaper and getting cheaper555CD992, 370364Portions have grown larger555CD992, 370365Unhealthier foods are engineered to be tastierFood scientists have become adept at understanding how our brains respond to, and react to, and crave tastes, smells and textures, and have become adept at engineering and processing foods to take advantage of that – largely by adding lots of salt, sugar and fat – and to make these foods almost irresistible to our brains.555CD992, 371727Growth in restaurants and dining outThe restaurant industry has almost doubled its share of every dollar spent on food in the United States over the last 60 years from 25% in 1955 to 47% today. Much of this growth reflects the expansion in fast food restaurants (a trend observed in other countries including the UK).648CC79C, 399889Industrial way of life is obesogenicRapid societal changes—for example, in food production, motorised transport and work/home lifestyle patterns—have placed human physiology (which has evolved to cope with an under-supply of food and high energy expenditure) under new stresses, and revealed an underlying genetic tendency to accumulate and conserve energy (i.e. gain weight) in a high proportion of the population. In this sense, obesity can be construed as a normal physiological response to an abnormal environment.555CD992, 399917Advertising and marketing reinforce new eating patterns Marketing and advertising instil and reinforce new cultural norms about what (e.g. fast food) and how to eat (e.g. snacking), and how much (e.g. larger portions) to eat.555CD992, 399918Unhealthy foods are cheaper and getting cheaper555CD992, 399919Portions have grown larger555CD992, 399920Unhealthier foods are engineered to be tastierFood scientists have become adept at understanding how our brains respond to, and react to, and crave tastes, smells and textures, and have become adept at engineering and processing foods to take advantage of that – largely by adding lots of salt, sugar and fat – and to make these foods almost irresistible to our brains.555CD992, 399921Ready-to-eat food is more readily availableReady-to-eat food is increasingly available in industrial societies 24-hours a day and in places where food wasn't traditionally available (such as pharmacies and petrol stations), as well as via the growing number of fast food restaurants and coffee shops.555CD992, 399945Targeting advertising at childrenAdvertising and other marketing approaches are targeted at children and other vulnerable groups.62C78C9A, 399947Growth in restaurants and dining outThe restaurant industry has almost doubled its share of every dollar spent on food in the United States over the last 60 years from 25% in 1955 to 47% today. Much of this growth reflects the expansion in fast food restaurants (a trend observed in other countries including the UK).648CC79C

We investigated whether a higher number of fast-food outlets in an individual’s home neighbourhood is associated with increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and related risk factors, including obesity.

[Our results suggest] that for every additional two outlets per neighbourhood, we would expect one additional diabetes case, assuming a causal relationship between the fast-food outlets and diabetes.

Conclusions These results suggest that increased exposure to fast-food outlets is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity, which has implications for diabetes prevention at a public health level and for those granting planning permission to new fast-food outlets.