Tackling Obesity In New Zealand: The Gym Essay Idea.

The social issue is (Obesity) and the business idea to solve this issue is the gym. This business proposal has to solve this social issue in New Zealand.

Obesity Rates and Associated Health Risks in New Zealand

According to Baum et al., 2018, obesity rates in New Zealand have been rising over the years, causing the subsequent increase in diseases such as nutritional related chronic diseases which brings burden to the families and the healthcare systems. Obese people are not productive to the society as compared to those who are not obese, the ministry of health survey between 2016 and 2017 found that 34% adults age 15 and over are overweight, and over 1.2 million people are fat(Fiamma, 2018).  Statistics done in the year2008 shows that 4.3 million people the studies show that nearly 1.12 people in New Zealand are overweight and another 826,000 being obese. The samples of 2006 and 2017 indicate that there is an increase of 25%

Obesity is more common in New Zealand, in females it is from the early age of 5 up to the age 34. Women have the high risk of obesity at the old age, and they risk getting more diseases (Edwards et al., .2017).  The government has taught the old people to eat food like fruits and vegetables for the young they have tried to reduce the food that contains a lot of fats and sugar from schools to reduce the chances of obesity among the young people.

According to Howe et al., .2015, obesity is a medical condition whereby there is an abnormal increase in body fats in the human body. It is whereby body fats has accumulated to the extent that may have the adverse effect on health.  We measure obesity by diving the weight of a person by the square of the person height we get what we called the body mass index (O'Sullivan 2015).

Increase in obesity comes with the likelihood of various diseases and conditions that is very dangerous to the human body. For example cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer osteoarthritis, obstructive sleep, and depression.

According to Kuptniratsaikul et al., 2018, obesity is one is one of the major issues in the ministry of health country of New Zealand, and it caused by the following,

Ø    Genetic: it has a robust genetic component, children of parents who are obese are more likely to be obese, and it doesn't mean that the state of your parents determines obesity but what you consume has an impact in genes, a country which doesn't have industries become obese when they start eating food from industrious nations. But according to Krishnan (2017), genetic components affect one's susceptibility to weight gain.

Factors Contributing to the Obesity Epidemic in New Zealand

Ø    Engineered junk foods: heavily treated food is often slightly more than sophisticated ingredients assorted with addictive's. These products are designed to be cheap and last long.

Companies often make their food tasty and sweet to increase sales hence more profit. By doing so, they promote overeating.

Ø    Food addiction: most people are more addicted to specific food that causes obesity, they consume the same food, and people lose control over their eating behavior.

Addiction is a complicated issue that is difficult to overcome. Addicted people always lose their freedom of choice (Howe et al., 2015)

Ø    Aggressive marketing:  the producers of junk food are very aggressive when it comes to marketing and distribution of their product

Specific medication: certain medications affect the functions of the body, examples are drugs used to treat diabetes.

Generally by excessive food intake which results in more fats being stored in the body tissue, lack of physical exercise for our bodies and genetic susceptibility. A few causes are said to be caused by the mental disorder, endocrine disorder or other medications.

Gym as the Business idea to solve the problem of obesity in New Zealand

According to Martis, Brown & Crowther (2017), a gym is building or a room which contains special equipment used by people to do physical exercise to reduce body fats and accumulate body muscles instead of lipids.  As an entrepreneur in New Zealand, I have done a thorough analysis and found out that that one of the most important solutions for obesity is the physical exercise for various body parts, this can only be accomplished by using multiple specific tools that are usually designed for exercising of parts of the body using different procedures. A thorough body exercise results to the breaking down of up to 80% of the body fats which when excessive amounts are the primary cause of obesity for the majority of the New Zealand citizens (Vandevijvere & Swinburn, 2014). Establishing a gym center will be useful for those who wish to maintain a healthy lifestyle and monthly charges will be applicable for all the clients who shall be guided by a gym instructor to ensure positive results(Watkins et al .,2015). The gym shall adopt a private business license which signifies capitalism (private sole proprietorship entity).

For the success of any business, there should be a thorough analysis of the political environment, economic environment, Social-cultural environment, Technological environment and legal, political environment (Moutinho & Phillips, 2018). It is important because it enables the entrepreneur to access the market availability and take corrective actions. For the gym business, the research majored in the: political environment, social-cultural environment, and the legal environment to ascertain the likelihood of the business success.

The Role of Gym Businesses in Tackling Obesity in New Zealand

In New Zealand, most of the rich people are politicians, and wealthy individuals who usually eat a lot are the victims of obesity due to busy schedules hence minimal body exercise (Utter, et al., 2015), the gyms shall be a right place for them. They might choose to go before and after the jobs, despite their busy schedules they must consider going to the gym if they need to get rid of the obesity and the related diseases to Furthermore. Lack of political instability may result in the closure of the business, and therefore people will not be able to do exercise. The government should, thus, provide enabling environment from the starts and also the continuity of the business, the government can do this by reducing taxes and also giving financing support such as funding. This would give the company a peaceful atmosphere for the industry to thrive.

The social environment is society's practices customs, beliefs, and behaviors that may affect the growth of the business and failure to provide a solution to the problems faced by the community. Consumption of foods that are rich in fats and sugar are the standard practices that might affect the control of obesity   According to Robinson& Liu (2015), almost 80% of the food consumed daily by the New Zealand citizens is comprised of meat and excessive fats which make them highly prone to obesity. Creation of awareness on the importance of maintaining an average body weight will make them see how essential gym exercise for them hence the success of the business.

The business should meet all the legal standards set by the government before commencing the operations. All the policies formulated by the government guides the enterprise should adopt the actions of private enterprises for smooth operations.

Conclusion

I consider gym as the most appropriate business idea to fight against obesity, and I found that significant causes of obesity are an accumulation of excess fats inside the body which need to burn down to produce energy, doing physical excess daily. Good health is essential for the healthy body functioning. Incorporation of the physical exercise in the lifestyle is a crucial factor to good health; hence the gym is the solution due to proper guidance by the gym instructor.

References

Baum, D. M., Morales Rodriguez, B., Attali, V., Cauhape, M., Arnulf, I., Cardot, P., & Fiamma, M. N. (2018). New Zealand Obese Mice as Translational Model of Obesity-related Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, (JA).

Edwards, M. K., Addoh, O., Herod, S. M., Rhodes, R. E., & Loprinzi, P. D. (2017). A Conceptual Neurocognitive Affect-Related Model for the Promotion of Exercise among Obese Adults. Current obesity reports, 6(1), 86-92.

Howe, L. D., Ellison-Loschmann, L., Pearce, N., Douwes, J., Jeffreys, M., & Firestone, R. (2015). There are more risk factors for obesity in New Zealand infants. J Epidemiol Community Health, 69(6), 516-522.

Krishnan, M. (2017). Genetic Studies of Obesity in New Zealand: A Children of SCOPE Study (Doctoral dissertation, University of Auckland).

Kuptniratsaikul, V., Kittichaikarn, C., Suntornpiyapan, P., Kovintaset, K., & Inthibal, S. (2018). Is four-week underwater treadmill exercise regimen compared to home exercise efficacious for pain relief and functional improvement in obese patients with knee osteoarthritis? A randomized controlled trial. Clinical Rehabilitation, 0269215518792041.

Martis, R., Brown, J., & Crowther, C. A. (2017). Views and Experiences of New Zealand Women with Gestational Diabetes in Achieving Glycaemic Control Targets: The Views Study. Journal of diabetes research, 2017.

Moutinho, L., & Phillips, P. (2018). Strategic analysis. In Contemporary Issues in Strategic Management (pp. 46-79). Routledge.

O'Sullivan, M. (2015). How have health policy changes responded to the rise of a childhood of obesity in New Zealand over the last thirty years?