ENELE TOA
Samoan rugby player
Because I play sport, I am surrounded by people who eat healthily, so I eat healthily. I come from Samoa, where fast food arrived in 1996, displacing local food cultures.
Now when I visit, I see my family eating fast food, and getting health problems like strokes, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia. These are “commerciogenic diseases”: caused by companies advertising aggressively and saturating the options available with unhealthy food. If it’s easy to get, cheap, and everyone eats it why – would you go anywhere else?
FACT
Scientists think some diseases are “epigenetic” – caused by interactions between our genes and environmental factors like food.
ISSUE
1.2 million people in the UK lack access to affordable, healthy food.
QUESTION
What is the food environment like around you?