America's most famous city has decided to tackle the obesity pandemic head on with City officials taking affirmative action to beat the problem. Councilman Joel Rivera from the Bronx area of New York is determined to lower the city's obesity statistics and has argued that the city should use zoning laws for restaurants in order to stop the proliferation of fast food establishments in places where people seen to be the most obese.

All over America there appears to a trend to show that more fast food outlets are located in lower income areas and this must be adding to the high obesity rates seen in poor neighbourhoods. In the 2004 Centre for Disease Control survey it was noted that nearly 60% of New York adults were classed as overweight and 33% of children ages 2 to 5  from poorer areas were overweight.

Joel Rivera says that the figure show that unless something is done fast, the year 2010 will show that over 50% of New York children will be obese and this will add to the already growing problem of diabetes, cancer, strokes and cardio problems. New York City officials have already taken up initiatives to implement good food in schools and start family fitness programs all over the city.

The fast food zoning proposals are controversial as many argue that it is difficult to quantify what is classified as fast food and that the present simple classification is thise restaurants that serve food high in trans fat (the worst type of fat) and those that have more than 1,000 calorie meals.

Many argue that closing a few fast food outlets in an area will only make the others busier and will not actually stop people eating the rubbish.They also say that it is not the fast food restaurants that make people fat but the fact that people eat more than they burn off in energy during the day.