This development in eating habits has enormous and serious consequences for relations between people and for human health. It has also catalysed a whole range of campaigns and movements dedicated to encouraging healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. The debate over food choices and preferences has become one of the great controversial issues of our time.
Mass-produced processed food has gradually and increasingly replaced fresh and healthy foods in people's diets over the course of the twentieth century. In recent decades companies have further capitalised on this situation by promoting fast and mediocre meals to be eaten outside the home.