title: 'Please, sir, can I have some more?' Food, lifestyle, diets: respect and moral responsibility.
abstract: This article is about respect for food, responsibility for lifestyle and diet and responsibility for those who suffer from lack of food. After some general reflections on food, feasts, flatulence, taboos and waste, I argue that we have a responsibility to live a healthy lifestyle, but that there are also morally good reasons for taking risks with our health as we cherish other goals and values. Then I discuss situations, using the example of obesity, in which people are not free to choose their lifestyle. Governments and doctors have responsibilities in enabling people to chose healthy eating habits, e.g. by facilitating access to healthy foods and by criticizing scientifically unfounded weight loss diets. I continue to defend that we need to respect food and those who prepare it, and that we have a moral responsibility to contribute to the solution of the food gap in the world.
authors.affiliation: Erasmus MC/University Medical Centre, Dept Medical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: i.debeaufort@erasmusmc.nl.
authors.forename: Inez
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: de Beaufort
mesh_terms: D004032:Diet; D005502:Food; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D009014:Morals; D012941:Social Responsibility
keywords: Diet; Ethics; Food; Obesity; Responsibility for health