Despite being among the healthiest countries in the world, even the Dutch are battling obesity! In an attempt to fight the ever-growing epidemic, the Dutch cabinet is ready to take action.
How? By giving fast food restaurants the finger. More specifically, sources from The Hague tell AD that a large plan to tackle the spread of fast food restaurants is expected to be approved by the Council of Ministers later this week.
By refusing to allow more fast food restaurants to set up shop in their cities, the hope is that municipalities will combat an unhealthy lifestyle.
What will this plan look like?
It’s easy enough to say that the cabinet has a plan — but what would this actually mean in practice? If approved, the cabinet plans to tackle the problem in three steps:
- The cabinet will provide a legal basis to ban the establishment of new fast food restaurants.
- Municipalities will be given the choice to decide how many fast food restaurants they tolerate.
- In the future, steps may be taken to reduce the number of existing fast food restaurants.
Guess it’s time to say doei to our dreams of a Chick-fil-A in the Netherlands … 🍔
But hey, health is wealth, right?
Biking is not enough
While you may shed a tear for your beloved Dominos, this plan could be exactly what we need.
Yes, the dutch are healthy, but they also love an occasional stop at the snackbar! The spread of fast food chains, especially burger, pizza, and döner restaurants, has long been a growing issue in the Netherlands.
READ MORE | Snackbars in the Netherlands: the ultimate guide
With many fast food joints close to schools and universities, the government is especially concerned about all us young people, who remain most susceptible to a greasy bite on the go.
No more ads targeted towards children
And it’s not just us teens and twenty-somethings that the Dutch government is trying to protect.
To ensure that our future generations are set up for success, the Dutch cabinet also wants to ban marketing strategies specifically targeted towards children.
In practice, this would mean that all the lekker sweets that are named after famous cartoon characters may disappear from the shelves of Dutch supermarkets soon.
What do you think of the Dutch cabinet’s plans? Let us know in the comments below!