It is a well known fact that the health and well being of New Zealander's has decreased over the years as nowadays diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease are more common than ever, even amongst the younger generation. Is it true that McDonalds is contributing towards obesity in young people in New Zealand? Multinational food companies have hugely altered how society eats today. Due to the overwhelming numbers of large multinational food companies in today’s world, this has also changed the eating patterns of New Zealanders overtime. Large companies like McDonalds have completely adapted our attitudes and values towards eating and our choices of food. They have taken these well structured attitudes and values and changed them to fulfill their needs and gain themselves large amounts of income. These adaptions include convenience of fast food, how cheap and accessible their food is to get and also the portion size of meals. Other strategies McDonalds use to gain customers is targeting different audiences, with this largely being aimed at children. They often also rebrand their company, by claiming to be more health conscious with a greater variety of salads and other healthy meal options to appeal to a wider range of people. Statistics from over the years confirm that an obesity epidemic has occurred in New Zealand over the past few decades. Statistics from the 1970s (from the ministry of health website) show that 42 percent of males in New Zealand and 26 percent of adult females were already overweight and 9 percent of males and 11 percent of females were already obese, this meaning a large 51 percent of males and 37 percent of females were already either overweight or obese by the 1970s. Moving forward overtime we can see that male obesity has increased from 17 percent in 1997 to 27.7 percent in 2008. There has also been an increase in obesity in females from 20.6 percent in 1997 to 27.8 percent in 2008. As these numbers for adult obesity have proven to consistently gain overtime, where does this leave children? US results from livestrong.com show that 4 percent of children under the age of 11 were recorded as obese and 6.1 percent of preteens and teens were considered obese by 1971. The 2006 NZ health survey (health.govt.nz) found that one in twelve children aged between 2 to 14 years old were obese,?and one in five children were overweight. The latest New Zealand statistics from 2011/2012 conclude that a large 28.4 percent of our population is now recorded to be obese. These results have clearly increased over time and hold a strong link to the increasing number of fast food corporations that are slowly altering society’s view on how and what we eat today. This could just be a coincidence but many people believe that McDonalds has had a very big effect on this issue. An article from ‘global research’ said that “through the aggressive marketing of ultra-processed food and drink, multinational companies were now major drivers of the world’s growing epidemic of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.” Because of the impact of World War 2 during the 1940s, New Zealanders had to learn to do without, or at least with less. Everyday items like tea and sugar were the first to be rationed along with butter which each person was limited to 8 ounces a week. The hardest hit to new Zealanders was the meat rations, each person was only allowed just over 1kg per week, a mere third of what they would usually consume. A strain was also put on vegetable supply into New Zealand. This therefore encouraged people to grow their own vegetable gardens. After the war was over, immigrant groups arrived from Europe bringing new flavors and products to New Zealand, whom was used to a pretty standard diet of meat, potatoes and tea. Some of the new comers opened up cafes and restaurants. Commonly known restaurants like KFC, McDonalds and Pizza hut were all well and truly open by the mid 1970s but a 2001 survey found that Fish and chips were still the most popular fast food takeaway in New Zealand. Up until the 1960s when tv dinners were introduced, the attitudes and values around food in New Zealand were strongly formed around families sitting at the dinner table a