Daniel Weintraub’s article The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home argues that childhood obesity is not the food industry 's fault but the parents or guardians of the children. Weintraub supports his claim by using research for example, “ Of the 20 recommendations put forward by the center, only one focused on parents...But no one seems to want to tell parents that they need to protect their children from unhealthy foods and from sloth. “ The author 's purpose in writing the article is to inform the readers that parents and guardians of children need to take responsibility instead of blaming others for something they could 've prevented and were ultimately responsible for. Weintraub writes his article in an informal tone for …show more content…
I do not agree with Weintraubs argument that childhood obesity is the adults wrongdoing. Now-a-days fast food companies are being sued for their unhealthy meals as Shannon Brownlee 's article It 's Portion Distortion that Makes America Fat states “...New York lawyer Samuel Hirsch filed several lawsuits against McDonald 's as well as four other fast - food companies, on the grounds that they had failed to adequately disclose the bad health effects of their menus.” Now lawsuits might be a little extreme but the point in reference is the food industries unhealthy secrets are being revealed and people can 't handle the truth. The fast-food business has come up with ways to become as convenient to us as possible, the easier it is to meet our needs, or what we think we need, the more we will buy. A good case of consumer manipulation would be the Taco Bell example from Brownlees article, “ All that mattered was it was fast and cheap...and pricing the main menu at 49, 59 and 69 cents… within seven days the average check was right back to where it was before...In other words cheap food induced people to eat more.” This quote from the article shows that Fast Food companies were cracking the code on what makes us eat more and they were not afraid to use it to their advantage even if it was damaging our health. After Taco Bell made this great discovery it all started to fall, a chain reaction domino 's soon every other fast food trade were dropping their prices down to as low as …show more content…
McDonald 's was the first business to come up with “super sizing”, this was when they could no longer cut down there already cheap food prices so they increased the portions in hopes of attracting more customers. The way this works is because the actual cost to make fast-food was cheap and in order to super-size their food portions it would only cost them a few cents more. So in all reality the fast food companies were gaining way more money from their fine new invention then what they were actually spending to make the food. The To put this into perspective Brownlees article shows “ For every dollar a quick-service franchise spends to produce a food item, only 20 cents, on average, goes toward food.” I mean who wouldn 't think that 's a good idea more for less, but just like Shannon explains “...and the customer thinks he 's getting a good deal. And he would be, if he actually needed the extra calories.”, and this is completely correct. All this is because fast food businesses found out how to work us like puppets, the mystery behind overeating has been scientifically proven. The article It 's Portion Distortion That Makes America Fat points out “ If you put more food in front of people, they eat more, as studies have consistently shown over the last decade.” Not only does the Fast Food industry know what they 're doing is wrong they still intend to keep up with their greedy approaches in the way
In the article "Don’t blame the eater" written by Zinczenko, he argues that fast food is the main reason why so many teenagers are suffering from obesity in United States. He explains that many companies will use advertisements to deceive customers. For example, a company’s website offers a chicken salad with less than four hundred calories per serving; however, they don’t label everything that the salad has In the first label. They will use separate labels in the products that the salad has on it, so the costumer gets confused and thinks that he is actually eating a four hundred calories salad that is "healthy". However, he is actually eating a seven or more hundred calories meal.
In “Its Portion Distortion That Makes America Fat” by Brownlee, she claims that fast food companies and the portions they provide are the real reason that America has seen such a big increase in obesity. I agree that fast food companies are to blame for the rise in obesity and they should begin to take more responsibility for the affect they have had on America. In the not too distant past, fast food portions were smaller and could actually be seen as a suitable meal as they provided enough calories for one person. This all began to change when a man named Elliot Bloom began to study Taco Bell’s sales and discovered that their main consumers consisted of “young, single males who could ate at such restaurants as often as 20 times a month.”
“As a culture, we no longer discuss healthy eating without also discussing unhealthy weights…eating too much-often without any parallel warnings against eating too little…overeating constitutes ‘the greatest threat’ to our survival” (Maxfield 444). The main point in both of these articles that both authors agree with is the fact that people don’t add up all their calories they eat daily, which should be less than or equal to 3500 calories. When you go to a fast food restaurant, usually a normal “healthy” person would get a salad, large drink, and a side item like fries; this normally doesn’t seem like a lot of calories, but then you add the dressing and this healthy lunch turns out becoming an unhealthy 1700 calories already in one meal. Not only is fast food a lot of calories, but it is really cheap too, and most people spend their money on this instead of eating healthy and spending more money. “Americans spend less than 10 percent of their income on food; they also spend less than a half hour a day preparing meals and little more than an hour enjoying them” (Pollan 439).
According to recent polls, approximately 3% of Americans admit to consuming fast-food at least once per day. This number, although it may appear small, it accounts for 9.5 million citizens across the United States who are unashamed of chowing down on a quick meal. Unfortunately, due to this consumerization, obesity and other like-minded illnesses have risen in recent years. The effects are costly and capable of making people pay the ultimate price: their life.
The main contributor, widely reported by top experts, is the consumption of cheap, and convenient foods such as fast food and the myriad of boxed foods available in the supermarket. Diane Brady asserts in her essay, “The Employer-Friendly Case for Pricer Big Macs” that “Of all the reasons why a third of U.S. adults are obese, the lure of cheap, unhealthy food ranks near the top” (519). With continual attention being given to the effects of unhealthy foods on adults and especially young people, one would think that America would wise up and stop consuming it at such an alarming rate. Again, Brady points out that, “Fast food chains have raised their game with healthier menu offerings and support for programs that encourage physical activity, but they continue to thrive by selling high-calorie food. McDonald’s salads, introduced in 1987, make up just 2 percent to 3 percent of U.S. sales” (520).
In the article “It’s Portion Distortion That Makes America Fat,” by Shannon Brownlee explains how fast food companies persuade you to eat. In fast food places, they use fast food marketing strategies to induce an amount of people to eat more. Another strategy was called “smart research”. This strategy targeted “heavy users” and people who to go restaurants on a daily basis. Brownlee said that cheap products would influence us to buy more of them.
In a result of this many people, health officials, and parents are complaining because there has been an increase of child obesity. Children grow up learning healthy eating habits and how to make smart food choices which will continue to follow them as they get older. On the other hand, children growing up with
Obesity rates have risen, our food has been modified, and production in America has drastically changed. This book has open the eyes of many Americans, so that they may take a stand and fight for what’s right. The people deserve to know what they are buying and what they are eating. And that's exactly what they don't want you to know.
In “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko explains that the only affordable meal choice for an American teenager is fast food. Zinczenko recognizes that families consume these food sources because of the numerous McDonald’s restaurants and the lack of grocery stores in the area. Zinczenko argues that “Some fast-food purveyors will provide calorie information on request, but even that can be hard to understand”(464). However, fast-food is not the blame as Zinczenko argues in the article it 's the consumer that is to blame. The consumer has the control to eat what they want.
Americans today are well-known for their eating habits. With all the options the food industry gives us it makes it hard to go to the grocery store and resist picking up that bag of barbeque-flavored chips or blueberry flavored candy. Due to these processed foods obesity is a growing epidemic in our country and who is to blame for it? In an article entitled “What You Eat is Your Business” by Radley Balko, Balko argues for less government intervention. Balko believes is it our responsibility to take care of ourselves and make it a priority.
Junk food is responsible for the growing rate of obesity. This is outlined by David freedman in his article of “How junk food can end obesity.” David Freedman has credited the “health-food” motion, and followers of it along with Michel Pollan. Freedman claims that if the America desires to stop the obesity epidemic, or at least reduce its effects, they must shift to the fast meals and processed meals enterprise for assist, now not the “health-food” movement.
Parents need help from the government to help make changes in the environment that children grow up in. such as, limiting the unhealthy advertisements targeted at children, creating safe places for children to place and exercise, and encouraging parents to prepare nutritious meals for their children as opposed to fast food (Childhood Obesity). Interagency Working Group has started making a difference by setting recommendations for foods advertised to children. They also would like to make
Parents usually blame the advertisements that pass on television promoting junk food and believe that it is persuading the child to buy or consume the product that is been promoted. But in reality the advertisement is for the parents but and the parent will take the decision if it is good for their kids. When they show the image of the product on television the image might seem really appetite that would convince someone to go and buy the product. That is the person 's opinion of course and yeah eat in a fast food restaurant is not a bad thing but some people don 't the the damage it can make the body. There have been people who eat everyday out and in two weeks gain more than 5 pounds and their cholesterol raises.
Don’t Blame the Eater: Rebuttal In his article "Don 't Blame the Eater", David Zinczenko discusses that obesity is a grave health issue I the United States of America. He argues that almost all of the kids who eats at fast food joints are more likely to become obese. He then goes on to inform his readers that during his teenage years, he, like many other American kids, was surviving on fast-food due to it accessibility and affordability.
Anyone can walk down the street and see a fast food place almost anywhere they go. Humans have a tendency to be lazy. It 's much easier to go down the street and pick up a hamburger than to make a low-calorie meal at home. It 's less complex to the consumer. According to a Heidi Godman, executive editor of Harvard 's Health Letter "teenagers and kids consumed far more calories in fast-food and other restaurants than they did at home.