What You Eat Is Your Business Randy Balko Analysis

Obesity: Who is to Blame?

Food, we need it to sustain life. It is our fuel for our bodies, without it we would parish. Over the year’s people have used food for more than just fueling their bodies, it is something that we socialize over, we enjoy, we create, and it is an art. Food is more than just food today. So, it is no wonder people are consuming more food that we did in the past. Is overeating the only cause to the obesity problem the united states have been facing over the past twenty years or more? There are two articles that delve into this very issue. In the article “What You Eat Is Your Business” Randy Balko talks about it being individual’s responsibility to care for their weight and well-being, and less of a matter of public

I feel while their arguments make some fair points, I thing if we truly are going to make a difference on the obesity problem in America we need to not be one sided to give blame. To make a true difference we need health care, the individual, the big food companies and the government to work together. For example, health care insurance companies, could offer more incentives for people who are working on improving their health, this working on the health care and individual responsibilities that Balko saw as the majority of the problem. Then if government could put some restrictions on food companies on the ingredients they use, and offer company incentives for the more health food options they produce, or even the healthier they can make their existing

Balko states he does not think that obesity should be a public health issue. His reasoning behind this is “it is difficult to think of anything more private and less public concern that what we choose to put into our bodies. It only becomes public matter when we force the public to pay for the consequences of those choices.” (468) To me this this is foolish. In the 80’s we considered the HIV/AIDS problem a public health crisis. Isn’t who we decide to have intercourse with and or do intravenous drugs with even more personal than what people eat. When a health problem is affecting such a large amount of a population it deserves to have the title “Public Health Crisis.” Especially when having that title will shine more light on the situation, and presumably get more done to solve the