The Obesity Epidemic

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How would you feel if I told you that there is no one state with an obesity rate lower than 20%? Take this information and compare it to twenty years ago when every state had an obesity rate lower than 15%. Obesity has become not only the number one cause in death, but according to David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health and author of “Don’t Blame the Eater”, it is the number one cost in health care with numbers rising well over 100 billion dollars a year (196). There are many people we could blame, such as the food industry or the government, but before we start pointing fingers elsewhere, individuals need to stand up and take personal responsibility for their own actions and health. Either way it is evident a transformation is needed; someone needs to take action!

David Zinczenkos’ informative, but laid back article, “Don’t Blame the Eater”, explains the obesity epidemic in America through a plethora of situations, such as his own. As he explains, Zinczenko grew up in a home where both of his parents were working, therefore, unhealthy food become prevalent in his life. With Zinczenkos own experience playing a role in his opinion he exclaims, “fast-food companies are marketing to children a product with proven health hazards and no warning labels” (197). In other words, he believes that if fast food companies concentrated their marketing on healthier foods instead of hazardous ones, especially to children, the obesity epidemic would have a chance to turn around; he expands on this by suggesting the idea of educating their customers on what they are consuming. Zinczenko also points out that not all food industries show the exact amount of calories one is consuming, or they make it difficult for someone to...

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...s our environment changed, but our lifestyles and the food that surrounds us as well. There is no mistake that obesity has become the number one epidemic in America by a landslide, but there are only three options in order for there to be a culmination: government needs to step in, the food industry needs to change, or the individuals needs to take accountability. Only one of these solutions will have the greatest impact resolving this epidemic… Individuals.

Works Cited

Balko, Radley. “What You Eat is Your Business.” They Say, I Say. Second Edition. Graff &

Birkenstein. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print 157-161.

Leonhardt, David. “Fat Tax.” New York Times Magazine 16 Aug. 2009: 9. Print.

Zinczenko, David. “Don’t Blame the Eater.” They Say, I Say. Second Edition. Graff &

Birkenstein. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print 195-197.

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