The book Salt, Sugar, and Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us discusses the danger of food with its readers. The dangers of food discussed in the book are the ingredients of Salt, Sugar and Fat in the food individuals consume on a daily basis. Producers use these ingredients to their advantage to get the consumers bliss point. The bliss point attained is used by the food giants to achieve a profit. However due to research on the health risks of these ingredients food companies are strategizing in order to maintain their profit and earn more of a profit. In Chapter nine the author informs the readers about the Company Oscar Mayer. Oscar Mayer is known for its bologna foods and the popular Lunchables. Bologna is a product that is full of salt and saturated fat. Bologna was losing its appeal due to the health risks associated with it. The health risks associated with bologna is heart attacks and strokes. The Oscar Mayer Company created a low fat bologna food and marketed the Bologna product however the profit received was slipping. The Oscar Mayer team decided to come up with a product that is known today as Lunchables. Lunchables became a popular product due to the fact it was convenient. The convenience of Lunchables was due to the fact that it was a chilled prepared food. The original Lunchables contained red meat, cheese, crackers, a napkin and a juice. Since the Lunchables gained a lot of attention the producers of Lunchables decided to add various different kinds of Lunchables. Lunchables varied from pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs and more. The new kinds of Lunchables also included sugary drinks and desert such as cookies and or candy. Researchers studied the Lunchables and deemed them a disaster. They stated that Lunchables co... ... middle of paper ... ...pened my eyes to the health risks of the food I consume. There is a lot of health risks associated with the foods on the shelves at the supermarket. A food product I ate as a child was Lunchables. At the time I just thought the food was good. Although, now that I am aware of what I put in my body I try to look at the ingredient and the food products I consume before I consume them. The book also informed me of the deceitfulness of people in order to make a profit. A prime example in Chapter eleven is the Kraft Company. The Kraft Company state they want to decrease the amounts of salt, sugar and fat in their products. On the other hand, Kraft creates new products with an increased amount of these ingredients. Many companies state that they try to fulfill the desires of consumers. This idea is wrong. The consumers study what our body craves and uses it against us.
“Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating,” is an article written by Mary Maxfield in response or reaction to Michael Pollan’s “Escape from the Western Diet”. Michael Pollan tried to enlighten the readers about what they should eat or not in order to stay healthy by offering and proposing a simple theory: “the elimination of processed foods” (443).
The western diet consists of foods high in sugar and fat, as well as a large consumption of red meats and refined grains. As a result, people who consume a western diet face problems with their weight and often have many diseases related to poor dieting. Pollan believes that the food industry and medical community take advantage of this. Pollan claims that the food industry will change their processed food and sell it back to the consumer rather than removing the process food all together. The medical community will treat people’s diseases instead of helping to prevent theses disease by educating people on how to make healthier life style choices. Mary Maxfield believes that these points made by Michael Pollan are hypocritical. She states that Michael Pollan is taking advantage of the consumer the same way he claims that the food industry and medical community are. Pollan would criticize the food industry and medical community but at the same time publish and sell his theories on how to eat
With regulations being set and laws enacted, the United States has seen a change for the better within the food industry and for the consumers overall. As a result, as much as a company is willing to cut on cost, without the consumers, every business in any industry will become bankrupt. The power is in the consumer and as long as consumers are educated properly and willing to speak up, there is a bright future ahead. However, because not everything can be seen, it is important to have books such as The Jungle and authors like Upton Sinclair to let people know what is going on and what not everyone is able to see. In doing so, this will raise awareness, create transparency and demand that companies practice ethically for the betterment of the
In the documentary, Food Inc., we get an inside look at the secrets and horrors of the food industry. The director, Robert Kenner, argues that most Americans have no idea where their food comes from or what happens to it before they put it in their bodies. To him, this is a major issue and a great danger to society as a whole. One of the conclusions of this documentary is that we should not blindly trust the food companies, and we should ultimately be more concerned with what we are eating and feeding to our children. Through his investigations, he hopes to lift the veil from the hidden world of food.
Some might complain about the guilt they feel knowing they are willingly consuming sodium benzoate and soybean oil. Which, according to Warner, isn’t a bad thing. If one is buying a blueberry muffin, most likely, they’d be interested to know that those “blueberry” pieces are the result of an experiment. If it was common knowledge that out of the 5,000 additives found in food barely a half has been tested, American’s would ponder their diet. While change is never easy, it isn’t hard to spark a movement towards change. This is evident with the shift towards eating better. Perhaps it will amount to no more than a trend, but throughout history, science has never surpassed the natural world. That is why the natural world has survived as long as it can, because, in many ways, it’s the best you can get. Pandora’s Lunchbox possess the ability to spark something more than a general knowledge of cereal factories.
The 2009 movie Food Inc. describes the major role that food production plays within many lives. This movie revealed that there is a very small variety of companies that consumers purchase their food from. These few companies actually control what is out on the shelves and what we put into our bodies. These companies have changed food production into a food production business. Many of these companies experiment with ways to create large quantities of food at low production costs to result in an enormous amount of profit for themselves. Some of the production cost cuts also result in less healthy food for the population. Instead of worrying about the health of the population, the companies are worried about what will make them the most money.
Subway, one of the present leaders in the fast food industry was set up in 1965 in Bridgeport, Connecticut by Fred DeLuca. A family friend of him suggested this idea to help him pay for his education to fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor. Dr. Peter Buck, one of Fred’s friends agreed to be his partner with a loan of $1,000. There was a huge growth in the business relationship that changed the landscape of the fast food industry.
Moss voices that “a line of the trays, appropriately called Maxed Out, was released that had as many as nine grams of saturated fat, or nearly an entire day’s recommended maximum for kids, with up to two-thirds of the max for sodium and 13 teaspoons of sugar (267). Now, with that being said, if consumers were aware of the health concerns provoked by these foods perhaps they would reconsider what they prioritize. If well informed, maybe they would make adjustments to their busy schedules to make their children’s lunches at home rather than to feed them convenient processed
Restaurants have a greater possibility of getting more money if they have "special" nutritional labels. Many people dislike the food label, yet some people are for them. Labels would not benefit anyone because they are not always right, and they sometimes just want the state to give them As for their grade, yet it sometimes if negative to have new foods on the menu. A food has to be evaluated before put on the menu, therefore it would be even more complicated. The author proclaims, "But for the restaurant, it is a nuisance and a potential threat to their business. It means that before a new item goes on the menu, it has to be evaluated." This statement explains that before a new item goes on the menu trouble is beginning. Labels are no help they just bring in more money because prices get higher from healthy
The sole purpose of a company is to offer goods and services while making a profit. If people have a liking for food products with so many unhealthy items and are willing to buy them, the companies have no obligation to reduce the amount of added ingredients. The companies aren’t the ones forcing the public to overeat. However, these companies shouldn’t market their products to people who they can easily exploit like children and those who are penurious. Michael Moss, author of the article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” interviews several people who worked for certain big brand companies and gives us an abundant amount of information on how the food companies make and market their food to “get us hooked”.
He begins his argument by commenting about kids suing McDonald’s for “making them fat” (Zinczenko 462). Zinczenko ponders the absurdity of this claim considering how food choices are based on personal responsibility. However, he then considers the overwhelming availability ratio of fast food to fresh food while sympathizing he was once obese himself (Zinczenko 462). Zinczenko uses the primary argument that fast food companies are deceiving consumers with misleading advertisement, hidden nutrition facts, and calorie risks. He believes companies are encouraging the public to eat their unhealthy foods by omitting alarming information and levying “good” deals. In consequence, fast food companies are increasing the chances of obesity and diabetes in consumers by stimulating poor eating
Repeatedly the news will highlight a story about the obesity epidemic sweeping the nation. Although the news and health experts bombard the common citizen with quick and easy ways to eat healthier and exercise more, the source of the issue is kept hidden behind closed doors. Before placing blame on the eating habits, it’s essential to take a closer look at what is being consumed. With rapid change in the food industry, progress must be met with caution because “The way we eat has changed more in the past fifty years than in the past 10,000” (Pollan and Schlosser). It is easy for the common man to provide the blanket statement of eating “better”, yet few actually proceed to do this. The average American has one of the worst diets in the world although opportunity and variety of options are overwhelming. Food industries are deceiving by masking the true process of how their food is produced. Not only does the eye not see how the food was made, but there is also a false sense of variety in the grocery market. The grossly unbalanced American diets and genetically modified organisms both coexist to create a greater problem than previously thought of.
Food is a necessity in our lives; it provides us our basic biological needs; however, when it is misused it can be deadly. This is a problem faced in many western societies because the people of these societies prefer the processed fast food, over healthy foods. Over consumption of these fast foods can make consumers ill, obese, and can possibly shorten their lifespan. Many people in these societies believe the scapegoat is the diet itself, refusing to believe there are many other factors that contribute to the problem; however, there are many factors that come into play such as culture, personal responsibility, and a parsimonious food industries.
The people who are related to cooking and healthy dieting point at the fact that the unhealthy food is a “number one cause of the most common diseases, including cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and heart disease” (Maffetone). Among the food that contains immense amounts of sugar are cakes, ice-creams, and biscuits that are highly loved especially by children. They can easily become a reason for becoming fat and gaining overweight. The same situation is with the high content of salt in the junk food which might result in high blood pressure, and can consequently lead even to strokes and heart attacks. Ready-made food might also contain the substances like preservatives or taste enhancers that contribute to the taste and increase the expiration date. Nevertheless, as Jamie Oliver emphasized the commonly known fact, “diet-related disease is the biggest killer in the United States, right now, here today” (Oliver). The consumption of incorrectly balanced food results in severe outcomes for our health system, and those changes tend to be irreversible as well as the diseases are hard to
As I said before, in the U.S. some people are filing suits against fast food companies for causing their obesity and related sickness. It is clear that fast food is not so good for our health. Fast food contains lots of sodium, fat and cholesterol, and these ingredients make us overweight. Therefore, some people think that the ...