The term Sociological Imagination was coined by C. Wright Mills and refers to seeing sociological situations from a broad point of view, going beyond one’s thoughts and feelings, and by seeing it how others would see it. In the textbook Introduction to Sociology by Giddens, et. al Mills argued that we needed to “overcome our limited perspective…[and have] a certain quality of mind that makes it possible to understand the larger meaning of our experiences” (4). Therefore one should look at the overall social problems and not at a specific individual’s situation. With this concept in mind I am going to analyze the Guardian online 2012 article “Why our food is making us fat,” by Jacques Peretti. The article mainly speaks about the rapid rise in obesity and the main contributor to it, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). The article also points out some of the economic and political influences behind HFCS. HFCS is being used for almost every food product in the food industry. However, if we look at HFCS from a limited point of view we just see it as something present in our food and not the health factors behind it. HFCS can be habit forming since it is a sweet replacement for sugar and in his article Peretti mentions that David Kessler said “sugar, through its metabolisation by the gut and hence the brain, is extremely addictive, just like cigarettes or alcohol.” People enjoy the taste and because of this they consume large quantities, which lead to health factors such as: obesity, diabetes, heart problems, infertility, liver problems, and so on. Our limited perspective may cause us to lose sight of how much of a risk HFCS possess. In my case I use to think that my family gained significant amount of weight only through fatty foods and... ... middle of paper ... ...viduals just look at what is in front of them and not at the bigger picture. That bigger picture shows the potential heath risks associated with HFCS. It also shows the corruption and moneymaking schemes behind the HFCS. Sociological Imagination is important when looking at this issue because it lets us view how HFCS affects society as a whole, and how we should strive to move forward with this knowledge. I was not very conscious about HFCS because I looked at it as just a byproduct in many foods. But analyzing the article with the Sociological Imagination made me realize the health aspects, the economic aspects, and the social aspects that can results from HFCS. Now that I am aware of the effects of HFCS I will be more diligent when purchasing and consuming certain food products. I will also be able to give better advice to my family and friends in regards to it.
Kingsolver asserts that this lack of a food culture is the cause of America’s obesity epidemic, supporting her assertion with statistics that state that we produce twice as many calories as we need. Kingsolver also describes the process by which almost all of the produce, such as corn and soy, are turned into oils or fed to livestock in factory farms. Those high calorie oils make their way into all of our foods, especially into junk foods. Junk food ads specifically target children, and yet when the children become obese, it is portrayed as a “failure of personal resolve”, leaving the companies producing the
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.
However, the outcome was different from his desired result due to strong protest from the dairy and livestock industry, so the Congress instead urged people to buy lean meat and less fat food so the dairy and livestock industry do not go out of business. This created the fat-free boom in the market in the 1980s. However, food companies began to put more sugar in their products because the taste was bad when they reduced fat in the food. Now, the sugar intake of Americans has doubled compared with before. In the American market, there are approximately 600,000 different food products, and 80% of those include sugar. Although sugar is written in various forms and names, one suggests that it’s bad in any form, especially if taken too much. Sugar consumed naturally through fiber-rich fruit or vegetable should be fine, but the added sweeteners stimulate the hormones that increase insulin. High insulin prevents people from thinking they are full, and thus crave more food. This causes many diseases. Of course one meal high in sugar will not kill them, but the problem is that people generally exceed daily sugar intake in one meal alone when consuming process food. We eat more processed and convenient food instead of fruits, vegetables, and
In “Don’t Blame the Eater”, by David Zinczenko and in “What You Eat is Your Business”, by Radley Balko both authors discuss and make their stance’s clear on their believed cause of obesity in America. On one hand, Zinczenko argues that it is not the consumers fault for putting themselves at risk of becoming obese or being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but that it is the fast-food companies fault. While on the other hand, Balko argues that we as individuals hold responsibility on whether or not we are putting ourselves at risk for obesity.
Michael Pollan, a writer for New York Times and author of New York Times bestseller The Botany of Desire and named best book of the year by Borders, Amazon, and the American Booksellers Association, discusses some of these harmful effects along with many other facts in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Pollan discusses how corn syrup has consumed our nation in chapter six of his book. He discusses how high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has snuck its way into the food of the American’s every meal. As restaurants line roads and food lines pantries, HFCS lurks in almost every meal. Marlene Bishop, editor of Chocolate, Fast Food, and Sweeteners: Consumption and Health, states: “In the last 35 years, high fructose corn syrup has replaced the use of sucrose by food manufactures in the US due to its steady price and availability (White, 2008)" (3). Because of the excess corn and low price to make HFCS, it continues to pour into the ingredients of the American’s diet.
Throughout history people have used marijuana for its dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds to relieve pain, stress, and other medical issues from one’s life. Within the recent years it has become one of the most debated issues in the United States. In the 1930s, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) claimed that marijuana was a “gateway” drug and was a powerful, addicting substance. During the sixties marijuana became a symbol for rebellion against authority so it became very popular by college students and “hippies”. So in 1982, Drug Enforcement Administration increased pressure on drug farms and houses which decreased the use of marijuana. In the past twenty years marijuana has become a
Sociological Imagination is a concept created by C. Wright Mills that he saw as a way that enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in one’s life in terms of its meaning of inner as well as external career to a variety of individuals (Garrod, 2016). It is a person’s ability to go beyond the personal issues everyone can experience and connects them to a broader social structure (Naimen, 7). Power is the ability of an individual and/or group of people to be able to carry out their/its will, even when opposed against by others, and is usually in the hands of those who control most of society 's resources (Naimen, 6). The reason why sociologists are interested in studying power and believe it to be an important area of
Professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard, Daniel E. Lieberman, in his op-ed article, “Evolution’s Sweet Tooth,” published in the New York Times on June 6, 2012, addresses the topic of obesity in the United States and argues that human beings have evolved to crave and store sugar, yet in this day in age, sugar production, as well as consumption, has directly contributed to the unhealthy trend of obesity and obesity-related diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. He supports this claim first by responding to Michael R. Bloomberg’s “plan to ban the sale of giant servings of soft drinks in New York City” in order to explain that this will ultimately be a violation of human rights, second by teaching his readers the history
At a certain point in life, every single person will have to make an important decision in order to achieve his or her goals. This decision will either yield the benefits for him or her immediately, or it will be advantageous in the future. Sometimes, a decision also determines whether a college student will be successful or unsuccessful depending on many different factors. However, most people tend to use the personal psychology to explain what, why, and how they can accomplish the achievement. They rarely apply the sociological imagination before and even after they make a decision. By applying the sociological imagination, “a unique perspective that gives sociologists a distinctive way of looking at data and reflecting on the world around
Sociological imagination is the understanding of relationships between self and society. Anything that happens in a person’s life is an effect of something that has happened in society. Understanding sociological imagination will allow people to see how society can shape a person’s life. People feel that their failures are their own fault when in reality it is caused by what happens in society. If Americans understood sociological imagination they would have a better understanding as to why something happens to them, and how to fix that problem. If they understood why things were happening, from a societal viewpoint, there would look at situations in a different light and then they would hopefully be able
Using sociological imagination, we question how social forces affect our day-today behaviors. Anthropologist Gayle Rubin proposed the “sex/gender system in which every society participates in some form. In the system, the raw materials of biological sex are transformed through kinship into asymmetrical gender statuses. Because of the universal taboo against incest, fathers and brothers cannot sleep with their daughters and sisters but women who start out belonging to one man such as their father; they must leave their family origin and go belong to another man, which is their husband. Women are treated like valuable property whose trade patterns strengthen relations between families headed by men. Today this practice continues to persist because
C. Wright Mills was an American sociologist who created the concept of the sociological imagination to explain to people that their personal hardships and lives are related to what is happening in their society. For example, if no one can find a job, one would look at the economy and say that it has collapsed and that is why there are no available job openings. Mills defined his concept as “The vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society” (Isaksen, 2013). One must not focus on his or her personal life to discover what sociological imagination is. Sociological imagination reveals to a person that the globalization of the economy is not personally just affecting them, but it is a bigger picture and does what is
While in “Where Does Polysorbate 60 Come From Daddy?” in Twinkie Deconstructed”, by Steve Efflinger is a discussion of the ingredients of food and how we are so unaware of where more than half of these ingredients come from. This story really had no influence on me as I found it but it relates to my own story as well as “We Are What We Eat” by Pollan. In Pollan’s essay he explains how corn is in everything that we eat and he uses facts and quotes to get his point across just like in “Where Does Polysorbate 60 Come from Daddy?” Efflinger says, “Some Ingredients like most of those at the bottom of the list, are either minerals or are so highly processed that they really do qualify as chemical rather than foods”.(Efflinger 19) However, this relates to me because I am also unaware of what is exactly in the food I eat. Therefore relating back to the “Food Inc.” movie, consumers are highly in the dark of the foods they eat making it almost impossible to influence the average consumer to change their eating habits without being educated. In “Nutritionism” by Micheal Pollan argues that “we become so obsessed with nutrition that concerns of our physical health become our sole motivation for eating.”(Pollan 11) Pollan is informing us of our food can take control of our body just like in “ We Are What We Eat” the corn can take control of the
But at the same time, it's important to realize in "the Sociological Imagination," by C. Wright Mills. Mills would not have agreed with the approach of Hochschild looking at a problem from an emotional viewpoint. Mills wrote in his book that an underlying sense of being trapped is not seemingly an impersonal issue. When people view their lives through this narrow viewpoint, it can cause them to feel powerless. Basically, because their visions of things were limited by their immediate surroundings, they could not see the big picture. Such as, many people are losing their jobs. and not because of one person's actions, but because of an economic downfall in their community. Mills thought sociology or behavior scientist need to think or focus
Scientists have linked the increased rate of obesity to the increased use of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). High Fructose Corn Syrup is a liquid sweetener extracted from corn. HFCS was introduced as a sweetener in 1960s and its use rapidly increased in 1980s.It is mixture of fructose and glucose. “The two most commonly used forms of HFCS are HFCS-55 and HFCS-42. HFCS-55 is 55% fructose and 45% glucose. HFCS-42 is 42% fructose and 58% glucose” (Obesity & Diet: Facts about Fructose). HFCS is used in many foods & beverages such as soda, cookies, and even in tomato sauce. “It accounts for 40% of all the sweeteners used in the United States. Two-thirds of which is found in beverages” (High-Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity). The reason why HFCS is used so much is because it is less expensive than sugar and it also increases foods’ shelf life.