Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Problems with obesity
Causes and effects of obesity
What are the cause,symptom and treatment of obesity
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Problems with obesity
Dieting, in the past few decades, has become a significant part of American culture today. This includes fad dieting, regular utilization of diet products such as Slimfast, and even metabolism altering pills. Ironically, in addition to this aspect of popular American culture today, there is also an obesity epidemic. In reaction to these problems presented, unfortunately, there is also a tremendously skewed ideal body image for those influenced by societal standards. Dieting products (“diet” labeled) only encourage a skewed body image. How does mass production and marketing of diet products influence healthy eating in the United States today? The answer lies within the media codes we accept as reality within marketing and advertisements.
Mass-produced diet meals were first introduced to the United States around the 1980’s. They became much more popular in the late1990’s and early 2000’s. These foods were produced to be a healthier alternative to mass-produced pre-made meals. The basis of the dieting problem in the United States probably derives from this process of altering, rather than changing, consumers’ ideas of what healthy is. The Cultivation Theory, which was addressed towards violence in class, can also be applied to this phenomenon of healthy eating. This theory addresses how media and marketing, in this context, prepare the ground (consumers) to be a condition in which things (dieting products) will grow. The popularization and acceptance of the “diet meal” as opposed to going back to the basics, rather all natural, created a fertile environment for companies to create more diet products and market them as such. The problem, however, is that through this process the terms: diet, lean, low-calorie, sugar-f...
... middle of paper ...
...es it all the more important for consumers to read and analyze the nutritional labels provided before making a purchase.
Works Cited
Colbin, Annemarie. "Calories - How Much Do They Count." FoodandHealing.com. (2009): n. page. Web. 3 May. 2012.
"For Consumers." FDA U.S. Food and Drug Administration . FDA, 12/08/2011. Web. 3 May 2012.
Hawkes, Corinna. "Food Impostors." Alt HealthWatch. 61.1 (2009): n. page. Web. 7 May. 2012.
"Hidden Valley." The Original Ranch Makes Everything Taste Better. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2012. .
Mayo Clinic Staff, . "Nutrition and Healthy Eating."Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 03/31/2011. Web. 3 May 2012.
Schnitzer, Johann Georg. "Human Nutrition." Alive: Canada's Natural Health & Wellness Magazine. (2003): 89-90. Print.
Michael Pollan, an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (Michael Pollan), writes in his book In Defense of Food, the dangers of nutritionism and how to escape the Western diet and subsequently most of the chronic diseases the diet imparts. In the chapter “Nutritionism Defined” Pollan defines the term nutritionism. Pollan’s main assertion being how the ideology of nutritionism defines food as the sum of its nutrients, and from this viewpoint Pollan goes on to write how nutritionism divides food into two categories, with each macronutrient divided against each other as either bad or good nutrients, in a bid for focus of our food fears and enthusiasms. Finally, Pollan concludes that with the relentless focus nutritionism places on nutrients and their interplay distinctions between foods become irrelevant and abandoned.
In her essay, “Food’s Class Warfare,” author Tracie McMillan promotes the inclusion of both “individual changes and structural ones” (217), particularly “class consciousness” (217), in the fight for quality diets in America. She reveals the most common sides of the healthy food debate as the inherent “just-buy-better stuff logic” (215) and the opposing “structural challenges of eating well” (215). The main strategies for defeating the American “obesity epidemic” (216) have been reaching out to the individual, as well as changing the structure of the American food system itself. The favorite concept for structuralists is “food deserts - neighborhoods with insufficient grocery stores and thus insufficient supplies of healthy food” (216). She deems the concept insufficient in practice, as it ignores smaller markets and equates large stores with a healthy food source. While the individual viewpoint and structuralists argue with each other, they share common ideals. According to
"Nutrition and Healthy Eating." Artificial Sweeteners and Other Sugar Substitutes. Mayo Clinic, 9 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Hungry for Change is a thought provoking documentary produced by James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch that delves into the implications of eating a modern diet. Using pathos, facts and figures, and association, Hungry for Change delivers a meritorious performance that engages viewers and leaves them questioning their own diet and lifestyle choices. The film’s use of rhetorical and advertising strategies and its ability to captivate viewers make this an effective, life changing documentary.
Every popular belief of food and nutrition is carefully analyzed and debunked by Pollan using various examples from cultural habits, basic scientific processes and relevant studies and experiments. The vast amount of information from numerous, and likely fraudulent, sources reflect the message he is trying to convey: that food is naturally too complicated to study and perfect in science. Each chapter flows smoothly into the next topic as explanations become clearer and more in-depth. His knowledge in the topic and history is strongly demonstrated as well, building his credibility with his audience.
Wardlaw, G.M. and Smith. Contemporary Nutrition: Issues and Insights. 5th Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, pp 85, 2004.
Nutrition is essential to human’s life, but still people need to take care the quantity and quality necessitated. Most research studies agreed the way e...
Whitney, E., Debruyne, L. K., Pinna, K., & Rolfes, S. R. (2011). Nutrition for health and health
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.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2005), sixth edition, www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/
Paul, Maya W. “Healthy Fast Foods.” Help Guide. Help Guide, 10 Sep. 2010. Web. 9 May 2011.
Jacyln Maurer Abbot, Carol Byrd-Bredbenner. "The Sate of the American Diet." Enhancing Nurtrition in Consumption in the American Diet (2007): 32.
Watkins, R., (2000). Recipes and Tips for Healthy, Thrifty Meals. 1st ed. : United States
... Dietetic Association. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 95.10 (1995): 1160. ProQuest. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.