Obesity in America

2655 Words6 Pages

“This might be the first generation where kids are dying at a younger age than their parents and it’s related primarily to the obesity problem” (Judy Davis). Obesity in America has been a rising issue in the last few years. There have been a lot of different predications on to why the number is rising so much in American people. The food that people are eating and the lack of physical activity has a lot to do with this big rise. People aren’t exercising as much as they use to and the food surrounding the people in America isn’t as good as it used to be either. More and more food places go up every day and it isn’t good for the people in society. Fast food industries are the leading cause of obesity in America today. Reasons are fast food is seen to be addictive, it’s cheap and easy to get anywhere, and the portion sizes are way too large for anyone to be eating. Obesity is a huge problem that is tackling America right now and something needs to be done about it.
Fast food places are everywhere nowadays. Fast food industries have restaurants on every main road, advertising on highways for their place, advertisement on TV and so much more to try and draw in as many people as they can. More and more places are being put up every day, and it’s starting to make these fast food places the only places that people can go to. Healthy eating is being kicked out and replaced with McDonalds, Wendy’s and others. “Every day about one quarter of the United States population eats fast food” (Eric Schlosser). One and every four Americans eat at fast food places every day. That’s a crazy high number. It shows that a lot of Americans really depend of these places for food. The number shouldn’t be that high. These places aren’t healthy for the body...

... middle of paper ...

...e and to make sure that doesn’t happen too. One big thing that goes along with obesity is fast food industries. Fast food is everywhere and is hard to say no to. It’s just all up in people’s faces when they are traveling down the street. Fast food is everywhere you turn your head, people can’t escape it. So in today’s society, fast food industries are the leading cause in the rising rate of obesity. It can be seen in how addictive the food is and how hard it is to put down, how cheap and easy it is to get, and the fact that the portion sizes are way too large for anyone to be eating. Don’t fall into fast foods advertisement. It looks good and nice, but it really isn’t. Fast food is slowly destroying the body of many different people and there needs to be something done about it. Obesity is not something to mess with, because it can affect one’s life in many ways.

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis Don T Blame The Eater

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the United States many American’s go through and eat at fast food places such as, McDonalds, Burger King, and Jack ‘n the Box. Mainly unaware of the amount of weight one can gain if consuming it on a daily bases or even two times week, can cause health issues, diabetes and possibly obesity. This was the main premise for writer Dave Zinczenko essay Don’t Blame the Eater, who makes an argument that many people are becoming obese and diabetic because of the fast food they eat. He asks a regarding his concern; Shouldn 't we know better than to eat two meals a day in fast-food restaurants?, As a way to engage the general public, like parents and teenagers, he expresses his argument through his own experience when he was a teenager eating at fast food places and information on the fast food industry in regards to how many calories are in the food.

    Read More

  • Obesity In Don T Blame The Eater By David Zinczenko

    1675 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. Everywhere you turn you can see a fast food restaurant. An industry that modestly began with very few hot dog and hamburger vendors now has become a multi-international industry selling its products to paying customers. Fast food can be found anywhere imaginable. Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-through, at stadiums, airports, schools all over the nation. Surprisingly fast food can even be found at hospital cafeterias. In the past, people in the United States used to eat healthier and prepared food with their families. Today, many young people prefer to eat fast food such as high fat hamburgers, French-fries, fried chicken, or pizza in fast

    Read More

  • hgk

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    Section 1: Typically, we need a well-balanced meal to give us the energy to do day-to-day tasks and sometimes we aren’t able to get home cooked meals that are healthy and nutritious on a daily basis, due to the reasons of perhaps low income or your mom not being able to have the time to cook. People rely on fast food, because it’s quicker and always very convenient for full-time workers or anyone in general who just want a quick meal. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation argues that Americans should change their nutritional behaviors. In his book, Schlosser inspects the social and economic penalties of the processes of one specific section of the American food system: the fast food industry. Schlosser details the stages of the fast food production process, like the farms, the slaughterhouse and processing plant, and the fast food franchise itself. Schlosser uses his skill as a journalist to bring together appropriate historical developments and trends, illustrative statistics, and telling stories about the lives of industry participants. Schlosser is troubled by our nation’s fast-food habit and the reasons Schlosser sees fast food as a national plague have more to do with the pure presence of the stuff — the way it has penetrated almost every feature of our culture, altering “not only the American food, but also our landscape, economy, staff, and popular culture. This book is about fast food, the values it represents, and the world it has made," writes Eric Schlosser in the introduction of his book. His argument against fast food is based on the evidence that "the real price never appears on the menu." The "real price," according to Schlosser, varieties from destroying small business, scattering pathogenic germs, abusing wor...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Fast Food: Oppression Through Poor Nutrition

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    Almost everyone has eaten fast food at some point in their lives, but not everyone realizes the negative effects some fast food can have on our nutrition. My family especially is guilty of eating unhealthy fast food meals at least once a week because of our budget and very busy schedules. In Andrea Freeman’s article entitled, “Fast Food: Oppression through Poor Nutrition,” She argues that fast food has established itself as a main source of nutrition for families that live in average neighborhoods and have low-incomes. Freeman begins the article by explaining how the number of fast food outlets is beginning to grow in poor communities because of the cheap prices and quick service these restaurants are famous for. The overabundance of fast

    Read More

  • Obesity in America

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    Obesity in America is a very serious problem affecting many Americans currently and is a problem that continues to grow each year. “Over the past 40 years, the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled in the United States” (Wimalawansa). This issue is known to many but believed not be an issue to care much about but this is not true. Obesity in America affects everyone regardless if they are obese or not. In order to resolve the problem, we can slaughter all the adults that are currently obese in America.

    Read More

  • Reform Fast Food Nation

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    Like the vast majority of Americans, I’ve eaten at a fast food restaurant before. Maybe the tables were sticky, or chicken was suspiciously white, but the fries tasted great, so I’d overlook the less enjoyable aspects of my experience. After reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, I understand that isn’t an option anymore. In ways both big and small, the fast food industry exerts a ridiculous amount of power over the American consumer, and it’s imperative that this be understood, should any impactful changes be made. As it stands now, the fast food industry is in dire need of reform, as it poses innumerable health and societal risks to the country and the world.

    Read More

  • Don T Blame The Eater Summary

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    How many Americans do you think eat at fast food restaurants daily? How many Americans have experienced weight gain and health issues of the years? We as Americans are overweight and unhealthy who is to blame? We want to believe that McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s etc. is the reason why we are fat. But the truth is that we are becoming overweight and unhealthy because of the lack of responsibility over our own diet and eating habits. In the essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko he, believes that the fast food industry is responsible for the health and obesity epidemic in America. He argues that there are not many healthy alternatives to fast food for consumers, “particularly teenagers” to buy food. He goes further

    Read More

  • Obesity in America

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    Obesity in the United States continues growing alarmingly. Approximately 66 % of adults and 33 % of children and teenagers in the US are overweight. Obesity is the result of fat accumulated over time due to the lack of a balanced diet and exercise. An adult with a BMI (body mass index) higher than thirty percent is considered obese (Whitney & Rolfes, 2011, pg. 271).

    Read More

  • what we eat

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    Millions of American people buy fast food every day without thinking about where, how and why. The ramifications of fast food is impacting the American people both around the waist line and the community where they live at. “As the old saying goes: you are what you eat.” (Schlosser) The customer have made the choices to eat fast food or not. The industry doesn’t care about the customers; studies have shown that the fast food industry is the reason for the rise of American obesity. “Live fast and die young” (Moore); this could not be more true when looking at the impact of the fast food industry.

    Read More

  • Blame For Fast Food

    2395 Words  | 5 Pages

    Fast-food restaurants seem to take most of the blame for rising obesity rates in the United States, but is it really their fault? People set high expectations when it comes to fast-food. Consumers not only expect convenience, but also quality food at a low price. Wanting fast-food restaurants to live up to these unreasonable expectations is what leads people to develop health issues. While fast-food restaurants should take some of the blame for the obesity epidemic, it’s ultimately the consumer’s choice to choose fast-food over healthier choices. Many different factors such as convenience, cost, and environmental factors, along with lack of exercise, are also contributors to the rising obesity rate in America.

    Read More

  • THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC: A LACK OF SELF-CONTROL

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “More than one-third of U.S. adults (34.9%) are obese” (“Adult Obesity”, 2014). Considering the wide amounts of freedom and choices that American citizens have, this number is startling. Americans have gone from being some of the most productive, hard-working people in the world, to ignorant, lazy citizens who take what they have for granted. It is simply shocking to look at a nation with the amounts of opportunity present in the United States, and see how lazy its’ people really are. Many families would rather spend twenty five dollars on a couple value meals at a fast food chain rather than take thirty minutes to prepare a healthy, cheaper meal. Instead, Americans criminalize fast food corporations, for “making them obese”. Simply put, American citizens need to take responsibility for their everyday actions, leading them down a path of obesity, and stop blaming the fast food industry, the government, and their “lack of time”.

    Read More

  • Healthy Foods In Low-Income Neighborhoods

    417 Words  | 1 Pages

    There is no mistake that in urban, low-income neighborhoods there are more fast-food restaurants then there are community gardens or fresh produce stands. Fast-food industries spend millions of dollars in marketing, to advertise their products in these neighborhoods. In return many children are brainwashed to believe that these foods are acceptable because they aren’t being educated to know that in fact these foods are very dangerous to their health. These industries spend so much money to portray an unsafe lifestyle as fun and trendy, and unfortunately many young people are becoming deceived. Also Fast-food corporations purposely move into these neighborhoods because they know the populations that live there. These corporations offer quick, affordable food options to people that are desperate for something to eat and have little money to spend. According to the study published in the October 2003 issue of the “Journal of the American Dietetic Association” showed that the fast-food eaters had higher intakes of calories, saturated fat and sodium than the other subjects. Also by trying to obtain a full, satisfied belly, many people who frequently consumed fast food have lower intakes of vitamins A and C, dietary fiber, milk and fruits and vegetables than subjects who didn’t eat fast food. Needless to say, trying to fill up on fast food has many detrimental effects on one’s health, which in this case leads to millions of obese

    Read More

  • Fast Food and Childhood Obesity

    682 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is said that fast food advertising is linked to rising childhood and teen obesity. The childhood obesity epidemic is a serious public health problem that increases morbidity, morality, and has substantial long-term economic and social costs (opposing viewpoints). Approximately 20% of our youth are now overweight with obesity rates in preschool age children increasing at alarming speed (opposing viewpoints). U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona said, “obesity is the fastest-growing cause of illness and death in the United States.” When I read this I was shocked. This is something that can change, but its up to ourselves to make that commitment. No one else has the power to do so but us. Did you know that treating obesity-related problems cost Americans $117 billion annually, that’s $420 per person (CQ Researcher).

    Read More

  • Obesity Argumentative Analysis

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    The accessibility and affordability to fast food restaurants, the lack of access to supermarkets, food marketing, and lack of nutrition education are factors from the environment that contribute to the recently obesity epidemic. Between 2000 and 2005 the number of people with a body mass index of more than 50 increased by 75% (Cohen, 2008). Interesting, there wasn’t any change in people’s physiology that could explain this increase (2008). In effect, there weren’t any mutations or metabolic changes in people during that short period. In that case, it seems that the causal factors of obesity originate from the environment (2008). The accessibility to fast food restaurants is an environmental factor that contributes to the obesity epidemic in the United States. Per the documentary, “Super-Size Me”, there is a McDonald almost everywhere in the nation. In fact, a study found that among “9th grade children, a fast food restaurant within a tenth of a mile of a school is associated with at least a 5.2 percent increase in obesity rates” (Currie, Dellavigna, Moretti, & Pathania, 2009). Also, the documentary also mentioned that the price of a salad is more expensive than the price of a hamburger. With just a few more cents, people were switching from a regular meal to a super-size meals that contained many calories. People are getting full and satisfied with less money and this is increasing their chances to

    Read More

  • Cause And Effects Of Fast Food

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since 1970, the amount of fast food restaurants has doubled, which equates to about 300,000 establishments in the United States. Coincidentally, 33.8 percent of the U.S. population is affected by obesity and nineteen percent of children and adolescents are also affected, (Muntel, S. Obesity Action Coalition » Fast Food – Is it the Enemy?). These facts prove that the rise of obesity within the world’s population is associated with an increase in calorie intake and with the lack of adequate physical activity. From 1976 to 1980 the quantity and energy density of foods eaten in the United States has increased, (NHANES II). Fast food restaurants play a major role in this increase. The reason why is because we are surrounded by tasty temptations that cost very little, from fast food menus to processed snack foods, said study’s leader author, Ronald strum, a senior economist at the RAND Corporation and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, (Carroll, L. 2014, May 22). Fast food not only causes obesity but also ruins our body in a number of different ways; fast food increases your risk of catching cancer, gives you a greater risk of catching heart disease, and causes constipation.

    Read More

More about Obesity in America

Open Document