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Effects of fast food
Fast food industry and obesity
Effects of fast food on obesity
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Fast foods have been around for a long time. Each day, more a more people turn to it for a quick meal, whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner. As fast foods begin to progress and expand throughout the world, people, especially in the United States, have started to blame fast foods for their obesity and/or health problems. But is it really the fast food companies ' fault or the customers who consume their food? David Zinczenko wrote “Don’t Blame the Eater”, which states that fast food companies should be held responsible for giving all these people unhealthy food with them not really knowing what they are eating. I absolutely agree with this article, because these companies drag customers in by making the food fast, cheap, and a mystery. Fast food restaurants should be held accountable for …show more content…
Due to the fact that they want a cheap meal that will fill them up, they will go with the fast food restaurant. In a video titled "The Dollar Menu," a family shows that a piece of fruit can and will cost more than a burger from the dollar menu, candies, or even sodas and they blame their busy schedule for their lack of healthy choices. The father in the video has diabetes and their concerned that their youngest daughter may get it as well since they mostly eat fast food meals. The family says not only are the healthy foods more expensive, but they don’t fill them or their kids up. The family struggles on income and finds that fast food is the cheapest way to feed their family. Fast food affects your energy levels, liver, heart, and can lead to diabetes. These fast food restaurants make it incredibly easy for this family to get food and not spend a great amount of money. The reason fast food is so cheap is because it’s unhealthy, and they don’t care what they are doing to people’s health; they just want the money. Fast food restaurants are killing the
Whether we recognize it or not, every day the common person drives by numerous fast food restaurants. It could be McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, or one of plenty more. Most citizens make the decision on their own as to if they will make that purchase. A majority of the responsibility falls back on the consumer, but some will make the arguments that children cannot make that decision for themselves. It is a valid argument to question if this responsibility is in the parent’s hands, children’s, or simply it is just circumstantial. In the reading “Don’t Blame the Eater” the author David Zinczenko presents the case that we as citizens cannot put this blame directly onto the individual. Cases like this can be open to one’s interpretation. However,
In “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinzcenko illustrates a very valid argument. His conflict seems to be with the food industry and its horrible variety of products. The results have been staggering to the public’s health, especially teenagers. Fast food restaurants are Zinzcenko’s primary target for causing this epidemic. Zinzcenko stated, “lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. Then as now, these were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal” (pg.241). This statement is very true and has been for a while. Fast food is very convenient, especially for teenagers. People are reaching obesity at a very early age and remain that way throughout their lives.
“Don’t Blame the Eater” written by David Zinczenko explains how it is not the eaters fault for eating all of the unhealthy food and calories that they consume. Zinczenko points out that when you look around at your surroundings there’s plenty of unhealthy food options around you, but when you want to try and find healthy food it is nearly impossible. Companies do not display the kind of warning labels that they should be advertising. When you look at health labels on the food that you are consuming it is difficult to grasp what you are reading due to the company not wanting you to realize exactly what you are eating. The fast-food world deceives many customers making it nearly impossible for anybody to make healthy food choices.
In the essay, “Don’t blame the eater,” David Zinczenko editor and chief of “Men’s Health magazine” and author of the bestselling book “Eat This Not That,” Believes that kids should be suing the fast food companies for making them fat. “Once people cross under the golden arches, Zinczenko puts it, they are doomed to a lifetime of obesity.”(392) He also goes on to sympathize with these kids” [because as a teenager] he had the choice of McDonalds, Taco bell, Kentucky fried chicken or Pizza hut [and due to this] he was an overweight kid himself. [At the age of] “15 he had packed on 212 pounds of torpid teenage tallow.” (392) this is why he blames the fast food companies for the $6.2Billion in health care cost that goes towards diabetes.
In his article “fast food and personal responsibility”, Ninos P. Malek (2003) argues about the public community blaming their obesity on restaurants rather than their own personal responsibility. He starts by explaining that all the fast food companies have their nutrition facts posted on their websites so people can’t complain about not knowing that the food is unhealthy. Furthermore he suggests that fast food restaurants do not force any one to buy their products instead people decide to drive to the restaurants and order themselves, which shows that it’s peoples’ choice and they’re not forced to buy that kind of food. He continues by giving examples of his high school students blaming the school cafeteria for their unhealthy habits but the
...not entirely their fault. The fault rests partly on the shoulders of the parents, who make it too easy for their children to over-indulge in fast food and then blame the restaurant when their child gains weight, partly on the shoulders of the children and teenagers who eat out at these establishments multiple times a week and then do nothing to balance the junk food with some healthier snack alternatives, and partly on the shoulders of the “enablers,” who choose to place the blame solely on the fast food industry and allow these children and their families to play the victim, rather than admit that they are part of the problem. David Zinczenko was right about one thing, obesity is not just the problem of the person who is overweight. Obesity is everyone’s problem, and everyone should be thinking of ways to combat it, rather than just continue playing the blame game.
As our society lives a rushed life, our food options are rushed as well. Humankind wants fast, affordable and available. If you own a business that has all three of these, I can only imagine how successful you are. If a healthier lifestyle was promoted as much as possible, we would be disgusted by now about the true facts of unhealthy foods. Though, there is no easy way to get society away from the rush, we can make an effort to get them away from supporting fast food. Coming from “Don’t Blame The Eater”, there is a large amount of fast food options compared to healthy ones. “If you drive down any thoroughfare in America,…you’ll see one of our country’s stores and more than 13,000 McDonald 's restaurants. Now drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit.” (They Say, I Say, pg.392). Fast food is so convenient it is unavoidable for the society. Over a span of my parents and I’s life we have discovered that there are multiple healthy options where we live in Nova Scotia compared to many other places. Saying that there is a growth in more healthy fast food options today such as Panera, Chipotle, Subway, etc. I do not blame the eater when it comes to fast alternatives to choose fast food being as it is everywhere and it 's all we see as options. Being so convenient it is hurting our diets and causing overweight and obese people in today 's
In his article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko warns the consumer about the dangers of fast food. Through his argument, he shows you that the consumer is not necessarily at fault, the food industry is the true culprit here. Zinczenko’s main argument is that fast food is more readily available than healthy alternatives. He claims that eating fast food is the only option for a meal when on a low budget, that there are many more locations to purchase fast food than there is to purchase fruit. Furthermore, he argues even seemingly healthy fast food is actually just as bad for you as other items on the menu. Lastly Zinczenko states that the fast food industry is marketing dangerously unhealthy foods to children which has led to the obesity epidemic.
After reading the article Don’t Blame the Eater, I immediately became upset about the fact that we have succumb to blaming others for problems that are in our control. When it comes to eating fast food, it is important that we fix the problem now through understanding that there are other options and learning to balance our poor choice with good choices. It isn’t the fast food companies that decide our fate it is our own. If we continue to blame others for our problems, we will continue to see an even greater decline in children’s
In “Don’t Blame the Eater”, David Zinczenko argues that rather then blaming the public’s obesity problem and their food choices, one should blame the food industry’s and how they misinforming the public in order to keep producing food inexpensively and how they make it so cheaply and readily available for consumption. Zinczenko would argue that the food industry should be regulated because they are misinforming the public for their own profit and taking advantage of the youth and working Americans. Zinczenko discusses how with his mother working long hours: “Lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald's, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. Then as now, these were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal.” Zinczenko’s personal experience points out that for many struggling financially and lacking time and knowledge that these meals are their only option. The author emphasizes the fact that many don’t blame these companies due to the fact that it is the public’s choice to consume this food and that its only those individuals problems.
In America, parents are always on the run they don’t have time to make their children a homemade meal and when that happens parent get something fast and unhealthy usually at a fast food restaurant. Most Americans that eat at a fast food chain usually don’t make the healthiness decision mostly because they don’t know what is in their food and how many calories are in the food they consume. In the article “Don’t blame the eater” by David Zinczenkon, Zinczenkon talked about how “fast food restaurant don’t have the calories information charts on their food and compare’s it to it to advertisements ads not having labels on the way tobacco ads do”(Zinczenko). Then there is Radley Balko that wrote “What you eat is your business”, Balko is putting
Zinczenko also states that, if you were to drive down any thoroughfare in America you are guaranteed to see a Mcdonald’s, but you are unlikely to find a place that sells any fresh fruits (Zinczenko 392). Zinczenko’s point is that the food industry’s unwillingness to promote more healthier foods is most likely the cause of the unhealthy diets of western societies. Another part of the problem is the pricing of healthier options, such as whole foods, fresh fruits, and low calorie snacks; all these foods are ridiculously overpriced compared to their unhealthy counterparts. One would think the food that is made to help prolong your life would be more accessible, instead it is the foods that are high on calories, fats and sugars that are cheap and available. Fast food companies go by the motto that cheaper is better, and it is how they compete with each other. Almost all fast food companies followed in McDonald 's footstep by creating a dollar menu, because they saw the drastic increase of McDonald 's revenue. When consumers see all these cheap meals for a dollar they readily buy their food from the dollar menus, rather than buying a single granola bar for the same price. In a society where most of the population is the working class, these dollar
Many people in America love to get greasy, high calorie fast food from many places such as McDonalds and its competitors, but in the article “Don’t Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko, he reveals the health problems associated with these fatty, salty meals. His articles are affective with its well organized layout, rhetorical appeals and tone which give it a very convincing argument. As you read through the article the author reveals the underlying problems with eating fast food and how there are no warnings of such problems posted. As a former obese child who grew up to diet and watch what he ate he sets a credible stance for the argument.
Just ask anyone if they’ve had fast food in their lifetime, their answer will most likely be yes. “Over 25 percent of Americans consume fast food every day.” (Palo Alto Medical Foundation 2) Unfortunately for some, this has affected their health negatively, for example obesity. “35% of adults aged 20 and over were overweight in 2008, and 11% were obese and more than 40 million under the age of five were overweight in 2011.” (World Health Organization 1). Seeing that a large majority of the population is overweight, and another large percentage is to the point of obesity, it is clear that the food being consumed is not doing their bodies justice, or allowing them to live a healthy life. The fast food industry is a major culprit in supplying the food that eventually destroys people’s health. Obesity is caused by intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat, which is proven to be in fast food. “Junk food contains large amounts of fat and as fat accumulates in your body, you'll gain weight and could eventually become obese.” (Fit Day 4) People know that fast food is unhealthy for them, yet they continue to circle through the drive-through. That in itself is the essential problem. Knowing the ingredients in food isn’t enough for
Today, many people eat fast food instead of home made food. The reason is that fast food is fast, cheap and convenient. However, at the same time, fast food is contributing to a big social problem in the U.S., which is obesity, and recently some people are beginning to sue the fast food companies for causing their obesity. Should the fast food companies have responsibility for American's obesity? My answer for this argument is "No". I think that whether people eat fast food or not is an individual choice. There are many people who eat fast food, but aren't obese. They may do some exercises for burning calories, or try not to eat fast food as much as they can, caring for their health. Moreover, some fast food companies serve relatively healthy foods, such as Baja Fresh, Subway and so on. Even though people don't have enough money or time to eat except for fast food, they can choose those fast food shops. Therefore, the responsibility of obesity should be taken by obese people, though fast food companies should also take actions to decrease the number of these people by showing their food's calories, serving healthy food, and giving more choices.