Or do other cultures see it as a way for Americans to brag to the rest of the world that we are rich and prospering, along with being the most obese country in the world. Should our culture reward those on the road to premature heart attacks and being charged extra for two plane seats? Jason Fagone’s essay, In Gorging, Truth, investigates the veracity behind competitive eating champions and the game they play. Americans have become obsessed with being number one, at absolutely everything, despite how destructive and degrading it is to our society as a whole. A prime example of that is the world of competitive eating.
Consumerism in the United States Consumerism is the center of American culture. Americans tend to confuse their wants with their needs. With new advances in technology, as well as the help of advertisers, people are provided with easy access to new products that seem essential to their everyday life, even though they have survived this long without them. It is a fact that people cannot live without food, water or shelter but the problem with consumerism arises when people take it to far and spend money extravagantly. You do not need the most fancy or flashy things to survive.
America needs to stop advertising such unhealthy eating. How often do you hear of a ninety-nine cent special on a salad? Americans like there food fast and don't care to realize the effects that fast foods have on there bodies. Since, the media has such a strong influence on Americans. I believe that if healthy food is more advertised it will be eaten more.
Does obesity and poverty go hand in hand? Are the poor getting fatter, while the rich get skinnier? The correlation between obesity and poverty is quite simple, healthier foods are more expensive, and most people who don’t have money don’t have gym memberships and have more of a sedentary lifestyle. When going into any “health food store”, you will notice immediately the price difference between healthy foods and junk foods. Fruits, vegetables, unprocessed foods, organic, and lean meats are all expensive.
The Food Industry in America Whether it’s juicier, bigger, crunchier, sweeter, saltier, or whatever the phrase the food industry and its around-the-clock marketing tactics has been a major cause of the obesity epidemic in recent decades. The result of Americans constant exposure to today's 'eat more' food culture has been to get people to desire high-calorie foods and to get them to become overeaters. Clearly the food industry’s tactics are working, America is fat and people everywhere know it. The food industry is corrupt. So corrupt in fact that even as it is seemingly doing the right thing, like promoting healthy foods to be served in schools for example, its wellness initiatives are frequently just marketing ploys.
Who Should Decide What You Eat? America has been named the “fattest” country in the world, which is not something to be proud of, and many people are behind me when I say it needs to change. For reasons such as health, money, and pride, this country needs more regulation and better direction with our diets other than where we are and where we are headed. The group that has the power in this country to enforce that is the United States Government. They could make laws that would protect the citizens from harmful diseases caused by unhealthy foods as well as saving money on healthcare to provide for the people that cannot afford to pay for the healthcare they need for the diseases.
Increase in food portion size – People think super sizing their fast food meal is a great deal. The need to push sales and increase business, serving sizes are an estimated triple the size and then people also eat dessert. 4. Decrease in food preparation time – Fast lifestyles have taken over and people eat out of necessity instead of eating for pleasure. They eat too fast, don’t enjoy the food, don’t enjoy the time it should take to prepare the food.
The problem with this operation is, in order to attract enough customers, the final product must be affordable and yet, still delicious. This brings up many problems with the dietary quality of the food produced by fast food restaurants. The food is often cooked in grease and oils which increases the amount of calories and fat grams per serving. With less home cooked meals on the plate and more foil wrapped sandwiches and fries hitting the table, people’s diets are being neglected of their basic necessities. However, fast food companies are managing to keep their drive-thrus filled by spending millions of dollars on advertisements.
When I found out I had Diabetes, shocked did not begin to describe the way I felt. I knew I had to change my life style and make changes in my life. Many people believe the saying “you are what you eat” is just that a saying, In fact that saying is true. Most people don’t think junk food is unhealthy because they can’t see what the long term effects are from looking at themselves. Although junk food tastes good and is easy to get, the long term health effects outweighs the short term pleasures of eating it.
They possess the money that they need to work with to invest and buy housing and are able to benefit from these rising asset prices because it makes their items worth more generating even more wealth. When the poor lose their houses, the rich are able to go in and take over their housing to make profit off of them while the merit of them rises. The investment of stocks is a big income maker as the price of them decays during the recession, then later on stabilizes and increases in most cases. The prosperous are the ones that can easily pay for post-secondary education to pursue a decent well-paying job. They do not have the financial stress to go along with the cost of their education.