As many people would recognize, there is a rising obesity problem in America and there are many influences that could contribute to this. Fast food is not the healthiest choice but, they should not be to blame for making children obese. In David Zinczenko’s “Don’t Blame the Eater” he talks about how the obese population is blaming fast food companies for their health situations. He begins his argument with what he observes as a ridiculous headline, which is that kids are suing McDonalds for being fat. David starts by teasing these overweight individuals that are bring a lawsuit against McDonalds, but then later admits that he used to be overweight as a child and was able to change his life around.
They say ever since she has wanted healthier food in schools they started serving foods that do not look edible and gross. Many programs are trying to make healthier school lunches because it is the main cause for child obesity. The school lunches are super unhealthy for the kids because they have a lot of sodium, fat, and sugar. Schools should cut down on all the sweets they give the children also because that cause a lot of health problems. One of the main things schools need to do is to stop adding so much salt on to the meals because salt is super unhealthy.
Consuming fast food is not good for anyone involved. It causes extreme health concerns including a higher risk in disease and acquiring diabetes due to poor nutrition and sanitation in the products. Fast food is also responsible for a decline in the United States’ reputation and even harms the budgets for child public education. It is nearly impossible to defend the fast food industries and all of the horrible consequences involved with consuming fast food after reading the argument Schlosser presented in Fast Food Nation. Fast food consumption is continuing to completely destroy the nation’s economy and spread disease-causing bacteria all over the world.
Many schools offer a la carte items in addition to the meal that is provided each day. The problem is that the National School Lunch Program does not regulate these items. If a child chooses high-calorie additions to his or her meal, his intake is going to be much higher than it should be for lunch, which over time will result in weight gain and obesity. Children who are overweight and obese due to a high-fat diet are at an increased risk of developing other health conditions, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and high cholesterol. According to a Toronto Star survey, children who get to choose their food at lunch ate more fat and calories than those who were only offered one meal choice.
So since they have low income they only thing they can do is go buy fast food. Arken and Houston also state more causes of obesity in the inner-city, “Obesity is determined by many factors (e.g inactivity, high-fat diet cultural preference)”(2).The culture the parents put their child in is basically by forced because of their living situation. With the low income it’s hard for the African American people to take their child to get health insurance, so they can’t receive advice from the medical establishment on how to prevent obesity. In, “Facing Up to Childhood Obesity” Phillips states the effects of inactivity in Great Britain. Arken and Houston do the same in Obesity in Inner-City African
Fast Foods: Who's to Blame? Many people who consume junk food are blaming fast food restaurants for their obesity and the decisions they make. Shouldn't this be the consumer's responsibility? Or should fast food restaurants have to deal with the decisions the consumers make? The article, "The battle against fast food begins in the home" by Daniel Weintraub, explains how people are blaming McDonalds and other fast food restaurants such as Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Starbucks, and Pizza Hut for their obesity.
Going to fast food restaurants to prove his theory about how horrible fast food restaurants are for the human body. After going to a few restaurants David found that many employees at the establishments asked him "Would you like to super size that?". The super size option available is excessive amounts of food and drinks that people do not need in a single sitting for their breakfast, lunch, or dinner regardless of the circumstances. Zinczenko had a diet consisting a lot of the time fast food as a young child growing up and claimed that "by age 15, I had packed 212 pounds of torpid teenage tallow onto my once lanky 5-foot-10 frame." Sadly many Americans these days depend on fast food throughout their daily lives whether it is between not knowing how to cook, its fast easy
In “The battle against fast food begins in the home” by Daniel Weintraub he is stating that parents are at fault for children’s obesity and their eating habits. Weintraub also says that the food companies shouldn’t be blamed for people gaining weight and becoming unhealthy by eating their food all the time. In this article Weintraub is blaming the parents which in my opinion is correct for him to do that because parents should teach their children what to eat and what not to eat. I don’t understand how people could blame a food company for making them fatter. That is absurd; if people don’t want to gain weight then they shouldn’t eat there or allow their children to eat there if they are going to complain about it.
Kelly Grant English 100 11/12/2012 In Amitai Etzioni's "Working at McDonald's” She argues that that although McDonalds does more than just provide calorie filled foods and hold responsibility for millions of clogged arteries but it’s bad for teenagers in another sense other than health. She states “McDonald’s is bad for your kids. I do not mean the flat patties and the white-flour buns; I refer to the jobs teenagers undertake, mass-producing these choice items”. Then she goes on to discuss the negative effects on high school students working in fast food restaurants such as McDonalds. She feels that they show teenagers no real skills that they could use elsewhere in the work field, that they promote kids to drop out by distracting them from focusing on school and their studies, and also ruins their value of a dollar.
The easy way out to being healthy and eating right for ones body, fast food has plagued the nation especially with diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and even strokes or heart attacks. A question is now posed of whether or not fast foods should be fed to children, in substitute of their regular lunches at school. These kids are what seem like innocent victims because of their naivety towards the real problems with fast food. The problems with this quick fix in school cafeterias are that students would become obese, they would develop bad habits, and that the school would be advertising for these companies. “More than 70 percent of obese adolescents retain their overweight and obese condition even during their adulthood” (What Are Children Munching On?).