Fast Food in America

Haley Jerge

Professor Robb Tillett

UWRT.150.18 – FYW: Writing Seminar

12 February 2017

Fast Food in America

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that “According to the researchers, 67.6 million Americans older than age 25 in 2012 had a BMI over 30, which is considered obese.” Obesity is a major problem in America that many people are not worrying about. Fast-food is a key contributor to this ongoing problem and more people should care about this topic. Obesity rates in America should decline if fast food companies would be more regulated. In order to make America healthy again, fast food companies should be regulated more efficiently and the government should take more immediate action.

Radley Balko wrote an essay about obesity titled, “What You Eat Is Your Business.” In this piece of writing, Balko goes into great detail to express his view on personal responsibility. He believes that people should be responsible for their own life and happiness and they control what they eat. There should be less government action involved in this issue. Although I agree with Radley Balko up to a point, I cannot accept his overriding assumption that the government is not at fault at all. Though I concede that personal responsibility is an important factor in decreasing the rate of obesity in America, I still insist that through government action, people would begin to be more aware of nutritional information and dangerous warnings about what is in their food and what exactly they are eating. I disagree with Balko’s view that people can change their eating habits because, as recent research has shown, eating can be an addiction and people have always had the option to eat healthy however, obesity rates are still increasing. Just because they have the option to eat healthy does not mean they always have the knowledge about what is healthy and what is not. Balko went the wrong way in writing his essay because it is not all about personal responsibility, it is about a combination of both, government action and personal responsibility that will help in decreasing the rate of obesity.

Fast food is everywhere, and it is not informing people of what they are truly consuming. David Zinczenko expressed this very well throughout his essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater.” His ideas challenge the work of those critics who have long assumed that individual responsibility is to blame for the epidemic known as obesity. Zinczenko displays protruding details that focus on the idea that people are not accurately informed about the nutritional values on the food they are consuming and that it isn’t all their fault that obesity is increasing. One point he makes is that there are more fast food places around then healthy options. Although I agree with Zinczenko up to a point, I cannot accept that his overriding assumption that there are more unhealthy options available. I agree that many McDonald’s are available, however, there are also many healthy, inexpensive, and convenient places to find food at such as Panera. Panera locations are expanding all over the United States and there are healthy options to eat at this fast-food restaurant. There should be healthy places conveniently placed that aren’t expensive that can encourage individuals to eat there. Another point Zinczenko expresses is that fast-food places do not supply the nutritional values accurately or at all on their food products. He furthers that point by giving an example about a salad containing 150 calories. However, if you get more options on tops you have to find and add those calories and the dressing you get. Lastly in small print it may say that the salad is 2.5 servings so all of a sudden, you’re up to 1,000 calories instead of 150. People are not informed with the necessary information to eat healthy. I agree with this statement; however, I do believe that people who are truly trying to eat healthy do count calories and look into detail about what they are eating. It is the government’s responsibility to act upon this problem and the sooner the government starts taking action, the sooner America can become a healthier nation.

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