America's Obesity Blame

Who Is Responsible For America’s Obesity?

In a paragraph from the article “Cheap Food Blamed for America’s Obesity Crisis” by Linda Carroll and Madelyn Fernstrom, the authors discussed the reason that people are getting fatter is because the food companies are providing people with cheap and unhealthy food, Roland Sturm, the study’s lead author, claims that food companies are at fault for America’s obesity problems (Carroll and Fernstrom). However, in the article "It's Portion Distortion That Makes America Fat" from The Sacramento Bee, the author Shannon Brownlee proves that consumers are responsible for obesity when she shared a story from 12 years ago, on January 5, 2003, a mom of a teenager who is 400 pounds sued McDonald’s for having food
that led her son to obesity, while she has always believed that McDonald’s food is healthy (Brownlee). Although food restaurants and companies are deceptive about the calories in their food and use advertising to trick consumers into purchasing their items, it is ultimately the consumer’s responsibility to make healthy food choices. Many fast food restaurants in the US are dishonest about the amount of calories in their menu items. For example, in the article “Don’t Blame The Eater” published in The New York Times, the author David Zinczenko claims that a company’s website says their chicken salad contains 150 calories, but it comes with almond and noodles, which contain 190 calories, and it is not listed on the nutrition chart with the chicken salad (Zinczenko). Consumers are tricked into eating food that actually contains twice the amount of calories listed on the website, and they don’t realize how unhealthy they’re getting. However, consumers are able to choose what they’re eating. Food companies could have false information, but consumers have a choice of buying their food from a grocery store. The Sacramento Bee reporter Daniel Weintraub reveals his family's eating habits when he states, “We try to cook as many meals at home as possible on the theory that even the least-healthy home-cooked meal is probably better for our children than the healthiest fast-food serving” (Weintraub). Weintraub also says that, “We don’t stock soda in the kitchen or serve it regularly at home; it’s a treat saved for special occasions” (Weintraub). Although the fast food restaurants are often unclean about their food calories, consumers must be be educated about its content; they must also be aware of advertisements. Food companies use advertisements to trick consumers into eating unhealthy food.
In the article “If You Pitch It, They Will Eat It”, David Barboza, who works for the New York Times, claims that, “Product tie-ins are everywhere. There are SpongeBob SquarePants Popsicles, Oreo Cookie preschool counting books and Keebler’s Scooby Doo Cookies” (Barboza). While his claim seems accurate, consumers still have the power to control the market. Parents can control what their kids watch everyday on TV, and if nobody is eating unhealthy, then the fast food restaurants will have to adjust their menus to reflect more healthy options. In “The Battle Against Fast Food Begins In The Home”, the solution in author David Weintraub’s family was to limit television time and encourage the kids to spend more time outdoors (Weintraub). In David Zinczenko’s article, he shared his story that he was already more than 200 pounds at the age of 15 (Zinczenko). Additionally, David Barboza claims that, “Kids 4 to 12 spend on their own wants and needs about $30 billion a year” (Barboza). Parents often pacify their children with unhealthy snacks, which shows that consumer demand allow companies to continue selling their products. Therefore, the consumers are at fault of for America's
obesity. Lots of people believe that food companies do not care about the well being of people. In Shannon Brownlee’s article, she talks about how fast food restaurants are offering super-sizing and lowering the price for their menu items, she believes that companies do not care about the consumers’ health (Brownlee). In fact, it is the consumers who do not care about their own health. In the movie Food, Inc., the parents of the Gonzalez family did not want to spend more money on healthier food from a grocery store, they prefer the hamburgers and fries from fast food restaurants (Food, Inc.). It is the consumer's responsibility to understand how many calories they’re taking into their bodies per day. “26 percent of schoolchildren are overweight,” says Weintraub (Weintraub). So before we start blaming the food companies, consumers have to pay more attention to their diet. Consumers' unhealthy choices are the real reason that obesity is happening in America. Food companies use every way to make people fall into their trap of eating unhealthy, unlike the mom who blamed McDonald's for her son's obesity, consumers must learn to take responsibility for themselves and their health (Brownlee). If consumers neglect to do this, there will be a continued increase of weight related issues such as diabetes and heart diseases. This would lead to decrease in quality of life. Though consumers would be paying less for their food, they might end up paying more for health care later. In the end, only consumers have the power to give America a healthy future.