Persuasive Essay About Diets In America

Americans are great in many ways; however our size shouldn’t be one of them. More than “two-thirds of adults in America are considered overweight or obese”( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This is not a new issue. It has been growing for a long time, and not enough people are taking the initiative to change their habits. I propose that we need government help to encourage us to eat better and make healthier choices. The USDA Dietary Guidelines are designed to help Americans choose diets that will meet “nutritional requirements, promote health, support active lives, and reduce chronic disease risks”(Dietary Guidelines For Americans). Research has shown that certain diets raise risks for chronic diseases. Such diets are
These statistics prove that Americans have trouble eating right and don’t understand the harmful effects of what they’re eating. In recent years, obesity and obesity -related illnesses have cost the economy approximately “$190 billion annually, nearly 21% of the federal government’s annual budget”(Healthy Communities). The amount of money we use for obesity- related diseases is astonishing; to put this into perspective, the “education budget is only 67 billion dollars annually”( Atlas). This country is spending three times as much on obesity than it is investing in the education system. Instead of investing our money in educating our youth, we are spending more money on preventing these diseases. If we had a more regulations over our consumption of foods we could decrease obesity related illnesses in this country and spend the extra $190 billion on something more important. Government action on obesity prevention is generally centered on trying to better the diets of citizens. The United States government argues, and I agree, that it should