Time to Make a Change
People are too focused on what their neighbor is eating and not what they are eating. Every day, people monitor what other people eat and some even comment to the person about what they are eating; these people are called food police. Over the years there have been different perspective on what we should and what we shouldn't eat. Everyone has different eating habits and even the different sexes have different eating habits. Food and diet industries play a big role in everyone's eating habits, the overall outcome of society's views on the perfect diet, and the realization of obesity.
There are many different forms of eating habits; a specific one is social eating. Social eating can actually differ between men and women.
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Eating healthy is difficult, most healthy food is more expensive than buying junk food or going to a fast food restaurant. In the short story "The Food Police" Julie Guthman mentions Pollan's analysis to obesity saying, "Which, is very simple, is this: When food is abundant and cheap, people will eat more of it and get fat." He also believes corn in these cheap food is the problem with obesity. I believe that cheap food, which is most likely unhealthy, will be bought more often to feed a family than healthy food. However, even though corn is an ingredient in almost all of these foods I don't believe it is just corn. Without corn, food industries would find another ingredient to use. It is agreeable that corn, today, is the leading cause, but not the only reason. Bad eating habits more times than not lead to obesity, but eating isn't the only cause of obesity. Being a nonactive person can play a role in it too. If someone is taking in too many calories and not doing anything to get rid of them, then their weight will …show more content…
There are eating disorder that people gain weight instead of lose it. Obesity should be defined more as a disease than a disorder. Although, disease is a disorder, it just needs to be known that it takes work to get rid of the disorder. If someone has a low metabolism they were put fat on quicker than they can lose it. Many obese people have life-threatening symptoms that can harm them more if they try to lose weight. Society needs to change their view on obesity. It needs to be used as a disease or disorder rather than someone being fat and unhealthy.
The world needs to make a change. Yes, it is good to eat healthy, but shaming doesn’t help. People need to encourage their neighbor to better their diet, not bash them for it. If we are adults, then we need to start acting like it. No more body shaming or diet shaming. People can make their own decisions without anyone's help. People need to learn the realization on obesity. They need to learn that it isn't just fat lazy people. Food and diet industries are a big factor as to why people have different eating habits, why society has a perfect diet, and why people are uneducated on
Obesity is very common in America, around 66% of American adults are overweight and nearly 33% are obese, which leads to heart disease, cancer, stroke and many other illness. Furthermore, the consume of fast food is in my opinion one of the worst decisions we can make, the food may be cheaper but it leads directly to overweight problems, and it not only damages our bodies but they undermine local business, farmers, and in the process they support they massive slaughter of animals. Ms. Lappe states “…modern livestock production has steered away toward the industrial-style production to highly destructive overgrazing “(858).By consuming food from fast food industries we support the destruction of lands, and the poor conditions in which the animals we consume are suffering. Moreover, changing from consuming fast food to healthier food is in my opinion a transition every individual should make since we cannot keep supporting the companies that literally destroy our world and our body with our
Although avoiding foods that contain certain ingredients is helpful, it seems to be unavoidable to those with a low socioeconomic status based on their economic, environmental and personal factors. "...[It] is not surprising considering the current structure of food prices is such that sweet and high-fat foods provide dietary energy at a low cost, whereas the energy cost of lean meats, fish, vegetables and fruit are likely to be higher" (Inglis, 2008). Another suggestion Pollan brings up is the idea that people should spend more money on nutritional foods in order to better their health (Pollan, 2007). As I previously mentioned, this suggestion disregards low-income households because money can be a barrier as to why they are not buying nutritional foods but unhealthy foods. What makes matters worse is the fact that Pollan states, "not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can….and those of us who can afford to eat, well should" (Pollan,
Because the modern diet is centered around sugar, people are drawn to eat unhealthily. Most food we eat that is advertised
Societies are founded on various social norms. Norms can best be defined as a set of acceptable attitudes and practices by a given society. These norms however are found to vary from one society or cultural setting o the other. Deviance on the other hand is simply when one does something that goes against the set societal norms. Deviance is gauged on a scale of attitudes and behavior contradicting to acceptable social standards (Samuels, 2012).
According to the USDA, at the start of century 21st American people have increased their daily caloric intake by consuming five hundred calories more than in 1970. As cited by Whitney & Rolfes (2011), there are many recognized causes of obesity such as genetics, environment, culture, socioeconomic, and metabolism among others; but the cause most evident is that food intake is higher than the calories burned in physical activity. Excess of energy from food is stored in the body as fat causing an increase of weight. During the course of the last 40 years, obesity has grown enormously in the United States and the rates remain on the rise (pgs. 272-273).
Nutrition and health have become more popular in today 's society. Our generation is becoming more and more indebted to the idea of being healthy and eating nutritious meals. However, in “The American Paradox,” by Michael Pollan he argues that our unhealthy population is preoccupied with nutrition and the idea of eating healthy than their actual health. He also mentions the food industry, nutrition science and how culture affects the way we eat and make food choices. While Pollan is right about all these factor that affect our eating habits, there is more to it than that. Convenience, affordability and social influence also affects our food choices making them inadequate.
Literature regarding eating disorders in non-Western cultures in general is scarce. Very few studies address disordered eating in cultures outside of the Western and Westernized world. This could be because of the perceived lack of eating disorders in non-industrialized countries or even because there is an overwhelming amount of concern over eating disorders in Western society. However, there have been several studies done on binge eating and dietary restraint in non-western citizens and in non-Caucasian women in the United States. Women who are not from a Caucasian background face different societal and traditional pressures than do Caucasian women in Western cultures, but some of the women in those cultures were found to have binge eating disorders as well as negative body images. These women may exhibit eating disorders for the same reasons women in western cultures do, such as extreme concern over shape and weight, low self-esteem, and emotional disorders (Becker, 2003, 425). Through acculturation to Western ideals and exposure to Western norms, they may have developed a “Western” perspective of body image. However, they may also face pressures based on their own cultures' traditions such as feasting, idealizing more robust women, and using meals as their primary means of socialization (Becker, 2003, 430). The few existing studies on this subject seem to agree that a fusion of the two factors determines the appearance of binge eating and dietary restraint in non-Caucasian females.
Food is the essential vitality of life and the essence of survival. It nourishes one’s physical body to enable pursuit of passion. However, in overwhelming aspects of American society, food is viewed as an enemy. It is seen as the root cause of obesity which carries heavy condemnations of ugliness and weakness. Countless people have become obsessed with food as a means of exerting strength, displaying will-power, and achieving alleged beauty. The way society views nutrition has become misconstrued and disordered, resulting in unhealthy relationships with food, and thus emotional and physical harm. The most effective way to change society’s relationship with food is to target the presentation, practices, content, and intentions of nutrition
I can think of a number of reasons as to why this is the case. First and foremost, Americans care too much about too many unimportant things. They care so much about swim suits, fitted clothes, and losing weight to look good, that they lose sight of the real problem, their health. Fad diet followers are faced with a tough realization that they are no better off than before they started Atkins, South Beach, what-have-you, and oftentimes their packing more pounds than in the beginning.
Obesity today is a widely spread nutritional disorder that can affect anybody at any age across North America, majority of the reason being because there are so many fast food restaurants at just about every corner. With its low prices people are not going to be making the right decisions in what type of food they consume in their diet. Some examples of the junk food would be: Microwave dinners, snack foods like potato chips, which have high calories. It is not necessarily junk foods that make people obese and fat. Too many carbohydrates and foods with lots of starch in an individual’s diet can also cause them to gain undesired weight. It is not always someone’s dietary decision that makes him or her obese. Genetics play a monumental factor in a person’s weight. For example, if a child is born with two obese parents there is an 80 percent of a chance that the child can be born or become obese later in his or her life. Pregnancy can make the mother gain about 20 pounds after giving birth. Another said cause of weight gain is when the energy intake is more then the energy outtake in the body. That is not always the case.
Eating five to six servings of fruit, choosing whole grains or even just avoiding foods high in density can be a step closer to reducing chances of becoming obese or overweight. Mark Bittman in his article, “Is junk food really cheaper,” argues that Americans are wasting their money on junk food or fast food restaurants when that money could be used towards a healthy home cooked meal. He persuades the readers to have alternatives. Instead of buying McDonalds’ French fries people should get apple slices, instead of drinking sodas drink water, instead of buying junk food get vegetables. Bittman states, “The fact that junk food is cheaper than real food has become a reflexive part of how we explain why so many Americans are overweight, particularly those with lower incomes.” I agree food (fast food) plays a huge role unto why Americans are so overweight. It is because fast food is so convenient and inexpensive to some. Even if a person wanted to eat healthy from a fast food restaurant, salads are more expensive than a burger or chicken nugget meal. How can a person with low income choose the “healthy” way when the healthy way is more expensive? Although fast food can be beneficial more so convenient in the short term, it can be very detrimental in the long term. One man filmed a documentary where he was supposed to eat McDonalds three times a day. Unfortunately during the film, he had to stop because his health started to fail. This shows that fast food is indeed not good for people’s
The parents just let their children sit around and watch t.v and don’t take the time to cook them an actually healthy meal, food companies expect us to pay twice as more for a healthy product, when their is another product that we can buy for less money and, the government should change the food that we eat the school and reinforce the physical education at schools. This is what people don't understand: obesity is not a choice but it is a sign of poverty. It's not a lifestyle choice where people are just eating and not
People living in the United States are known for eating unhealthy. More than one-third of adults in United States are struggling with obesity. People need to know how important it is to eat healthy food and avoid obesity in their lives. To be healthy, people need to control what they are eating and be active. There are three things that are causing people in United States to eat poorly and unhealthy. Lack of time to cook, expense of food, and dining out rather than staying at home to eat are reasons to eating unhealthy.
Modern poverty is so closely related with obesity for many reasons. First of all, poor people are ignorant and uneducated about their health and nutrition. Obviously, because of that they don’t really know what they are doing or even how they are taking the risk of eating some kinds of food. Poor people go for good tasting food without paying attention to the food’s freshness and safety. Moreover, children grow up without a proper understanding of good nutrition, so it is time to reintroduce nutrition to families and even in schools to kids. Second of all, poor people cannot afford buying healthy food. A person who is poor and hungry is going to buy the cheapest calories that he or she could find. In fact in today’s world, the cheapest calories come from junk food. It is cheaper and ...
One of the chief causes is unhealthy diets. On one hand, there are high-calorie foods in daily diets like chocolates, sugar, cheese and butter. Teenagers eat more and more high-fat burgers and pizza in fast food restaurants. For example, according to Altman and Leitch (2012), in Mexico, students drink cola rather than water due to the short of hygienic drinking water. Coca cola made agreements with many schools that they would exclusively sell Coca cola inside the schools. Therefore, Mexicans are considering being the most obese country which will have 70% overweight people including 30% obsess in the future. (Altman and Leitch,2012). The foods most commonly eaten by over 80% of kids are white bread, savoury snacks, chips, biscuits and chocolate confectionery. Besides, almost 20% kids do not eat any fruit at all. In general, kids eat about half the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. On the other hand, some people judge traditional food healthier; however, some traditional foods are extremely oily as well. For example, Chinese pay attention to use oil to heat the ingredients quickly. This makes the food fairly oily and high-fat. Furthermore, diets today are changing according to ...