Is What You Consume Really Your Choice? One of the biggest, modern health issues is the ongoing issue of unhealthy eating. Everyday, United States citizens are making unwise choices to put an excess of unhealthy foods inside their bodies. Is it really their choice though? As a result of government involvement, social influence, and supermarket schemes, what we buy and consume into our bodies is no longer our choice. The government has a lot of control and influence on what we eat and do. In the more recent years, the government has been attempting to end obesity by funding the construction of new bike trails and sidewalks, restrictions on the food market for children, raising awareness to consumers by more demanding labels, and dictating …show more content…
This is the wrong way to fight obesity, Instead of manipulating or intervening in the array of food options available to American consumers, our government ought to be working to foster a sense of responsibility in and ownership of our own health an dwell-being, But we’re doing just the opposite. (Balko 2) Social influence is another key contributor to what we eat. Many times we are in situations that offer limited choices in food. Many social events are full of high cholesterol, high in fat foods, all part of a three round meal. These foods can be hard to pass up when there is a lack of other choices. In the United States culture, it is rude to not eat what the host has offered you. If you are part of a social gathering hosted by someone other than yourself, you are expected what they have prepared for you. If at a party, it is easy to join the fun. Nobody wants to be that person who brings down the life of the party. People can be easily persuaded into having that extra piece of pizza or another …show more content…
This information gives retailers the ability to layout their stores in the most effective way. By putting the most popular items on the end of shelves, and setting up certain products onto certain shelves, the choice is beginning to feel more like theirs than yours (Nestle 64). As basic marketing textbooks explain, the object of the game is to “maximize sales and profit consistent with customer convenience.” Translated, this means that supermarkets want to expose you to the largest possible number of items that you can stand to see, without annoying you so much that you run screaming through the store. (Nestle 63) Not only are supermarket products set in a certain way attempt to persuade you to buy more, but they are also priced in certain ways that encourage you to buy more. In Nestles article “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate,” there is an example of soda pricing from a supermarket in New York. Using this article, we can see that the less you buy, the more expensive it costs. For example, a pack of six, sixteen ounce bottles is $2.99, while a pack of six, twenty four ounce bottles is $3.00. That is a $.33 difference in price per quart. This type of pricing encourages people to buy more than they
The problem behavior associated with individuals making bad food choices when presented with unhealthy food will need to be observed so that we may understand how to change this behavior as it is unhealthy and harmful to health overall. Are poor choices in different foods causing obesity? Making poor choices when it comes to food is an
American health, specifically our obesity epidemic, has grown into a trending media topic. A quick Google search will bring up thousands of results containing a multitude of opinions and suggested solutions to our nation’s weight gain, authored by anyone ranging from expert food scientists to common, concerned citizens. Amongst the sea of public opinion on obesity, you can find two articles: Escape from the Western Diet by Michael Pollan and The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food by Michael Moss. Each article presents a different view on where the blame lies in this public health crisis and what we should do to amend the issue. Pollan’s attempt to provide an explanation pales in comparison to Moss’s reasonable discussion and viable
I am responding to the request to analyze Radley Balko’s article, “What You Eat Is Your Business” and make a recommendation for or against publication in The Shorthorn at University of Texas at Arlington. In order to respond, I have examined the rhetorical appeals of Balko’s piece and determined why this article should be posted in the next edition of The Shorthorn. I believe that the Shorthorn audience would be interested in what is being discussed regarding of obesity, things that could potentially affect their lifestyle as well as the professors. In “What You Eat Is Your Business”, Balko claims that obesity is the responsibility of the individual not the government, and how our government is allowing American to live an unhealthy lifestyle
In his article, “What You Eat Is Your Business” Balko contends that government intervention is the wrong way to fight obesity. Rather, each individual should be held responsible for their own actions (Balko 467). This assertion is made through lines of deductive reasoning. He starts this argument by first arguing that former President Bush reserved $200 million in an anti-obesity budget that will foster measures to prevent and reduce obesity (467). Following that, he referred to some politicians trying to put a “‘fat tax’ on high-calorie food” (467).
Eating is an instinctual habit; however, what we decide to put in our body is a choice that will affect our way of living. In “The American Paradox,” Michael Pollan, a professor of journalism at University of California, Berkeley, disapproves of the way Americans have been eating. The term “American paradox” describes the inverse correlation where we spend more of our time on nutrition, but it would only lead to our overall health deteriorating. According to Pollan, our way of eating that had been governed with culture, or our mother, was changed by the entities of food marketers and scientists, who set up nutritional guidelines that changed the way we think about food. Nutritional advice is inaccurate as it is never proven, and it is not beneficial
Richard Balko and Mary Maxfield discuss personal responsibility, and choices in one’s health in their essays “What You Eat Is Your Business,” and “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating” respectively. Balko feels the government should not intervene in people’s food intake because it is an individual preference. Instead, Balko asserts that the government should foster a program to assist the American people to take on personal responsibility and ownership of their own health. Similarly, Maxfield paints the same picture that our culture now finds it immoral to eat what our body needs, therefore believing in the idea of eating less is healthier. Maxfield points out the multi-billion dollar campaign of corporations into advertising false hope into consumers by buying into eradication of fatness. Why has food have suddenly become a risky subject at the dinner table? And who is to blame? Is it everyone else or do we blame ourselves?
In “Don’t Blame the Eater”, by David Zinczenko and in “What You Eat is Your Business”, by Radley Balko both authors discuss and make their stance’s clear on their believed cause of obesity in America. On one hand, Zinczenko argues that it is not the consumers fault for putting themselves at risk of becoming obese or being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but that it is the fast-food companies fault. While on the other hand, Balko argues that we as individuals hold responsibility on whether or not we are putting ourselves at risk for obesity.
Should people be held accountable for what they eat? Many believe that it is a matter of public health, but some think that it is the matter of personal responsibility. In the article “What You Eat Is Your Business,” Radley Balko argues that the government spending more money on anti-obesity measures is the wrong way to fix the obesity epidemic. He claims that people should be more responsible for their personal health. I am of two minds about this author’s claim that eating and lifestyle are matters of personal choice. On the one hand, I agree with his claim because of the unfair insurance policies, people should be more responsible for their own health, and people should take the time to be responsible for their kid’s health instead of blaming someone or something irrelevant. On the other hand, the government should do their best to dispose of “food deserts,” provide more opportunities to live a healthy life style, and give tax breaks to people selling healthy foods.
Radley Balko, The author of the essay “What You Eat is Your Business”, would agree that in order to stop obesity, we must turn this public problem around and make it everyone’s individual responsibility. Instead of inflicting the importance of personal ownership, government officials, politicians and congress make obesity a public problem by prohibiting junk food in school vending machines, federal funding for new bike trails and sidewalks, and restrictive food marketing to children. Overall I agree that this manipulation of food options is not the proper way to fight obesity, however, I think that government should inform people about the food they are eating because then they have no excuses for not taking responsibility of the actions.
Many of us express our freedom by talking, writing, and drawing. So the same should be said for eating. If we choose to eating a Big Mac over a home-grilled hamburger then so be it. If we choose to watch the super-bowl rather than playing football then so is it. No one has the right to tell us what to eat or to force us to be slimmer and just like we choose to be capitalist; the food industry has the right to capitalize on our hunger without forcing it down our throat without our consent or that might be considered
We make personal choices about what and where to eat. The government is not going to eliminate the unhealthy food because we think it is the cause of obesity. Ultimately, we must decide to either stay away from unhealthy food or eat them in moderation. Despite all the efforts of education, media and guidance it doesn’t prevent us from grabbing that cheeseburger with fries on the way to work. In his essay “What You Eat Is Your Business,” Radley Balko argues that society should take full responsi...
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity now ranks as the 10th most important health problem in the world (“Obesity Seen as a Global Problem”). Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Centers for Disease Control and Protection estimates that obesity contributed to the deaths of 112,000 Americans in 2000 (“Obesity in the U.S. Fast”). It is estimated that annual medical care cost of obesity are as high as $147 billion (“Obesity in the U.S. Fast”). Government-provided food stamps are often expended on junk or fast food, because it tends to be less expensive than fresh or cook food. Governments fund producers of meat and dairy products to keep prices low. For now, governments are taking a smarter and more productive approach through regulation, and by working with manufacturers.
Obesity and overweight remain the two major social problems in the United States. Apart from the fact that obesity and overweight are dangerous by themselves, they also cause a variety of negative health consequences. Our lives our overloaded with tasks and obligations, and we often choose to eat something fast. “Fast”, however, does not necessarily imply “useful”, and more and more people face the risks of becoming obese even at young age. Because obesity has already become a national i...
We live in a free society, and have the freedom to make our own personal choices daily. This freedom is afforded to us in our Constitution and its Amendments; they protect our rights and freedoms as American citizens. Currently, as American’s continue to struggle with poor food choices and health related issues, the question remains, should the government have the control to dictate what we eat? That type of control is an infringement on our rights, “More than two-thirds of the population (69 per cent) say it’s not the government’s job to tell us what we should and shouldn’t eat” (Holland). However, people continually struggle to make the right decisions when it comes to what they consume, and do need a unified way to make better food choices
To survive in life we need to consume food whether it is for nutritional value or for the pure enjoyment of its savory taste. Individuals, not the government, have the right to choose what and when to eat; but good nutrition is important to maintain health and live a long and happy life. People need to make choices everyday about what they put into their bodies. Without proper nutrition, our bodies may not be able to function correctly. Most adults know what is good and bad for the body. We all know that diets rich in fruits and vegetables fuel the body in a healthy way and that protein gives us energy. Although we know what food is best for our bodies, each individual has a personal choice of what they put into their bodies and that should not be dictated by the government, even though