Big Fat America Analysis

According to the article, “Attacking the obesity epidemic by first figuring out its cause” by Jane E. Brody, corporations in the food industry are the one causing the problem of obesity. First off salty, fatty, and sugary foods have been introduced to our society since the 70’s. As a matter of fact, “in the 40’s and 50’s” the majority of people actually had to walk to get to places.” Nowadays, people just use cars as a means of transportation rather than walking to get stuff. The food we eat have ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup which increase the risk of diabetes, obesity, and cancer which are devastating.

In America today one in three adults are considered to be obese. Over the years the rate of obesity keeps climbing up and up. Some people blame fast-food or the environment Americans live in. After all,someone can purchase a chocolate bar at a bookstore nowadays. But, most people are looking at the incorrect factor to blame. Although the food industry is a huge contribution to obesity in America, people are ultimately responsible for their own health.

When discussing the issue of obesity in America, it seems to be that there is plenty of blame to go around and most of that blame falls on fast food companies. When searching for a concrete answer to the question used as my title, you will find none because there isn’t one. When asked this simple question, it is easy to blame the obesity problem on fast food considering 8 out of 10 Americans consume fast food according to a report done by the Huffington Post. But after doing more research you will notice that this isn’t necessarily the case. American obesity can be blamed on a variety of things; lifestyle, accessibility of fast food, and what we are taught about food growing up. However, when the only options you are provided with by the food industry are all unhealthy, obesity cannot be avoided.

Behind all the corn, the processing, and the food that results, is the man in charge: food corporations. Because of food corporations greed for money, processed foods have escalated out of control, causing a serious health epidemic: obesity. Michael Pollan, also author

Shannon Brownlee a writer for The Sacramento Bee states that the obesity problem has to do with the meal sizes of the seller. She says that “When they do well economically, we gain weight” (Brownlee, para. 4). Brownlee is trying to say that whenever people buy more and more fast food, the businesses get paid and the consumer gains weight in an unhealthy way. I agree with Brownlee on how businesses give out unhealthy food and do not care about the consumer. When businesses get paid they believe that the consumer wants more so they give what they get and what they give is unhealthy food and what they get is a lot of money. I agree with Shannon Brownlee on how businesses give out unhealthy food and do not care about the consumer. Brownlee is stating

We are all guilty, we rather spend five dollars on a McDonalds or Burger King meal, instead of taking a little time the day before and making our self our own meal, but let’s keep on mind that just because is made home doesn’t mean is healthy. According to article “The state of obesity” by better policies of America more than one third of adults (34.9) are obese in the United States. But why is there so much obesity on the United States and who is there to blame? We can go ahead and blame the fast food restaurants or we can blame the people itself. In my opinion the individuals are the ones to blame for the obesity in the United States because they rather have fast and easy food even though it’s not healthy, individuals rather have cheaper meal, and because they don’t exercise enough to burn the calories they consume throughout the day.

Obesity is a big topic in American society, it has grown over the years and it has become very well known. It has become an American concern and the food industry has been an easy target to blame for this “epidemic”. The truth to this is that it can be easy to blame the fast food industry, but the real truth it is, that obesity has become what it is now because our society has let that happened; the government, the citizens, the food industry's. They have all played an important role to what it is now obese.

Obesity in America has been a huge controversy for years; each article has something to do with how obesity has affected the lives of many Americans. Some authors believe that it is the fast food corporations fault,

The documentary film Fed Up (2014) defines the problem of obesity in American culture due to low quality food products being sold by corporations through fast food chains and convenient stores. Katei Couric (the narrator) brings forth the argument that the quest for profits by industrial food producers reduces the quality of food through products, such as high fructose corn syrup. Currently, the dominance of industrial farming, genetic engineering, and lack of sustainable options define a downward trend in food quality: “One reasons why large farms are relatively unproductive compared to small farms is that large farms the world over tend to use monoculture. Monoculture is a single crop species” (8:45). This type of inefficient and wasteful method of farming depletes the land of minerals and tends to produce massive quantities of crops, such as corn and grain, as a base for the food supply. This corn product tends to be used in almost every food throughout the food chain, including feeding livestock for beef, corn syrup in fatty foods, etc. Therefore, industrial farming produces a decreasing variety of food products due to the prominence of massive industrial farms that produce America’s primary food supply. This encourages unhealthy and fatty foods (soda, bread, grease fried foods, etc.) to flood the food markets for greater profits due to the lower costs of food production.

Obesity in America has become a huge problem. No one understands why the obesity rate in America is increasing, but we need to stop it. A lot of obesity rates come from poverty stricken families. Since they do not have the income to buy healthy food; they choose the cheapest fast food place to provide for themselves and their children. The fast food industry is the reason for the obesity rates rising higher each year. They are educated enough to know that people who do not have to money to buy healthy meals will depend on their company.

In the United States, more than one third of adults are obese. One in five American deaths are now associated with obesity. The prevalence of obesity has increased at an alarming rate in the USA: in 1960 only 13% of Americans were obese. Obesity has become an epidemic and the number of preventable deaths from obesity-related diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease continues to rise. Despite the well-documented association between obesity and significant morbidity and mortality the American administration has not taken many steps to combat this problem. There have been attempts by government to try and stem this epidemic, but the food industry is so wealthy and influential that policies against obesity are very

Putting our health into the hands of agribusiness and food corporations is one of many reasons our nation’s health is depleting and losing a battle against obesity. Food corporations target the poor, the time constricted, and the uneducated as a way to sell their product. All of these limitations are related to one another in some form or fashion. A high school dropout, making 19,000 dollars a year, who is a mother, has a higher probability of being obese than a woman the same age who is attending college. Convenience started with the introduction of Swanson’s T.V. dinner. Combined with a large advertising budget and a trusted name, processed foods entered the homes of Americans after the Second World War, selling over 13 million within its first year (Ganzel). The convenience of having a meal prepared for your family with minimal clean-up was sweeping the nation and other companies soon followed suit to keep up with consumer demand.

It is the United States Government’s responsibility to value public health and attempt to remedy the problem of obesity. Although obesity is clearly a problem in America, the government has yet to play a key role in being a part of the solution. The government has the power and the resources to improve public health, yet it allows the food industry to continue with harmful and deceitful practices. If the government does choose to impose stricter regulations on the food industry, it will be faced with many challenges. The government must find ways to regulate the food industry that will decrease instances of obesity, without making Americans feel like they are losing their freedom to choose what they want to eat.

Over the past couple of decades, the Obesity in USA has one of many controversial issues. An advocate who are for reducing obesity fell that is fast-food restaurants, are the main cause of the _ in obesity in America. Peoples in USA are becoming so obese that sadly becoming more and more common in this country, and there are many people who are less responsible with their food, personal hygiene habits and diet. The main contributions to being overweight is by eating from fast-food restaurants, and the fast-food restaurants industry is causing American people to becoming unhealthy. The main question is who to blame for this?

Fast food is responsible for the increase of obesity rates in Western nations. In order to curb obesity rates, government regulation from the local level is necessary. The fast food corporations are responsible for the obesity epidemic because they make false health claims about their food and market heavily to children. But critics of regulation state that individuals, along with their food choices are responsible for the obesity epidemic. But regulation proponents believe that fast food needs regulation because of high obesity rates in poor inner city neighborhoods. In order to curb current obesity rates, local governments must intervene by implementing fast food regulations.