David H. Freedman

Journalist and business and technology specialist, David H. Freeman’s wrote, “How Junk Food Can End Obesity”. The article was published in the July 2013 edition of the Atlantic. Freeman addresses his major concerns in regards to major whole-foods advocates, and how their stance may be degrading to the overall movement to end obesity. Major media and promotion have been dedicated to demonizing all processed food. Journalist, Michael Pollan suggests that “It is one of the reasons that we have the obesity and diabetes epidemic that we do...If you’re going to let industries decide how much salt, sugar, and fat is in your food, they’re going to put as much as they possibly can...They will push those buttons until we scream or die.” While Pollan’s idea seems entirely plausible to the elite and upper class, who have $7.95 to blow on an organic smoothie resourced from local farms. Freeman explains this idea is unrealistic for a majority of obese people, and gradual change through the fast and processed food industries and education is more likely to have a lasting impact on the obese population.

In David Freedman’s article, “How Junk Food Can End Obesity” (2013), he begins by discussing his endeavors to search for wholesome food. He continues to come across food items that claim to be healthy and void of processed junk, but all he finds are items high in calories or the expense is too much for an average American. He argues that wholesome foods are actually just as bad, if not even worse, than junk food and that the Big Food industry has the technology available to make food healthier, but still retain its appeal. Freedman mentions continuously throughout his article that Americans who are most at risk of becoming obese are those who cannot afford healthy foods, completely defeating the purpose of the wholefoods movement. He

In “Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” by Michael Moss is about the rising numbers of obesity in both adults and children throughout the United States. On the Evening of April 8, 1999, some of the biggest food industries CEO’s ad company presidents come together for a rare, private meeting. Discussing the emerging obesity epidemic and how they should deal with it. Big time companies food is lacking the nutrients that a person needs and is more concentrated on how to make it more desired. Keeping the customers coming for more. While the industries are gaining a profit, the customers are gaining a big belly.

In the article of How Junk Food Can End Obesity, David Freedman, the contributor editor at the Atlantic and Inc. Magazines, lays out a “they say” that then frames his argument. He states that making processed food healthier can contribute to the battle of the obese in our society. Freedman also says that the food these companies are cooking are making people sick and how it is destructive to an individual’s health. For instance, in the reading, Freedman states a quote from Michael Pollan, a journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley, “It is one of the reasons that we have the obesity and diabetes epidemics that we do… If you’re going to let industries decide how much salt, sugar and fat is in your food, they’re going to put in as much as they possibly can… They will push those buttons until we scream or die.” In other words, Pollan believes that we constantly let people put all of these things in our foods but no one is stopping it.

Healthy, unhealthy, good food, bad food, fat, skinny, diet, weight: all these words have been used to define what society views as the key to a balanced or unbalanced life. In the essay, Food for Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating, Mary Maxfield takes a look into the stigma of eating habits, health, and dieting in western society. Maxfield supports her claims by analyzing and refuting Michael Pollan’s essay, Escape from the Western Diet. Although it is common knowledge that many people struggle to understand what is essentially “healthy” and “unhealthy”, there are many experts in the field of nutrition that claim to have the key to a perfect diet. Maxfield ultimately disclaims these ideas by bringing to light information that

The essay “Eat Food: Food Defined,” from Michael Pollan’s 2008 book In Defense of Food was written to address the American general public about the food industry. Pollan focuses on relatable topics as examples, such as family, common food items, and common belief that everyone wants to be healthy. The essay brings across Pollan’s point by establishing his credibility, explaining why this is important to us, and telling us how to react to the given facts. Pollan makes the readers inquire how we define food by drawing our attention to the importance of examining our food before eating it.

Judging from the title of David Freedman’s “How Junk Food Can End Obesity” published in The Atlantic, Freeman's audience, the upper middle class of America, conjures up an image of a crazy Freedman throwing away every piece of scientific data that shows junk food is hazardous to your health. However, this is not the case. Freedman brings to light a more compromising approach to solving America’s obesity problem. His opinion is that by manufacturing healthier fast food we can solve America’s obesity issue and that his method would be able to be established nation-wide in a cheaper, fast and more effortless way than some other methods proposed. Not all, but the majority of The Atlantic’s audience cares about

Eating healthy is very important for people, and modern supermarkets can make this difficult with thousands of new products flooding the market every year. Countless numbers of the products that hit the market are considered food, nevertheless is it the food needed for proper nutrition? Most of the food that fills up the supermarket shelves each year isn’t the healthy real food our bodies need to get proper nutrition. Several edibles obtainable appear healthy or normal enough to call wholesome. Think about processed deli meats, for example, particularly the ones that say “no preservatives” on them. Several of the processed meats you find contain nitrates, a preservative. Nitrates are viewed as harmful, so people don’t want them in their sandwich meats. Hence some deli meat companies made their product more appealing to the public, by labeling “no preservatives.” This

One of the most unhealthy diets in the world is that of an American. It is made up of processed foods and a good amount of television. America easily has the most fast food restaurants in the entire world. Leave it to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King or any other fast-food restaurant to serve extremely cheap and even unhealthier food at any time during the day or night. ”It tastes good so why not?” That seems to be the question many people are asking now-a-days. Because it is so easily accessible and processed, it is made to be very tasty and extremely unhealthy. Many Americans find his or herself indulging on the these fatty foods of America on a day-to-day basis. While it may taste good at the time, it has a terrible effect on your body

In his article “How Junk Food Can End Obesity,” first published in 2013, David Freedman interprets how junk food can end obesity. Some people talk about junk food as one of the worst possible substances to put inside the human body. The number of calories, carbohydrates, and sodium in junk food products is massive, but “health food” can be just as bad. In David H. Freedman’s article, “How Junk Food Can End Obesity,” he explains the many pros and cons to both junk food and health food. Throughout the article, there are many uses of repetition, contrast, anomalies, and literary devices that all work together to correlate Freedman's point. Even though Freedman states that junk food could not end obesity, it is evident that Freedman believes

David H. Freedman, a consulting editor for John Hopkins and author of several books, writes in “How Junk food can End Obesity” about the dangers of ruling out Fast Food as a way to decrease obesity in society. He argues that using nutrients to gauge the healthiness of a food is an adequate way to increase health in society, and that most “healthy” foods contain a lot of unhealthy ingredients that do not promote health. He also advocates small changes of about 50-100 calories in meals to encourage people to stay on their diets and promote long-term weight loss. He also points out the severe monetary difference between health foods and fast food. He ultimately wants to promote using the forum of food in society to decrease obesity in society, rather than making the large leap from junk food to whole, natural foods.

The United States has progressed from a rural, agricultural nation to an urbanized industrial one in just the last two centuries. Through this the transformation of the American lifestyles have changed drastically. Other countries focus on eating well, excercise, and taking enough time to eat and enjoying what they are eating. One lifestyle that many Americans have adapted to is the Western Diet, but today around the world the Western Diet is not viewed as the most nutritious or beneficial diet for humans. The nutritional patterns of high-fat and cholesterol, high protein, high sugar, and excessive salt intake, as well as the excessive consumption of processed fast foods has collectively defined the Western Diet. Even though this type of

It’s no secret, Americans love their processed, energy-rich foods. And undeniably, this love affair has led to an obesity epidemic. In spite of the evidence against processed food, however, there are some who believe the problem may hold the key to the solution. David Freedman, author of “How Junk Food Could End Obesity,” criticizes Michael Pollan for his argument in support of unprocessed, local foods due its impracticality. Freedman’s criticism is based on the idea that “It makes a lot more sense to look for small, beneficial changes in food than it does to hold out for big changes in what people eat that have no realistic chance of happening” (Freedman Sec. 1). He contends that processed foods already play a big part in our diets, so instead of trying to expand the wholesome food business, we should try to make processed foods healthier. Freedman’s argument, however, overlooks many negative effects of processed foods and conventional farming. Michael Pollan’s wholesome food movements takes into account not only the obesity problem, but also the quality of the environment and the rights of farmers. Although Pollan’s solution to obesity may not seem the most efficient or time effective, the trades offs it provides in terms of environmental sustainability and the well-being of farmers outweigh the loss of efficiency.

They say that in modern society, living without processed foods is not possible, as most of the mass produced foods cannot be made at home. [The quality of whole foods vary depending on a number of factors. Therefore, instead of looking at all processed foods as bad, Vega and McClements suggest sorting through the processed foods, as processing techniques vary and can affect the healthiness of the product. Obesity that is related to processed food is what the authors claim to be the effect of overeating. Any food that is eaten in excess is bad for the diet. Advances in food technology have been made to make more nutritious and healthier processed foods, which is seen in the increased life span seen in Western

===== Freedman’s point of view is that people are categorizing all fast food restaurants as unhealthy places to eat. However, he points out to the audience describing the difference between fast food and regular foods. The main difference is quantity, some foods may be healthier, but other products that we would least expect like salad dressing or even ketchup could be very unhealthy.