Don T Blame The Eater Analysis

As the obesity rate in America increases, people are pointing fingers at the fast-food industry. Teenagers, with the help of their parents, have filed lawsuits blaming fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s for their own health problems. However, parents, not the fast-food companies, are to blame for the amount of overweight children that are present today. They are the ones who teach their children eating and exercising habits, they are the ones who let their young consume unhealthy foods, they are the ones who allow their children to watch television and play on the computer for hours on end, it is obviously the parents fault for obesity in youth.

Fast food has a harmful effect on society because it can cause obesity. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry believes obesity “Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise.” (parag. 1).The causing and treating of obesity is complex but it is the most recognizable disease. Consistently eating fast food and a poor can lead to obesity in anyone. The risks of obesity include an increased risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. According to the American Heart Association, fast food “Studies have shown that over the past four decades, consumption of food eaten away from home has also risen alarmingly” (parag. 8). This means that fast food is high in fat, sugar, salt, carbs, calories, saturated and trans fats. This type of eating leads to a higher body mass index or gained weight. Children and adolescents are at a

In David Zinczenko’s article “Don’t Blame the Eater” he focuses on the fast food industry and their role in the increasing health and obesity issues of our nation’s children, as well as these issues potentially becoming a serious problem that we will all have to deal with if we collectively don’t do something about it now. When it comes to the topic of fast food, most of us can agree that it is not the best source of nutrition. It is unhealthy and can be the cause of many serious health issues with our children such as obesity related Type 2 diabetes, stomach ulcers and even heart disease, high cholesterol, sleep apnea or even cancer. We can even agree that fast-food diets are a major contributing factor to

He claims that the prevalence of fast food and the lack of healthier food alternatives is causing an epidemic of teenage obesity in America. In his essay “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko notes “Drive down any thoroughfare in America, ... you’ll see one of our country’s more than 13,000 McDonald’s restaurants. Now drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit” (463). Zinczenko argues that there are no inexpensive and convenient alternatives to fast-food restaurants for teenagers. Especially for teenagers, unhealthy and fattening fast food

With the increase of fast food consumption and the growing rate of obesity, Americans are arguing if those who consume fast food products have only themselves to blame or the fast food companies for the growing rate of obesity and its health problems. The health of Americans has changed for the worse since the 70’s. The size of the food portions has increased and Americans are exercising less. This is evident in Americans 18-26 years old. These are the college kids who are away from home, working on their higher education and possibly a job at the same time, these college kids are too busy with all the work that needs to get done that these young adults don’t have time to cook themselves a home-cooked meal so they end up eating fast food meals. These

Because of parents using food as a reward, many children learn that being good means eating unhealthy. Combined with the advertising techniques used by the fast food industry, children begin to make a correlation between fast food and a reward. Ellen Gustafson further confirms that fast food contains “more refined grains, fats and oils and sugars than the 1980’s.” All of these components of fast food make it appealing to children. Furthermore, many parents do not have time to make healthy meals for their children because of our fast-paced society. As David Zinczenko relates in Don’t Blame the Eater, “lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. Then, as now, these were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal.” This is not a rare situation. Many parents work long hours and therefore encourage their kids to eat fast food instead of taking the time to teach healthy habits. This has the ripple effect of overeating and lack of exercise. Without exercise, many kids gain weight, become obese or are at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and asthma. (Childhood Obesity) Today, type 2 diabetes exists in 30% of childhood obesity. (Zinczenko 154) Gustafson further states in her presentation “1/3 of American children are overweight and obese.” When a child has obesity, their ability to participate in everyday activities like sports and play is inhibited, which means

In his essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater”, David Zinczenko brings forward his points about how the American fast food system needs to have a change or there will be serious consequences for the future of American children. Zinczenko presents an argument largely based on facts from sources such as the Center for Disease Control and the actual websites from these fast food chains to bring to light what is going on with the state of American health and how it relates to fast food companies. In one paragraph he breaks down a salad from a prominent fast food chain. He lists the calories that the website lists, (150 food calories) then goes on and show that a normal person eating that salad would most likely consume around 1,040 calories (Zinczenko

In the same way, both Radley Balko, author of “What You Eat Is Your Business”, and David Zinczenko, author of “Don’t Blame the Eater”, argue that obese individuals’ health insurance is becoming a burden to the rest of America, although they differ because Zinczenko argues that the obesity problem lays in the hands of the food companies, while Balko believes that obese people, old or young, are responsible for their own problems.

In the piece “Don’t Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko, he discusses the topic of fast food restaurants and the issues, as to why kids today are suing McDonalds for making them fat. In his article, he starts by recapitulate a familiar time from his past where he also suffered from fast food restaurants. Zinczenko was a latchkey kid who was at the age of 15 and weighed 212 pounds. As any child, he didn’t have much money. Therefore food options were very limited. It was either McDonalds, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. Pretty much the only affordable meals you could eat everyday and that are open late. Later on, Zinczenko went off to college. He got to join the Navy Reserves and be apart of a health magazine, teaching himself

This article shows that fast food today is convenient because people have a lot of work to do in a very short time, so so thinking about driving through the fast food restaurant is easier and better than cooking. Therefore, one thing parents don't know is that fats, sugars, and salts are engaging their children primordial tastes. The most widely recognized disease that impacts children is obesity. Studies show that 15-20% of children aged 12-18 are overweight. In addition, obese children can affect emotional and

David Zinczenko’s essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater,” explains the similarities between obese children and fast-food restaurants. In Zinczenko’s childhood, he had certain foods he could eat also as seen as limited food choices, both at home and in public or other such places. By consuming food, twice a day, at fast-food places, David was now obese. He knows that by participating in the health and fitness corporation, his life was starting to turn around.

Fast-food industries may try to “target children in their ads”, but it ultimately comes down to the adults-the parents- choosing to dine at these places and pork up their kids on the high-sugar sodas, salty French fries, and greasy burgers. If they would just take the time to look out the window, they would see the healthy alternatives to fast-food, and how the alternatives are literally right in front of

The fast food industry provides quick, cheap, and easy access to foods that in the customers opinion, is very delicious, and affordable, however this food which millions of people around the world are constantly consuming, could actually cause major health problems, and weight gain in the long run. Major fast food companies throughout the world know what they are doing when it comes to marketing towards all types of people. Some people will find numerous different things to blame for the epidemic of fast food making individuals overweight. In recent research on, or discussions of the fast food industry having an effect on people's health, a controversial issue has been raised, and that is the fact that this problem affects not only

Several studies have shown that the increase in fast food restaurants over the past few decades has resulted in a negative impact on the already outrageous obesity rate.According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number of fast food restaurants over the past thirty years has tripled, which equates to about three hundred thousand establishments in the United States alone. During this time the number of children, ages six to nineteen classified as obese, has risen from five percent to seventeen percent. The percentage of adults classified as obese has risen from half to two-thirds the population. Although fast food restaurants may be a contributing factor to the increasing obesity rate in the United States, people are

The fast food industry promotes childhood obesity by manipulating the young mind, putting them at risk for health complications such as hypertension and diabetes. The super-sizing of America is been a frequently talked about subject lately. Especially since it is seem to have negative effects on the health of children and adults alike through massive consumption of fast food. Health providers and other authority figures are now concerned about children’s obesity rates shown during the past 3-4 decades. They have now drawn a close connection between fast food and obesity and identified a childhood obesity epidemic with increased negative health factors. According to the American journal of public health, 2005 September issue, fast food