Don T Blame The Eater Summary

In the essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater”, David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine, discusses the recent lawsuits against fast-food chains. He does not deny that there should be a sense of personal responsibility among the public, but has sympathy for the kid consumers because he used to be one. Zinczenko argues that due to the lack of nutritional facts and health warnings, it’s not so ridiculous to blame the fast-food industry for obesity problems.

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

Obesity has become increasingly more prominent in American society. It is also a major health issue affecting many adults and children in the US every year. In his article "Don't Blame the Eater," David Zinczenko sympathizes with children who are suing McDonald’s making them fat. In his own experience as a “latchkey kid”, he knows how easily fast food makes teenagers put on weight with a steady diet of fast food meals. Zinczenko argues that both lack of fast food alternative companies and lack of providing nutrition information contribute to childhood obesity.

Modern food culture is a major factor that drives childhood obesity. Childhood Obesity occurs when children have excess body fat in relation to their body index as a result of unhealthy eating habits at an early age, which makes children clinically unhealthy. The national childhood obesity rate currently in the U.S is 18.5%. There are several factors that go into this present issue in our country. The problem begins with adults not being attentive enough to notice bad food habits, sometimes parents add to the bad habits. When a child is at home with maybe one or even both parents and the child has full access to roam through the fridge or pantry, this may be a problem. Children will often pick their favorite foods, which more than usual is the junk food. These ‘junk’ foods are foods that have been processed with most of the nutrients taken out of the food leaving calories that will add to excess calories. Junk foods can consist of chips, tasty cakes, cookies, ice cream, and many more. These types of foods contain high amounts of sugar and calories with low amounts of nutrients. Fast food is one of the primary factors that contribute to the ongoing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. “Every day, nearly one-third of U.S. children aged 4 to 19 eat fastfood, which likely packs on about six extra pounds per child per year and increases the risk of obesity, a study of 6,212 youngsters found” . Fast food restaurants are advertised all over the place including billboards,

Industry is about efficiency; ideally, turning the most profit from the least expense. Therefore, how can we trust an industry to make an ethical choice that will potentially hurt their business model? As exhumed by the articles “Escape The Western Diet” by Michael Pollan and “Don’t Blame The Eater” by David Zinczenko, the health care and food industries are not interested in suggesting we shift our diets towards a what they define as a “healthier”, more natural one, but rather they are set upon developing and distributing a variety of processed, nutritionally-overloaded supplements and cheap foods that conveniently further their return of profit.

Obesity in America is literally a growing problem, affecting every age group. Children are the most venerable group because they have no control over where they have dinner or how often they have fast food. Parents and guardians make decisions about food and are responsible for the health of children. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in the last twenty years. This is concerning because Type Two diabetes is a horrible, crippling disease that is affecting children and teens dramatically whereas the disease was primarily seen in adults. Children are said to have a shorter life span than their parents for the first time ever. In the United States sixty-six percent of adults are overweight and one in

When someone is hungry and on the run, the first choice that comes on this someone’s mind is to go and have a fast food meal. Having a fast food meal is way easier than cooking your own meal and waiting for it to be ready. Fast food is so popular all over the world. Today, fast food restaurants are everywhere. Many people depend on these fast food restaurants twice or thrice a week. This confirms why most of children today suffer from obesity and most of them are over weight. Dr. Ananya Andel (n.d.) writes, “Studies have shown that over the past four decades, consumption of food eaten away from home has also risen alarmingly. It is well known that eating out may lead to excess calorie intake and increases the risk of obesity because of large portion sizes and increased energy density of

Over time America has become bigger. Not just in population size, but also in pant size. Obesity has been on the rise and children are now being affected at an alarming rate. Obesity can be defined as having an unhealthy amount of body fat. The rise of childhood obesity can be linked to bad diets, family, and a lack of exercise. Being obese as a child can cause serious consequences later in life. Bad diets are a major cause of obesity, especially in youth. Consuming unhealthy food often is linked to weight gain. Food that is high in fat, sugar, and calories are the staples of an unhealthy diet. Fast food has all three. According to studies “adolescents associate junk food with pleasure, independence, and convenience” (Sahoo Par 12). Fast food

In his article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko argues that today’s fast food chains fill the nutritional void in children’s lives left by their overtaxed working parents. With many parents working long hours and unable to supervise what their children eat, Zinczenko claims, children today regularly turn to low-cost, calorie-laden foods that the fast food chains are too eager to supply. When Zinczenko himself was a young boy, for example, and his single mother was away at work, he ate at Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and other chains on a regular basis, and ended up overweight. Zinzenko’s hope is that with the new spate of lawsuits against the food industry, other children with working

obesity is okay and that it is not that big of a deal, they are wrong. There

Over the last three decades there has been a steady increase in childhood and adolescent type II diabetes. One of the issues for the cause of the increase in this form of diabetes is obesity. Obesity is not always a factor for type II diabetes, but it is one the children and adolescents. A reason that this is also a problem is there is not enough research or data for treatments or way to help prevent type II diabetes in this young age range. When studies are done it is mainly on children in of the same backgrounds and ethnicities. Researches and physicians both agree that more information is need to educate and treat the young population. While more information is useful, it would be helpful to start early education, before diabetes has a chance to start in childhood. Exercise and nutrition programs can be started to help parents and children be aware of all the possible dangers that diabetes can cause to the body. These programs can also show the other diseases that can develop form having this avoidable and curable disease.

In today’s society it is easy to get caught up into living a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle. With new technologies, social media, etc, people are choosing to opt out of doing much active work and are choosing to do things from the comfort of their own bed or couch. Many people choose to enjoy the luxuries of online shopping, banking, mail, socializing, ordering food, games, and even dating! Additionally, United States citizens have fully embraced the fast food industry for some of the same reasons. It’s much easier and cheaper than buying groceries all of the time, so many families have adapted fast food to be the default choice for their everyday meals. Much of fast food is very unhealthy; full of saturated fat and sugars that can induce fatal diseases and illnesses. So although we are advancing as a nation when it comes to conventional living and technology, we are also seeing a dramatic decline in the amount of people who are living and leading healthy lifestyles and thus an increase in obesity. Diseases such as obesity can be prevented by simply making the right health choices. But what about those who don’t have a choice? What about the children? Today I’m going to go in to depth about childhood obesity, what it is, why it is concerning and what is being done about it.

From the downsizing of happy meals to the BMI (body mass index) worksheets now being sent home from schools, the increasing problem of childhood obesity has been brought to our attention over the past several years. According to the NCSL, “In sheer numbers, more than 12 million American children and adolescents are obese and more than 23 million are either obese or overweight.” Blame has been dealt across a wide range of origins. Some of those including children’s parents, the media, and even school lunches the children are being served.

Studies have shown (Reece, 2014) that children’s meals from fast food restaurants exceed not only the calorie recommendations for children, but also the recommendations for saturated fat and trans fat. Diets high in fat put children at risk for early heart disease and obesity. Overweight children are at risk for developing diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disease, sleep apnea and early arthritis. There are psychological implications to obesity in children, this can include depression, social isolation, and low self-esteem. Children who are obese typically continue to be obese and will carry obesity into

Today, fast food restaurants are often blamed for childhood obesity. This is however a simplistic point of view, there are a number of factors that contribute to the current epidemic of childhood obesity. When all is said and done, the responsibly of teaching children healthy eating habits and encouraging regular exercise to mitigate this problem lies with parents.