Extraordinary Science Of Addictive Junk Food

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.

Did you know that “every day 1 in 4 Americans visit a fast food restaurant? If that’s not alarming to you, then consider this, left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America.” (Clark, Charles) Fast food has become a part of American culture. With the way the world is today who wouldn’t want to eat somewhere that can have you in and out in five minutes for fewer than five dollars? It has been made very clear that Americans love to eat as we rank number one most years as the world’s most obese nation, but it’s not just America. In his documentary, Morgan Spurlock notes that, “Popular fast food chains like McDonalds, now operate in more than 126 countries in six continents having more than 31,000 restaurants globally.” (Spurlock 2004) The most alarming part about all of these statistics is the groups they most affect. The catchy advertisements and addictive qualities of the food is what has everyone coming back for more. Fast food companies advertisements targeting the young and lower classes are the cause for the obesity epidemic in America.

Michael Moss a investigative reporter for New York Times also the author. The Extraordinary Science of Junk Food was first appeared in the New York Times Magazine on February 24, 2013. On April 8, 1999, C.E.O from Nestle, Kraft and Nabisco, General Mills, Procter and Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Mars gathered to talk on the obesity epidemic. The vice president of kraft named Michael Mudd. Mudd gave a presentation about obesity, he told them to cut the use of sugar, salt, and fats. Also to change the manner they advertise their products. After the presentation was over the C.E.O of General Mills rose and said that people chose freely that if they wanted a healthy product then there it was.

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

In Michael Moss’ article, “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Food,” he discussed multiple methods food industries used to attract consumers to buy more of their products. He mentioned how multiple CEO’s of food companies discussed the health epidemic. He revealed, “Today, one in three adults is considered clinically obese, along with one in five kids, and 24 million Americans are afflicted by type 2 diabetes, often caused by poor diet”(476-477). Basically, Moss is stating that millions of Americans are at risk of or have type 2 diabetes because of the unhealthy choices in their diet. Similarly, in David Zinczenko’s article, “Don’t Blame the Eater,” Zinczenko blames food industries for the health epidemic. He stated, “But where, exactly, are

Whether or not a person wants a burger and french-fries’ or a salad from the salad bar, the decision should be up to him/her. Two articles share views on food, “What You Eat Is Your Business” by Radley Balko and “Junking Junk Food” by Judith Warner. These two authors wrote articles about how they felt about food and how it’s related to obesity. However, Radley Balko would not approve of Judith Warner’s views on food for the reason that the two authors have different viewpoints on the aspect of the government helping people to make better food choices. Warner and Balko also has different views on the ideas which are that eating is a psychological matter; and eating healthy should be a personal matter.

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 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.

In today’s society a huge issue is that we constantly hear about the food industry in America. We often hear in the news that obesity rates have increased, or that Americans have many diseases that contribute to being obese. “What You Eat is Your Business” by Radley Balko expresses that people are at fault for making such unhealthy food choices. Others argue that the food industry is to blame for being so unhealthy. According to David Zinczenko in “Don’t Blame the Eater” he blames the fast food industry as well as the consumer. Zinczenko asks “shouldn’t we know better than to eat two meals a day in fast food restaurant’s?” (392). So, who is to blame for American’s eating so much unhealthy food? Should it be the consumers’ burden or the fast food companies? On one hand, as consumers we continue to purchase foods that we know are making us overweight. On the other hand, fast food companies continue to offer high in calories foods.

In the article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food”, the writer Michael Moss mentioned that growing weight problem happened in America has become a major health crisis issue. While people are talking about obesity, they care more about how much sugar, salt and fat they consume during a day, which kind of processed food does harm to their body. It seems that food companies have an inalienable relationship with consumers’ health conditions, because they provide us with what we eat. These companies made their food taste better (putting sugar, salt and fat in product) for attracting more customers, and also tried to protect their individual customers from the “obesity epidemic”, which is named by Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Moss, 260), without losing market share. It put them a moral judgment of creating food that customers like or be good to customers’ health. However, another writer Ethan Watters describe a story in his article “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” that in the market of the depressant drug in Japan, pharmaceutical companies faced a dilemma. They found it so hard to construct a Western-view concept of “depression” among a large-scale demographic of Japanese people, to contribute to their mental health problem, and to make a profit for sure. In the former case, food companies applied multiple marketing strategies to collective demographics to create more individuals’ desire of consumption, while they were striving to protect

A lot of so called healthy food industries are funded by large corporations for example, American Society for Nutrition is receiving more than generous funds from McDonalds. How can you believe any information they are telling you when they are literally being paid under the table by the Evil Empire themselves! In Mark Bittman’s speech he takes an example of yogurt and how it is portrayed to be a healthier option, except is more equal to ice cream. Mark states the fact that we choose a granola bar as more of a healthier option, but if you compare the ingredients on the back it’s more similar to a snickers bar. Every day we are being lied to by food corporations and it makes me sick. Another lie we are being fed include, diet soda is better than regular soda. According to Top 10 Food Lies, a fourteen year old study found that diet sodas actually raise the risk of diabetes more than sugar sweetened sodas. You might also think foods labeled as low Fat or Whole Grain are good for you, wrong. The low fat advertisement might be true, but what they don’t tell you is that they actually replaced the fat with more sugar. When do we decide to end this slow torture to our own bodies and animals? Mark Bittman is absolutely correct on how food production is now industrial and

In today's society, fast food has become a large part of many American's lives. With the rising numbers of obese people, it is hard not to draw a correlation between the increase in fast food and obesity. Most obese people don’t want to be obese and wish they could lose weight, yet they continue to struggle with their fast food intake and obesity. This is due to the advertising done on the consumers, the highly addictive food itself, and most importantly, how advertising and addiction combine with children to form habits that are kept once they become adults. These factors are the reasons that fast food restaurants are to blame for the rising obesity and health risks across America. The government needs to step in and place regulations on

Obesity has become an epidemic in today’s society. Today around 50% of America is now considered to be over weight. Fast-food consumption has been a major contributor to the debate of the twenty-first century. Chapter thirteen, titled “Is Fast-Food the New Tobacco,” in the They Say I Say book, consists of authors discussing the debate of fast-food’s link to obesity. Authors debate the government’s effects on the fast-food industry, along with whether or not the fast-food industry is to blame for the rise in obesity throughout America. While some people blame the fast food industry for the rise in obesity, others believe it is a matter of personal responsibility to watch what someone eats and make sure they get the proper exercise.

Over the past 50 years, the way we eat has changed more than it had in the previous 10,000. Now, 60% of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight. The fast-food industry is highly responsible for today’s health epidemic. Some people choose to blame the government for not balancing individual rights, and the common good. However, the government is not forcing you to eat. You put yourself at risk of diet related health problems.