Food, Inc.: Theoretical Analysis

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan, one of Time magazine’s top 100 Most Influential People in 2010 and author of “Escape from the Western Diet”, proposes these three rules to live a healthier life. Pollan strongly believes that the Western diet is responsible for Western Diseases. Throughout the excerpt, he explains how the epidemic of obesity is caused by the business of food and medical industries, the degree of food that is processed, and how much time and effort is put into developing a well-balanced diet.

Recently, dietitians, the Congress, nutritionists, and the authors of some of the articles we have read have tried to fight against obesity; the results discovered are that we cannot fight the obesity war by ourselves; we need to include our society, the food literature, put labels with nutritional values on food, and we even need the media to change how we see fast-food. In some of the articles we have encountered, we learn that we should also change the cultural view of the food we eat. Food is not seen as part of nourishment for our bodies anymore and according to society food can be classified either as good or bad depending on what the latest diet and the influence we receive from the experts on the subject opinions.

America’s health has taken a disastrous toll in the recent decades, with the rapidly increased popularity of processed convenience foods laden in fat and sugar, along with the correlating rise of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. As of 2010, nearly 70% of adults in America aged 20 or higher are overweight or obese (Ogden et all). Both obesity and diabetes are preventable diseases that result directly from overindulgence and poor nutrition. Contemporary marketing practices, which entail displaying misleading buzzwords on front-of-package food labels, negatively affect consumers’ abilities to make healthy choices. To help reverse this epidemic, it is essential that Americans begin reading labels and educating themselves about the foods they consume.

Inspired by a movement that touts healthy eating and warns of danger from an industrialized food supply, millions of Americans are cutting back on processed and fast foods and sugary soda. Many are turning to fresh, lean and “clean” foods out of fear that sugar, salt, fat and additives can lead to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other problems. Other Americans, however, continue to eat unhealthily, contributing to record levels of diet-related illnesses and rising health care costs. Healthy-eating activists want the government to tax sugary sodas, mandate expanded nutrition labels and restrict portion sizes. The food industry is fighting such proposals, contending that changing the nation 's eating habits lies more with the free market than with legislation. Meanwhile, nutritionists and medical professionals are debating the value of gluten-free diets, with proponents claiming that wheat products lead to a wide range of illnesses and critics arguing that the diets lack scientific merit.

With technology ever advancing it also begins to become a bore and we start to see the instant gratification of these advancements more appealing than going to exercise after an exhausting day at work. This trend also runs parallel to the kinds of foods we eat and how the poorness of quality of the food that is sometimes provided by large companies paired with lack of exercise can create a sort of compound issue that requires much change to solve. Due to these issues, we must as a people, hold accountable those companies that provide poorly made processed foods that cause weight gain and unhealthiness throughout the country. If, we as a country, could fix simply this issue by pressuring companies that do this, we would see a massive shift in the issue that we are facing today. Thus, we must unite against the massive corporations that provide quickly and poorly made products to halt our rapidly growing obese population and take back the real ingredients that provide nutrition to the body and do not increase the number of overweight people in the United

In our country, we have been faced with growing health issues and problems. Some of the problems that we have been facing include: high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and obesity. A big question that most people have is “Where do these health issues come from?” Its simple, have you ever heard the saying, “You are what you eat?” Well basically that is true. Most food industries had decided to cut out fat in foods so that it wouldn’t be “fattening.” Well, when you take out the fat in foods, it doesn’t taste very good. So in order to keep the sweet flavor in foods, other harmful chemicals and artificial flavoring and sweeteners have been added to foods so that people will continue to buy their products. The food industry in the U.S. in 2014 is worth approximately $5.27 trillion dollars and is on the rise towards $6 trillion dollars. According to the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, the average expenditure for a low-cost meal plan for a

More than twelve million American households are pushed to eat unhealthy foods due to the fact that higher quality groceries are too expensive to buy. Many Americans are struggling to pay bills let alone think about purchasing healthy food due to high cost superior nutrition. Although Americans choose how to spend their money, the government does not aid everyone to be able to afford healthier foods. The government has the power to make laws for eliminating certain percentages of fats, types of fats, and controlling the price at which companies vend their products. Dangerous types of fats include transfats and saturated fats which should be avoided at all costs and are found

There are many factors of obesity in the U.S and many other countries around the world. Yet one of the most prominent reasons for increasing weight gain, health risks, and foodborne illness outbreaks, is fast food. Little does the average crowd of hungry customers know what is being fed to them, or what they’re getting themselves into. Fast food is addicting, with high amounts of additives, cheap prices, and convenient locations, it’s hard to resist if oblivious to the hazards. In a year, residents will pay more for fast food than on movies, books, magazines, videos and much more, and for a cheap price too. This being a result of another corporation chain tactic to lure in consumers. In other terms, it’s better to pay less, and make more in the end for companies. Choosing to eat healthier in the United States is slowly shifting power from the consumer to the producer as many companies and fast food restaurants increase the

The topic I chose for the I-search paper is Obesity and the foods which cause it. The reason why I chose this topic Is because I wanted to learn more about the food which leads us to become obese, also the dangers of being over weight. Another why I chose this topic is because I think its interesting that our country isn’t doing much about this epidemic of obesity. Also I wanted to go more in depth about the food industry and what they are doing in order to sell less fattening food. Fast Food Restaurant, are they doing anything to make their product healthier for there costumers? Or are they doing anything? Is there something that can be done to solve this issue? all these questions are the reason why I chose this topic. What are the consequences when one does not live a healthy lifestyle?

Obesity in this country has reached epidemic proportions. The physical, emotional, and socio-economic effects of obesity make it a concern, because it links us to many of the maladies that are killing us. Obesity is a symptom of a more important issue, the manipulation of our food source. We have reached the point in this country where eating a balanced diet does not ensure, nor equate to good nutrition and health. Multinational corporations codify production, and processes the food that make people unhealthy; at a profit. In essence, what we eat may be what is eating away our health.

Eric Finkelstein shows an insight on how the wrong food can affect the body in a bad way causing life threating disease. Finkelstein claims that when food science and food processing became more popular so did the obesity rate. Statistics and experiments are included to explain in numbers how highly processed food has affected people and what those people can do to make a change in their diets. Finkelstein is an associate research professor in the Duke Global Health Institute at Duke University he is also in the Health economics field. Finkelstein is well known for his studies examining the economic costs of obesity. This source will be used to give a background on what is good and what is bad for someone to consume.

In the food industry today, junk food is fast, easy, and cheap to get, while healthy foods are more expensive and not nearly everyone has the ability to afford it. Americans are becoming obese and not enough people put enough effort into changing this for the future. It would be easy to just blame the fact that there is a McDonald’s around every corner, but it truly comes down to each individual buyer who doesn’t know how to make a stop in this. A lot of people cannot support their families with a healthy dinner so instead they feed them with the dollar menu that is much cheaper and faster. Robert Kenner created a film in 2008 called Food, Inc. about the faults and dilemmas within the the food industry. It covers many outlooks on the meat produce, like the chicken houses, the beef and pork companies, along with the independent family owned businesses. They investigate all types of methods, the problems they have caused within the past few decades, and attempt to find solutions in order to improve this way of the system and the impacts each buyer’s role is in this situation.

I conclude with the fact that we do have an obligation to better take care of ourselves by making changes in the way we eat or buy and consume food, though, I do not think we will be able to break our addiction to unhealthy foods. U.S citizens are on the daily eating cheap foods uninterruptedly and considering they have been doing it for so long, it will be extremely at most challenging to break this addiction. Food to Americans taste-buds are so used to the high fat and higher calorie foods. Now that we have better foods that are better though worse for you to eat than natures, such as heads of lettuce or broccoli, which makes it harder for someone to purchase lettuce rather than a McDonalds Burger. Yes, some foods are just flat out awful for us to consume, but what about those foods that we do not know what is really inside of them? How are we going to even try to take better care of ourselves by making changes in the way we eat or buy and consume foods if we do not even know what we are really eating at times? We as human beings should automatically have the right to know what we are eating. Obviously it leads to suspicion if they aren't placing labels being truthful with everything that is added. Before, it was not easy for us consumers to have knowledge about what we were actually eating. At one point, the government let loose and disarmingly started to allow for us to know a little more about what we are eating. Now, they are adding things that they know they should

In America, there are families who struggle to get by on minimum wage and others who make millions per week. What every person has in common is that to survive we all must eat. While some may think that everybody generally eats similar diets, depending on Americans socioeconomic class and what a citizen can afford, these factors determine what they eat and how much. In today's society, there is evidence of an increase in obesity from unhealthy choices. Sometimes technology, possessions, or education are valued more than personal health and it has detrimental effects on the population. Although there are food banks and government meal plans, they can be unhealthy and the food given may cause health concerns or other negative effects on human life. Technological advancements, change of regulation in fast food chains, family history, availability of grocery centers and knowledge of consumers all determine American's diet and choices.

America has a very bad habit of adding preservatives and other things that people don’t notice into foods to either enhance taste, make whatever it is they are making more visually appealing, or even in some cases just because they can. Instead of making sure that all Americans have easy access to healthy and family friendly foods, the U.S government is aggressively promoting a diet that is made up of high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, soy bean oil, and grain-fed cattle.