P. Foreyt's Weight Loss Diets: Are They All The Same?

Mary Maxfield focuses on Pollan’s comparison between how French people eat so unhealthily, famously indulging in cheese, cream, and wine yet remain on average healthier than Americans verses Americans’ notably unhealthy population preoccupied with the idea of eating healthy. The “they say” argument in this essay is why can the French get away with eating unhealthy, but Americans can not? Pollan points out that “our” definition of healthy eating is driven by a well-funded corporate machine. According to Pollan, the food industry, along with nutrition science and journalism, is capitalizing on our confusion over how to eat. Pollen wants us to focus less on what we eat and more on smaller portion sizes. For example, the fast food industry in America has contributed to American’s over eating by upsizing their products. The essay focuses on a healthy body weight and points out that Americans see fatness as unhealthy and thinness as healthy. Culturally our views of weight skew our views of what foods are right to eat. In other words Americans do not understand that what a person eats is not as important as how much they

Malcolm Gladwell uses some very shocking facts about French fries and how unhealthy they are for the body. He states the average American eats about thirty pounds of French fries a year. In 1990, health concerns arose about using animal-based cooking oil to deep fry them. This

In the excerpt “Why the Fries Taste So Good” by Eric Schlosser, Schlosser deeply examines the process of one individual farmer and his process, not to mention takes it as far as going to the International Fragrance and Flavor facilities to see what truly does make the fries taste so good. He does a good job of hitting each individual appeal as a writer in order for us as readers to accept the information he’s handing out. Even in Ian Brailsford’s review of Schlosser’s excerpt, he finds little if any opposition whatsoever. At one point he even says, “By focusing on Ray Kroc’s empire McDonald’s – America’s biggest employer and real estate owner – Schlosser is covering well-travelled academic terrain” (Brailsford 118.)

Maxfield has a valid point, “ Quit obsessing over the french fry.” (Maxfield 442) meaning that we as people who are worried about our weight should stop. Not all food can be doing too much harm on us. Rather be what's in the food we should be looking at how much we take in. The understanding of our health is from our culture and what we ingested in our bodies. Maxfield mentions, “ As a culture, we no longer discuss healthy eating without also discussing unhealthy weights. “ ( Maxfield 444). The main point that Maxfield was trying to get at is she likes to bring in other studies to prove that she is right about not having to go on the natural kick to start getting results. She's a firm believer in not having to watch what we eat but how much we take in. Maxfield provides informations about how each of her sources can help with her claim against the fact of dieting the natural way and cutting out processed food. “... Scholars like Harding and Campos, and by Health at Every Size (HAES) nutritionist like Michelle Allison. HAES advocates challenge our cultural misconceptions, suggesting that- outside of specific medical condition like celiac disease and anorexia.(Maxfield 445) “What a person eats [rarely] takes primacy over how they eat it.” The way Maxfield adds in quotes to back up the way she wants to say her claim really helps define what she is wanting. I think adding in the anorexia point really helps with her point against the fact that under eating is still a fact that doesn’t help a person lose weight the healthy way. So in with that being said we need to stop looking for unhealthy outlets to get rid weight. Why not look at what we can do to ease into losing weight. She mentions it more as moderation to be healthy. Sure there is twinkies but don’t stuff our faces with them. When looking at both of these essays they have similar goals, and that's to have a healthier

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.

“…So many people want to know about diets because so many people are going to try them, but they don’t work … some weight will be lost temporarily.” Harvey Diamond, author, was speaking. “But let me ask you something – do you want to be healthy temporarily? No. But you want to lose weight temporarily. They’re – They have failures built right into them.”

In the Introduction to “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, Mary Maxfield argues that food and the way we consume it is not something that should define the obesity epidemic in America. A controversial issue discussed has been whether we should have theories or ideas where diet works best to increase weight loss or whether we should have any diets to begin with. On one hand, Maxfield argues against the Health Professor Michael Pollan, who proposes a diet idea to reduce the problem of unhealthy eating in America. While also reprimanding scientists and health doctors who suggests their own different diets. On the other hand, she introduces that food is just food and does not need to be differentiated since one may seem

Obesity has been framed as a topic of personal responsibly for a long time. For many, the fundamental notion has always been that if you stop eating junk food and eat “healthy”, you will maintain a healthy weight. According to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control’s 2007-2008 Health and Nutrition Examination survey, it was found that 73.7% of all Americans 20 years old or older were overweight, obese, or extremely obese. That is a lot of fat people and it is hard to believe that fast food alone is responsible for 70% of adult Americans being overweight.

In the Introduction, to “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, Mary Maxfield argues that food and the way we consume it isn’t something that should define the obesity epidemic in America. A controversial issue discussed has been whether we should have theories or ideas on which diet works best to increase weight loss or whether we should have any diets to begin with. On one hand, Maxfield argues against the Health Professor Michael Pollan, who proposes an idea to reduce the problem of unhealthy eating in America, when he himself chastises scientists and other health doctors who suggests different diets. On the other hand, she introduces that food is just food and doesn’t need to be differentiated since one may seem

In the United States of America, there is a current epidemic of obesity throughout the country. Every age group is affected by this unfortunate trend. Even children are not immune to the national obesity problem. For a country that has an abundance of job opportunities, educational opportunities, and financial opportunities, it is a sad statement of fact that far too many people are tipping the scales in unhealthy ways. It is a fact that a disproportionate amount of the nation's citizens are dangerously overweight. If the country as a whole wishes to reverse this disparaging state of affairs, then the first thing to do is to determine why so large a percentage of the population is suffering in this way. People who are suffering from obesity or who are dangerously overweight encounter a myriad of health concerns both physically and mentally. There has even been proved a correlation between obesity and lower life expectancy (Flicker 2010). Two of the many reasons why the Americans have such a problem with obesity is the fact that there the diets of most Americans are heavily based on corn or corn-based products and that Americans lead a more sedentary and inactive lifestyle than people in other nations.

In the past forty years, the average American’s weight has skyrocketed. This can be traced to the introduction of fast food into our everyday lives. Fatty cheeseburgers and grease laden French fries have replaced fresh fish and crisp vegetables. Americans have come to value convenience more highly than personal health and consequently we are paying for what we consume.

LunchTime: A Slow-casual Game for Long-term Dietary Behavior Change is a book concerning the epidemic of obesity and how it is growing across the United States. It shows a few examples of the many risks and disadvantages obesity has, such as an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and economic and social handicap. The book also talks about what is recommended in order to stop being obese and to start having a healthy lifestyle. Eating and physical activities in a person’s lifestyle are affected because if a person isn’t eating healthy and exercising then they will slowly become obese. Individuals have the right to choose whether they want to have a burger for lunch, or a salad instead. Fast food industries aren’t forcing you to eat their

In addition, plenty advertisements include models that are beyond well in shape while eating the fatty products. What’s not contained in these commercials is that these models do not typically eat these unwholesome foods everyday, and even if they do eat it, they are very likely to exercise constantly for a considerable amount of time. These publications of models with great bodies eating unhealthy food is so popular that it may have twisted the Americans’ thinking of foods that may become deadly in the long

Obesity is a major personal issue currently in America, that is influenced by the public issue of an excessive amount of fast food restaurants. The passage “French Fries as a Contraband” by Kathy McManus explains the effects of fast food by location. The Los Angeles government is trying to have a control on what their citizens eat by limiting the amount of fast food restaurants there are in a neighborhood/ area. They are trying to ban any new fast food restaurants from opening in a 32 mi.² area of South Central LA. Fast food is overall, unhealthy and causes major health issues. Fast food restaurants are most abundant in low income neighborhoods .One major idea from the text was people choose fast foods because it's closer to to them than fresher

If one continually eats unhealthy foods, they can quickly become overweight. Moreover, this has become such a recurring problem in America that according to the National Institutes of Health, compulsive eating has led to obesity for approximately 35.7% of Americans. This number represents over one-third of the entire U.S population and will continue to grow unless it is addressed. In addition, it is critical that Americans learn to moderate their junk food intake to prevent the contraction of serious health issues. Sweenie states that, “Food high in salt, sugar, fat or calories and low nutrient content...provide suboptimal nutrition with excessive fat, sugar, or sodium per kcal. Such poor diets can slow growth, promote obesity; sow the seeds of diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac problems, and osteoporosis.” These are exceptionally serious diseases that can often result in a severely hindered lifestyle or even death. In order to avoid these exceptionally undesirable outcomes, one must always remain aware of their daily junk food consumption. In Kirkey’s article, Paul Kenny, an associate professor at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, states that, "It's incumbent upon people to make sure that they're more respectful and aware of what they're eating. Just be aware that there are dangers and risks associated. Enjoy (high-fat) food, but make sure it's occasionally and