preview

Summary Of Obesity Who's To Blame

Better Essays

Rankin 1
1142 words
Calyb Rankin
Roberson
English 150
4/3/16
Obesity, who’s to blame?

In a society where so many people are worried about what they are consuming and what toll it has on their body, I am always dumbfounded that people still eat out at fast food restaurants. So many people are quick to judge and blame the fast food industry for so many health related issues, such as obesity or heart problems. Although many people believe that the large chain fast food industry is to blame for obesity, in reality the fault lies with the consumers. As a human being we all are entitled to free will so when it comes down to it people ultimately have the power to decide what they feed themselves along with their families. The fast food industry …show more content…

While it is a smart personal choice to limit consumption of fast food, we can’t and won’t be able to remove it from the American diet as long as there is a demand for convenient, inexpensive, and tasty food. So as I pointed out we all act outraged at the fast food industry when in reality most of the blame is on us the consumer. Another way to look at it is very well put in the article Don’t Blame the Eater by David Zinczenko who was once the editor-in-chief for the fitness magazine Men’s Health for many years as well as an author of numerous best-selling books, he suggests “Kids taking on McDonald’s this week, suing the company for making them fat. Isn’t that like middle-Aged men suing Porsche for making them get speeding tickets? What ever happened to personal responsibility?” (462) I could not agree with Zinczenko more, just because there is an appeal to get or do something and then it results in something undesirable doesn’t make it their fault, you know what you’re signing up …show more content…

With this being said I am not, I repeat not a Fast Food industry enthusiast or supporter but I do believe that they shouldn’t be serving this food that has bad health effects. I hold myself accountable, if I am going to eat fast food that is my choice. I do believe that our health care system plays a role in our society thinking that we can blame the fast food industry and not ourselves. In the essay What You Eat Is Your Business by Radley Balko who was once an editor for Huffington Post as well as a columnist for FoxNews.com, Balko argues “For decades now, America’s health care system has been migrating toward socialism. Your well-being, shape, and condition have increasingly been deemed matters of “public health,” instead of matters of personal responsibility” (467). In simpler terms in today’s society we no longer have the sense of our personal health being our responsibility, which can make it easier to blame external forces for our unhealthy lifestyle rather than accepting that it is our fault. Balko later goes on to say “We’re becoming less responsible for our own health, and more responsible for everyone else’s. Your heart attack drives up the cost of my premiums and office visits. And if the government is paying for my anti-cholesterol medication, what is my incentive is there for me to put down the cheeseburger?”(467) If the

Get Access