The Arguement of Parental Responsibility to Teach Health Habits in “The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home,” Daniel Weintraub

Most of the time a parent doesn’t even know what their child has been eating. For instance, most parents drop their children off at school and then rush off to work, they don’t know that their kids are eating a school breakfast after eating breakfast at home or even getting a second breakfast or lunch.

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

With obesity rates increasing at a high rate, David Zinczenko, author of “Don't Blame the Eater”, tells his readers about his argument about how it's not the fault of the children consuming so much fast food. He works as a nutrition and wellness editor for ABC News. Before working for ABC News he was also an editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazines as well as editorial director of Women’s Health magazines. Past jobs and the job he has now put him in an appropriate position to publish his thoughts on obesity. His intended audience for this essay are the fast food industries and also the people who laugh at the children for trying to sue for being obese. Zinczenko has written an effective argument by establishing himself as an authoritative

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.

The question that has been debated for years is who is responsible for the children’s weight. In the articles that where researched during this paper the parents were responsible. The reason that they were responsible was because the decisions that parent make about their family and the lifestyle that they live affects their child’s health and it can also affect their health in the future. When you move out of your parent’s house you tend to mimic things that they did such as if they always bought Tide as their laundry soap when you got out on your own you probably bought Tide. Now when you were in a pinch one time you may have tried another brand because it was cheaper but for the most part you revert back to what you know. As a parent you should want your children to be as healthy as they can be a lot of parents that where talked to while researching the subject of childhood obesity seemed to just not have the knowledge about obesity.

I understand a working parent has barely enough time to watch over every little detail in the kids life, but an effort should be made not only by the parent, but also by the fast-foods to take at least some of the responsibility for making schoolchildren, and not to mention Americans in general, overweight. Advertisement towards children should be to promote healthy eating, which it currently is, however not so much back in 2003 where, according to David Barboza's article “If You Pitch It, They Will Eat”, “Product tie-ins are everywhere.” This holds true to this day, McDonalds has toys with their happy meals from two popular kids shows. Power Rangers and My Little Pony, which appeal to young boys and girls who know of or watch the show. It is a marketing strategy, the kids see the toys and watch the show, which in turn makes them want the toys, making them want to watch the shows. Continuing in an endless loop that only benefits the shows and most of all the fast-food companies like McDonalds.

Daniel Weintraub in the article,”The Battle Against, Fast Food Begins in the Home,” argues that parents are at fault for their children being overweight, not the fast food industry. Weintraub supports his argument by explaining why it’s the parents fault using data and research. The author’s purpose is to inform the reader that parents need to take responsibility for their actions so that people stop blaming others and stop obesity. The author writes in an informal tone for the adults with children in the home.

Because of parents using food as a reward, many children learn that being good means eating unhealthy. Combined with the advertising techniques used by the fast food industry, children begin to make a correlation between fast food and a reward. Ellen Gustafson further confirms that fast food contains “more refined grains, fats and oils and sugars than the 1980’s.” All of these components of fast food make it appealing to children. Furthermore, many parents do not have time to make healthy meals for their children because of our fast-paced society. As David Zinczenko relates in Don’t Blame the Eater, “lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. Then, as now, these were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal.” This is not a rare situation. Many parents work long hours and therefore encourage their kids to eat fast food instead of taking the time to teach healthy habits. This has the ripple effect of overeating and lack of exercise. Without exercise, many kids gain weight, become obese or are at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and asthma. (Childhood Obesity) Today, type 2 diabetes exists in 30% of childhood obesity. (Zinczenko 154) Gustafson further states in her presentation “1/3 of American children are overweight and obese.” When a child has obesity, their ability to participate in everyday activities like sports and play is inhibited, which means

An argument for fast food companies may be that in recent years they have started offering healthier options. Some menus now offer milk as a beverage and apples as a food. While these are healthier choices, there is still very few of these options as opposed to the unhealthy ones. Not to mention in advertisements the apples are always shown with a sugar filled dipping sauce. The fact that these companies still have mostly unhealthy choices, they should not target children in their advertisement. It is obvious that many factors play into the epidemic of childhood obesity. Factors that play into childhood obesity are things such as family income levels and restaurants that are in close proximity. Let me pose this question, what food places are the cheapest and have locations on almost every street corner? Yes, that is correct, fast food. When they already have those factors in their favor, these advertisements just seal the deal for them.

As the Obesity rate in America is steadily increasing, people will continue to point fingers right at the fast food industries, but is that who really to blame or is it your parents for poor food choices(Weintraub)? Parents are a huge role in their child’s life and if you just let your children sit on the couch all day play on the computer, they will end up nowhere in life that is just my opinion. Research says 30 percent of our country’s residents are overweight, which means people are still not being healthy that’s when parents need to take matters into their own hands and buy actual food and not be cheap go fast food all the time(Sloviter). Also type 1 and 2 diabetes are at record highs and still rising at some point will be at a state

of U.S. children from the eat fast food, which most likely helps them gain extra pounds per child or adolescent per year and heightens the risk of obesity . These numbers may be startling but they are not surprising, since billions of dollars are spent every year on advertising that is targeted specifically to children this is how big the numbers should be. Some studies have shown that fast food contributes to increased calorie intake and obesity risk in children meaning that all those healthy food these fast food restaurants have been advertising have been falsely advertised may be thats why fast food advertising is causing childhood obesity. Fast food advertising has been a big contributor in causing obesity in the U.S by targeting children.

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

Many individuals do not realize it, but obesity has become a huge epidemic in today’s society. Individuals tend to ignore the growing unhealthy products around them; instead of questioning why people are gaining weight so rapidly, they enjoy the unhealthy and unsuitable substances that they are putting in their body. Some eat whatever they can find, and since they are in a certain predicaments, they have no choice but, end up doing the same thing to their children. Many have not seen it yet, but parents are feeding their children unhealthy substances. The nutrients that they are feeding them are unhealthy, and since children do not know any better, they cannot disagree with what is being provided to them, nor can they tell whether they have had enough or not. In an article “Too Much of a Good Thing” by Greg Critser. He explains how parents are partially to blame for their children 's obesity and also their children 's environments. Critser uses statistic, biological experiments, and comparisons show how child obesity has become a great problem in today’s society and that parents have much to do with it.

Political activist Yves Engler’s article “Obesity: Much of the Responsibility Lies with Corporations,” blames corporate capitalism for the obesity of children. Engler urges the government to put tighter limits on fast-food marketing not allowing them to reach the youth of America. Also Engler proposes that availability of junk food in the school system should decrease. Engler writes about how the government could help the obesity rate in children by creating more parks and funding physical education programs in public schools. Engler and Zinczenko both talk about the government’s ability to intervene in the fast-food industry, and both offer valid solutions. Engler talks about the

The fast food industry promotes childhood obesity by manipulating the young mind, putting them at risk for health complications such as hypertension and diabetes. The super-sizing of America is been a frequently talked about subject lately. Especially since it is seem to have negative effects on the health of children and adults alike through massive consumption of fast food. Health providers and other authority figures are now concerned about children’s obesity rates shown during the past 3-4 decades. They have now drawn a close connection between fast food and obesity and identified a childhood obesity epidemic with increased negative health factors. According to the American journal of public health, 2005 September issue, fast food