The Food Industry Is Driven By Profit And Big Business

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.

The documentary “Fed Up” provides some important and disturbing details of the food industry. The 1977 heart disease and diet study known as the McGovern Report warned that the obesity rate was increasing rapidly due to American diets in fatty meats, saturated fats, cholesterol, and sugar. The food industry vehemently denied these claims, but the American people still demanded lower fat food products. The food manufacturers found that the fat removal made the food bland and unpalatable so to address this they replaced the fat content with sugar. Both the documentary and the Harvard Nutrition Source discuss the role sugar has in health conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. They both link the consumption of sugar as the causality for

One in five children in America are obese. How is this possible? In Stephanie Soechtig’s documentary, “Fed Up” (2014), she brings awareness to a few of the causes of obesity and elaborates on the lack of effort people are putting in to end it. Food manufacturing corporations care only about strategic plans to put money in their pocket, not to help make America healthy. Obesity can be traced back to one main cause; sugar. The three things have been addressed through personal stories and physicians that support and increase sugar addictions of adolescents is the amount of added sugar in processed foods, junk food advertisements, and the lack of regulations relating to sugar. Sugar addiction is a real problem and is scientifically proven to be as addicting as cocaine.

America has been faced with the growing obesity epidemic. This is becoming very wide spread among all races and class levels due in part to the abundance of inexpensive food available and how easily people are becoming persuaded to but things they do not need. David Zinczenko published article “Don’t Blame the Eater”, Zinczenko argues that fast-food industries are not doing their job to provide clear enough nutritional information for hazardous food.

Today, in our fast-paced world of modern America, the availability of inexpensive, cheap processed food and drink is overwhelming. We have quickly become the most obese nation on the planet by simply allowing companies to lower nutritional value, raise sugar quantity, and increase fat and calorie percentages to an astounding amount. We as a nation buy into these consessions because of three main reasons: low price, convenience, and massive availability. Because of this, eating healthy is seen to be expensive, time consuming, and daunting. This is the opposite of what we need here in America. Big name companies spend billions upon advertising their sugary, fat-gushing products. When in reality, we should restrict the abundance of adverts, plastered all over major cities, social media, and television. We need to start taking a

Michael Moss wrote in his book “Salt Sugar Fat” the effects of our nation’s increasing choice of unhealthy eating and the effects following that decision. The book defines the actions food giants like Pepsi or Kraft perform in order for more people to come back and purchase their product. By appealing to ethos, logos, and pathos, Moss achieve his goal in presenting and persuading the readers the growing problem American people have today.

The United States is mindful of this deadly disease and the lives it has taken, yet little has been done to spread awareness and decrease the amount of sugar, carbohydrates, and fat in foods sold. In fact, America encourages unhealthy eating by displaying advertisements which convince the audience that the food will not have a negative effect on their health. A majority of these advertisements are directed towards children due to the fact that they are easy to convince. And this is a huge reason behind the increasing obesity rate in the United States because the decisions made as a child reflect those made in adulthood. If a child is constantly eating unhealthy food, rarely exercises, and is unaware of the consequences that come from the lack of living a healthy life, he or she will grow up continuing this lifestyle. O’Connor explains that, according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, seventeen percent of American children and teenagers between the ages twelve and nineteen years old are overweight (39). Unless the child is taught about the harsh reality of eating so unhealthy, it may be too late before he or she becomes obese. Similar to tobacco and alcohol, food has addictive qualities which are hard to change. Another factor to consider involving the obesity epidemic in the United States is the expense of healthy foods. This high price hinders U.S. citizen’s ability to pay for a healthy diet. One of the many low income mothers in the United States, Maria Gonzalez, comments, “When you only have a dollar to spend and you have two kids to feed, either you go to the market and try to find something that’s cheap or just go straight through a drive thru and get two hamburgers for them and say, ‘Okay, here. Eat this.’ This is what’s going to fill her up, not that one single item at the market”

In his essay “How Junk Food Can End Obesity” David H. Freedman asserts that the cure to America’s growing obesity problem does not lie with the “wholesome” food movement, but with utilizing modern technology to food that is low in fat and sugar, alongside of being cheap and accessible to almost every American. Mr. Freedman backs supports his assertion by citing many different sources, such as the Wall Street Journal, and the British Medical Journal, alongside of his own personal experience with the world of foods “under construction”. Freedman’s purpose in writing the article was both to expose the wholesome food movement as failing to accomplish the goals that it set out to do, and to educate people on how modern technology has the capability

The documentary film Fed Up (2014) defines the problem of obesity in American culture due to low quality food products being sold by corporations through fast food chains and convenient stores. Katei Couric (the narrator) brings forth the argument that the quest for profits by industrial food producers reduces the quality of food through products, such as high fructose corn syrup. Currently, the dominance of industrial farming, genetic engineering, and lack of sustainable options define a downward trend in food quality: “One reasons why large farms are relatively unproductive compared to small farms is that large farms the world over tend to use monoculture. Monoculture is a single crop species” (8:45). This type of inefficient and wasteful method of farming depletes the land of minerals and tends to produce massive quantities of crops, such as corn and grain, as a base for the food supply. This corn product tends to be used in almost every food throughout the food chain, including feeding livestock for beef, corn syrup in fatty foods, etc. Therefore, industrial farming produces a decreasing variety of food products due to the prominence of massive industrial farms that produce America’s primary food supply. This encourages unhealthy and fatty foods (soda, bread, grease fried foods, etc.) to flood the food markets for greater profits due to the lower costs of food production.

Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and a recent documentary Food, Inc. reveal how the modern day food system actually works. We then come to realize that obesity isn’t caused by laziness; it is caused by the modernization of our country (How Michael Pollan Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos). In Food, Inc., a farmer states “If we put glass walls on all the mega food systems, we would have a different food system.” In other words, consumers have really no idea how their food is produced or even what goes in their everyday meals. This transformation has altered how we produce and distribute food, which has affected the fundamental health of both people and the planet we live on. Stereotypically, obesity is affected to those who exercise less and eat more. However, it is a struggle to define obesity because it is more than that. Obesity is a “disease which is caused by the modernization of the food industry (How Michael Pollan Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos). In the new food industry, cooking is not required. Today, frozen and canned foods make it easy to have a quick dinner. However, many people forget that these canned and frozen foods have an extremely high amount of preservatives, fats, sugars, and sodium (How Michael Pollan Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos). The modernization also allows for longer periods of “TV watching, longer drives to and from work, supermarket product placement… and even clothing designers

In the United States, more than one third of adults are obese. One in five American deaths are now associated with obesity. The prevalence of obesity has increased at an alarming rate in the USA: in 1960 only 13% of Americans were obese. Obesity has become an epidemic and the number of preventable deaths from obesity-related diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease continues to rise. Despite the well-documented association between obesity and significant morbidity and mortality the American administration has not taken many steps to combat this problem. There have been attempts by government to try and stem this epidemic, but the food industry is so wealthy and influential that policies against obesity are very

It is the United States Government’s responsibility to value public health and attempt to remedy the problem of obesity. Although obesity is clearly a problem in America, the government has yet to play a key role in being a part of the solution. The government has the power and the resources to improve public health, yet it allows the food industry to continue with harmful and deceitful practices. If the government does choose to impose stricter regulations on the food industry, it will be faced with many challenges. The government must find ways to regulate the food industry that will decrease instances of obesity, without making Americans feel like they are losing their freedom to choose what they want to eat.

The American society is being distracted by T.V advertisements, video testimonies, and fast food companies who’re encouraging individuals to consume fast food. This is an example of propaganda and a technological control. Obesity itself may cost a significant amount of money in the U.S. in addition to death. According to the article “Food for Thought: Malnutrition and Obesity” by D. J. Shaw, he states that the CDC has estimated that about 280,000 Americans dies each year from being overweight and also that obesity is costing the United States a whooping $240 Billion dollars in health care (351). Americans aren’t receiving the necessary motivation to exercise and practice a healthier lifestyle. Major fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Five Guys are falsely encouraging individuals to eat their food. They’re taking advantage of them by taking all their money. Instead of spending the money on whole foods, fruits, and vegetables, they’re spending all hard earned money on junk food. In addition, consumers don’t realize that these major food corporations aren’t telling how many calories are in their products. As customers, we have the right to know how’s are food being processed and how many calories (sugar, fats, cholesterol, sodium) are in the food.

“More people will die from obesity than starvation.” Many people are gaining excess weight that ultimately results into Obesity.This is a big controversy because obesity has become one of the most known reasons for cancer and many other illnesses. It’s even affecting children. According to the American Heart Association, the percentage for child obesity raised to about 18.4% ranging from children as young as 2 and older. After watching the documentary, Fed Up, by Katie Couric, it is revealed that the reason percentages for Obesity is rising is due to the fact that many become addicted to sugar, the amount of calorie intake, and etc. Sugar addiction sources from industries that finds interest in high profit and less interest on the health of

The film fed up is an examination of America’s obesity epidemic and the food industry’s influence on it. The film Fed Up focused on childhood obesity. This film portrayed many issues that are present in the United States today. Childhood obesity is influenced by the constant advertisements focusing on the high sugar foods; these advertisements are targeting children. Along with targeting children these advertisements use favorite characters and idols to encourage children to want these products that may not be health for them at all. Advertisements are sending out false messages, such as ‘this product is good, your idol loves it so you will too!’. This isn’t fair to children to only show them advertisements of unhealthy, sugary foods. Children follow the examples of their parents, so if a parent not making the healthy choices then the children may follow their decisions healthy or not. The United States original “cure” for obesity is eat less and exercise more. However, this “cure” may not be the true answer to losing weight. In 1977 the obesity epidemic began as well as the low fat foods. The low fat foods were low in fat but in order to make the food palatable they doubled the sugar. Scientists believe that this