Obesity is a problem in America, as it is in other Western countries. The population of a country is always a reflection of its government, so our government decided that it’s time to dip their hands into this problem and come up with possible solutions to our growing unhealthy population of people. The solution that is discussed in the articles “Bad food? Tax it, and subsidize vegetables” by Mark Bittman and “Meddling in other people’s diet is ‘fun’ and ‘inspiring’” by Jacob Sullum is that we should (or shouldn’t, in Sullum’s case) place a tax on unhealthy, processed foods. Although relatively strong arguments are presented in both articles, they both miss the point entirely and wouldn’t solve the problem of rising health issues in Americans. …show more content…
The reason why obesity is a problem and unhealthy foods are flying off the shelves is that they are convenient. You can buy complete frozen meals that are undoubtedly unhealthy, but take 3 minutes to cook and can fill you up on the go. Most Americans aren’t rich, and don’t have an abundance of time on their hands as a result of working multiple jobs. Not having this extra time means that most Americans don’t have enough time to cook more elaborate meals that you can buy the ingredients for and include vegetables in, and it’s much easier for them to swing by a McDonald’s and grab a 99 cent burger or heat up a 3 dollar frozen meal. When one argues that vegetables are cheap as well, I must refute that for a full meal that will keep someone full for a 6 hour shift, you must prepare multiple types of vegetables with other food groups such as meat or bread. This obviously takes more time and more money, the time and money some people just can’t
Eating healthy has become a thing of the past. In the essay by Mark Bittman “Bad Food? Tax it, and Subsidize Vegetables Instead” offers an idea on how to change the Standard American Diet: making healthy food cheaper and fast, processed food more expensive. Calculating the tax to increase one penny would make a difference in the price and the decision for the people as to whether or not the people are will purchase processed foods. He explains that taxes on carbonated drinks and processed foods should increase due to the amount of money it would bring into the government, and the benefits of a healthier American. Bittman’s results remove chronic health diseases that reinvent the way we eat. In “Nickle and Dimed on Not Getting by in America,”
Pathos, logos, and ethos are used throughout In Defense of Food to strength arguments on eating more healthy. Pollan contributes to his arguments by showing Americans what the Western diet has done to their health. These three devices help to provide support to enhance his arguments on finding a more healthy diet.
Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is an eye-opening analysis of the American food industry and the fear driven relationship many of us have with food. He talks in depth about all the little scientific studies, misconceptions and confusions that have gathered over the past fifty years. In the end provide us with a piece of advice that should be obvious but somehow is not, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He follows the history of nutritionism and the industrialization of food, in hopes to answer one question….. how and when "mom" ceded control of our food choices to nutritionists, food marketers and the government.
The obesity epidemic is rapidly spreading throughout America, reeking havoc on the nation. I have chosen two articles that discuss this issue and use different rhetorical strategies to convince the reader of the causes of this deadly epidemic as well as different aspects of the disease that should be focused on when researching treatments options. Examining the different rhetorical strategies used in the articles proves that, although logos arguments can be a good way to convince an audience of your point, use of ethos and pathos arguments is a much more powerful strategy to inform and convince the reader to take action.
How Junk Food Can End Obesity by David H. Freedman and How a National Food Policy Could Save Lives by Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Ricardo Salvador, and Olivier De Schutter are very similar in the things that they talk about. These articles both had one goal in mind when they were written and that was the goal to end obesity. Then the articles also differ in ways as well. The article How Junk Food Can End Obesity mentions the fact that we should not stop eating fast food and just change the recipe, still make it taste the same. The second article How a National Food Policy Could Save Lives talks about how we should change our diet completely because it doesn’t
The amount of foreign students come to study in Canadian University has increased dramatically in the last few years, and in the process for them to integrate into the host country, they will experience a culture shock. In her article “Picture this: A Photovoice study of international students’ food experience in Canada”, Stephanie Amos delivers a research she made on food experiences of international students in Canada, and based on the experimentation, she demonstrates that “international students acculturating to Canada have emotional and physical needs, which can be met through food.”(pg59). Stephanie Amos herself is a registered dietitian who works in the Department of Applied Human Nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University, and through this article, she tries to convince Canadian Universities to “incorporate food acculturation strategies into campus events and menus,” (pg59) and then she persuades the nutrition professionals on campus study on create a better food environment for international students. Stephanie utilizes logos, which is the dominant rhetorical appeal of the article, by separating the article into different parts, though in some respects her appeal to logic is kind of weak. In spite of the fact that Stephanie effectively appeals to her audience by using ethos and pathos to connect them to the participants in the
In the beginning of his article called “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” author Mark Bittman does a spectacular job capturing the reader almost instantly just within the first paragraph. He brazenly begins his argument to express his thoughts indirectly, but directly of why the “overweight” and “low income” population cannot afford, access, or choose healthy food options.
Obesity is a continuing problem in the American society. Obesity, occurs when, the amount of energy taken is more than the energy released (Abraham 237). The growing obesity rates could be slightly declined by the availability of more affordable, healthier foods and the decline of these temporary quick fit diets, many Americans put themselves on as a means to get fit. The opposing viewpoint may suggest that obesity can be fixed simply by shopping for better, healthier food choices in grocery stores and learning how to count calories to maintain a healthy weight; but that simple solution may not be an achievable solution for every American. Furthermore, the difference of cost between healthy compared to unhealthy foods is completely outrageous. Numberless people strive to go into a grocery store and select all of the healthy food options of their liking; however, healthy food options cost more and are seemingly unaffordable compared to junk food. The government should regulate the prices of junk and healthy food as a means to combat obesity in America, so that all persons can achieve good health.
The United States of America is known for having a high obesity level. According to David Frum from CNN, except for Mexicans, American citizens are more likely to become obese than any other nationality. Some obese countries have enforced an extra high tax on fast foods and other high calorie foods, and many people believe that the U.S. should adopt the fat tax as well. According to Dictionary.com, the fat tax is “a tax imposed on or proposed for high-fat or otherwise unhealthy foodstuffs”. Although a tax on junk food could reduce obesity, the low prices could protect low income families from going broke, and therefore a tax on junk food would not be beneficial to America.
Obesity can affect any person, disregard their age. From the article U.S. kids outweigh the Canadian kids, we can realize the obesity among the kids in the U.S. is increasing day by day. When we see a lot of kids, and teenagers together, we could not identify their or guess who is younger or who is elder. Overweigh can cause diseases among children, and after few years America will get the title for having the most disease affected people’s nation. Throughout the society and in life the evidence to support my viewpoint is pervasive.
PAINTED POST (WENY) - As we make our way into the holiday season, most of us are surrounded by friends, family and food - lots of food. However, if you have diabetes, the holidays can be especially hard to stick to your health routine with so many temptations in sight.
Who has not eaten junk food at least once? I did it, and to me, as to many Americans, the junk food is the most delicious type of food. However, I know it is the unhealthiest food and the main cause of obesity in the United States. On the other hand, the U.S. government feels that is important to intervene in junk food lover’s lives to help them to improve their health and their food choices. In order to combat the obesity and other health problems that junk food causes, the U.S. government has been looking for many ways to prevent and decrease the number of obese people in the country. They believe that adding taxes to the junk food is a great idea that might help people to
The claim that Ventura makes is that many beauty products are made to grab our attention and contain ingredients that can be extremely harmful to our health. She uses specific examples and experiences of other people to show exactly how these chemicals in beauty products can harm our health and the possible allergic reactions one can have. She focuses her support in specific details on the ingredients contained in the products we buy and the direct effects they have on us. She made many points that convinced me that some ingredients in the products we buy, how dangerous of a reaction you can have, and how there are many products that we buy that really aren't as natural as companies say they are. She cites that the authors of No More Dirty
The main conflict in "Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables“ concerns the change of average Americans poor diet through economic encouragement. Mark Bittman's idea to put a high tax on unhealthy foods such as cookies, potato chips, french fries and soft drinks in order to subsidize healthy foods like vegetables is a great idea. As he points out, "A 20 percent increase in the price of sugary drinks nationally could result in about a 20 percent decrease in consumption, which in the next decade could prevent 1.5 million Americans from becoming obese and 400,000 cases of diabetes, saving about $30 billion." This is why I’m fully on board with the program Bittman outlines because such a program can save people's health and the well-being of
I don’t think that the general public really understands the important part that carbohydrates, protein, fat, and vitamins play in our body. I do believe that most people understand the basic such as different fatty food and that it can cause you to gain weight and create serious health problems in the future. I think unless a person is in the process of trying to lose weight we don’t really educate ourselves when it comes to nutrition. I think most us is busy with school, work, and family so we usually decide to stop at the nearest fast foods and of course that is not the healthiest choice.