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Unhealthy Food Rhetorical Analysis

Decent Essays

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

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