Weight Of A Nation Reflection Paper

Shifts in the “Food Marketplace” have greatly affected our food choices and habits in the last 40-50 years. As one woman stated in the film The Weight of the Nation, “It’s so hard to combat with what the tv is telling you to feed your kids”. Advertising has come to a whole new level in our generation; you can’t turn on the television without seeing an advertisement for fast food or something equally as unhealthy. As another woman put it, “you are taught that you can eat anywhere, anytime of day, and that eating is a glorious thing”. Another shift that has occurred is an economic one. If you go into a poor neighborhood corner store like they did in the film, you would see chips, sugar, sweets, etc. All of these unhealthy foods are cheap, incredibly cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables. Obesity rates in these poor areas are much higher than in areas with a higher average income. Culturally, our country is changing to one that is always moving; we don’t have time to prepare a meal for the whole family. It’s much quicker to buy unhealthy fast food that you know your family will enjoy than to prepare a healthy meal that they will grudgingly consume. The film mentioned that our bodies were originally built for scarcity. We are wired to react to things that are sweet and contain a lot of fat because when an animal was killed we had to be able to eat as much of it as possible. The signals telling us to stop eating had to be overridden. Now, we consume so much fat and sugar not

On the other hand, the major concern right is to fight that problem starting with the children since as most of the children attend to become adults in following unhealthy food, drinks so they can become bigger so they can look older by getting that size faster. The other type of children are trying only following the same habit because of their parents, and that depends on the way the parent living. Parent are buzzy due to live demands, and most of them work two or even three jobs. That will lead the parent to rely more on the fast food rather than have some time to make a healthy homemade food.

There are a variety of foods people can choose like fast food to eat. Especially teenagers that always consume too much sugar or calories who don’t even realize what they’re

“The regulations went on to stipulate that only fruits, vegetables, dairy products, lean-protein foods, and whole-grain items could be sold in cafeterias or vending machines. Limiting the maximum calorie count of 200 for snacks and 350 for entrees” (Ballaro and Griswold) This explains the limitation put on schools throughout the country. Television was one of the major influencing factors that led kids to higher energy foods and drinks. Children would see their favorite character or show advertising a snack or a drink; therefore, so children feel they need to enjoy it as well.

One of the main effects marketing take effects on youth is they're health. According to the documentary The Myth of Choice: How Junk Food Marketers Target Our Kids. 1 in 3 kids each day eat fast food, causing cancer, obesity, and diabetes type 2. This shows that if advertisers don't care about kids health or they're oblivious to the affects. And it's most likely not going to change. Also from the documentary, The Myth of Choice: How Junk Food Marketers Target Our Kids. It states “engineered to target parts of your brain that want fat and sugar”. Junk food companies hire scientists to like it said, target the parts of the brain that want your body to have that type of stuff. So is basically addicts you to the food so you'll always want to have

In both suburban and rural areas, public transportation is either unavailable or very limited, with grocery stores miles away from residents’ homes. In cases where public transportation is unavailable people are left with little to no options and must conform to the unhealthy foods due to convenience. If there is a McDonald’s on the corner of a street near you and a Burger King or KFC on the opposite street, it is pretty easy to assume that those will become a person with no transportation’s only options for food. They really do not have much of choice if the nearest grocery store is miles away and these fast food restaurants are within walking distance.

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

The Weight of a Nation is a series of films discussing the effects of our diets and weight. These films discuss how we are overweight and the effects it not only has on our body, but on our society. Being obese not only affect us, but the people around us. We pass on the our habits to our children, and our health problems can start when we are children. This series of film show not only what causes obesity, but how we can change it. We only have one body so we have to take care of it. All of our actions have consequences, but our health consequences control our lives.

Kids nowadays know the way to a fast food restaurant. Low income earners prefer to go to fast food restaurants to eat than to prepare foods themselves. This might cost a lot but people just eat it because it is fast.

Unluckily, some kids are unsurprisingly predisposed to obesity. Eating a large amount of high calorie foods, like baked goods, and vending machine snacks and fast foods surely contributes to weight increase. Lack of financial resources can lead to childhood obesity as well. Financial and time pressures force many families to minimize food costs and meal preparation time, resulting in increased consumption of prepackaged convenience foods that are high in calories and fat. Many urban neighborhoods do not have supermarkets, outdoor produce stands, or other healthy alternatives to convenience stores and fast food outlets, making it harder for residents to purchase fresh and inexpensive

This article shows that fast food today is convenient because people have a lot of work to do in a very short time, so so thinking about driving through the fast food restaurant is easier and better than cooking. Therefore, one thing parents don't know is that fats, sugars, and salts are engaging their children primordial tastes. The most widely recognized disease that impacts children is obesity. Studies show that 15-20% of children aged 12-18 are overweight. In addition, obese children can affect emotional and

When someone thinks of various fast food restaurants, they often think of quick and easy way to obtain food. However they do not stop to think about how it is affecting their health. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser exposes to the public that various fast food restaurants, such as McDonalds, are detrimental for your health. He does this by showing the reader how unhealthy the food is to the public, as well as showing us how they make their food more desirable to buy to the general population. The one problem that arisen from fast food restaurants is the increase of childhood obesity since the beginning of fast food.

Initially, children were malnourished during the post-World War II era. Now children are stuck trying to wedge themselves in between the door to a long, healthy life, which may be brutally cut short simply due to the way they ate in school. Eating habits and diets aren’t questioned by the children until they are faced with the decision of choosing the best nutrient filled option. Multiple choices, abundant in carbohydrates, proteins and good, natural fats surround a child, yet the child is an environment laced with advertising, thus alluring a child into picking fries instead of the mixed steam vegetables. Soon, children realize the chocolate taste better than the fruit, yet no child knows at the age of five that fruit doesn’t give its victims

David Zinczenko made the lack of choices the centerpiece of his essay “Don’t Blame the Eater.” Zinczenko posits that fast food restaurants, then as now, “were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal”. Really? Maybe if we lived in a world full of only gas stations and fast food vendors. However we have Wal-Mart, Kroger, Harris Teeter, and a myriad of other supermarkets, all of which are literally full of healthy cheap food. Zinczenko uses a snarky analogy comparing the difficulty of acquiring a grapefruit versus finding a Big Mac on “any thoroughfare in America”. Zinczenko says that teenagers in particular, are having difficulty finding alternatives to fast food. Not to sound like beating drum, but where are the parents of these teenagers, why are they not supplying these kids with cheap healthy food? Why are they out purchasing expensive un-healthy food instead of eating healthy meals at home? Where are the parents, and where is their

102). One might impugn that it is not poverty but lack of education that affects the obesity epidemic. It does not require a mathematician to comprehend that choosing a two dollar case of Honey Buns as opposed to a six dollar bag of apples will equal more food in the refrigerator. Generally, processed foods are more “energy dense” than garden-fresh foods; they contain less water and fiber but more added fat and sugar, which make them both less satisfying and more calorific (Pollan, 2006). Provisions similar to fruits and vegetables contain high water content that permits individuals to feel satiated rather swiftly. Nutritious meals are more expensive, less tasty, and are more time consuming to prepare, fostering unhealthy eating patterns. On special occasions, parents will treat their children to McDonalds where everything is “super-sized”. Adults and children can acquire debauched consumption patterns because they don’t comprehend the quantity they have enthusiastically ingested. Pollan (2006) stated that “Well-designed fast food has a fragrance and flavor all its own, a fragrance and flavor only nominally connected to hamburgers or French fries or for that matter to particular food” (p. 111).