Who Is Responsible For Weight Gain?

In the essay, “What You Eat is Your Business”, Radley Balko writes to tell his audience about how the government is trying to control people’s health and eating habits by restricting food, taxing high calorie food, and considering menu labeling. Balko includes in his essay that government restricting diets and having socialist insurance is not helping the obesity problem, but it is only making it worse because it not allowing people to take their health in to their own hands so they have no drive to lose weight or eat healthy. In his essay, Balko is targeting society, including those who may be obese, he is trying to show them that the laws our

In America today one in three adults are considered to be obese. Over the years the rate of obesity keeps climbing up and up. Some people blame fast-food or the environment Americans live in. After all,someone can purchase a chocolate bar at a bookstore nowadays. But, most people are looking at the incorrect factor to blame. Although the food industry is a huge contribution to obesity in America, people are ultimately responsible for their own health.

When it comes to the topic of obesity, most will readily agree that it is a growing dilemma. This argument has many writers bringing different responses. Two explanations are debated in What You Eat is Your Business by Radley Balko and Don’t Blame the Eater by David Zinczenko. Both pieces create a good stance on the topic of obesity. Balko’s piece, however, has a better all around flow, organization and consistency.

“The Cato Institute’s” Policy analyst, Radley Balko, in his article “What You Eat Is Your Business,” talks about the idea of obesity and whose fault it is. Balko’s purpose is to convey the idea that obesity is the individual’s responsibility, not the government’s or anyone else’s for that matter. Ultimately, Balko’s “What You Eat Is Your Business” has a strong hold on ethos, pathos, and logos, making for a successful and persuasive article.

In the same way, both Radley Balko, author of “What You Eat Is Your Business”, and David Zinczenko, author of “Don’t Blame the Eater”, argue that obese individuals’ health insurance is becoming a burden to the rest of America, although they differ because Zinczenko argues that the obesity problem lays in the hands of the food companies, while Balko believes that obese people, old or young, are responsible for their own problems.

Problems and Solutions Surrounding Obesity What do you think is the problem with obesity? Personal bad habits or inappropriate government? In “What you eat is your business” written by Radley Balko argues about people should not bring the personal health issues to let the government or other taxpayers help to solve, overweight people should pay for the consequences of those choices. But on the other hand, in “Don’t Blame The Eater” written by David, Zinczenko maintain that fast-food companies are selling the Products which contain health hazards and no warning labels for children.

Today, America is suffering from one of the world’s biggest problems that is obesity .The government is trying to solve obesity by forbidding junk food in school testing restaurant’s menu, and having specific food options for consumers. By the name of the article What You Eat Is Your Business shows that what we choose to put into our bodies is our responsibility. Therefore the author Radley Balko argues that it is not the government responsibility, it is each individual responsibility.

In recent discussion of obesity, a controversial issue has been whether there should be involvement of society and the government. On one hand, some argue that obese people harm everyone, therefore, everyone should be involved. One the other hand, people argue that obese people should decide whether or not they want to be healthy.In sum, then, the issue is whether society and the government should do something about obesity. My own view is that while I do think that the government and society should encourage healthy living, however, there should be less pressure from society.

Obesity in the United States has really become an economic problem as well. People are spending the little money that they have and spending it on food that they shouldn’t be eating in the first place, which they should be spending their money on healthier and nutritious food, for themselves and their family. New England Medical Center, Michael Dansinger of the Tufts says:

Has it become cool to be overweight or is it still something that is frowned upon? Today, more and more children are considered to be obese. A child becomes obese when he weights nearly 20% in excess of what he should weight at a specific age. Childhood obesity has become rampant in the United States of America since it has affected nearly one out of a group of six children. Some would argue that the fast food industry and school lunches are to blame for childhood obesity because each of these offers unhealthy food choices, and children do not have a fair chance of eating healthy. Although the fast food industry and school lunches do contribute to childhood obesity, parents are to be blamed even more because they are not being honest about the disease, they encourage unhealthy habits, and they don’t teach their children about food and nutrition.

Brownell had many discussions with public health officials regarding America’s ongoing problem with obesity. William Hathaway, of The Hartford Courant, had these comments to make: “His conclusions have been at the center of a growing national debate over food—from whether trans fats should be served in restaurants to snack food in schools. Brownell believes the chief culprit is the trillion dollar food industry, which Brownell said has stayed profitable through massive advertising campaigns to get people to eat more calories than they need” (Hathaway, 2007).

When it comes to lowering the obesity in, Americans need to start taking responsibility for their own food intake instead of trying to blame their weight on outside forces or internal elements. Eating large portions of food or even if one does not eat the food but if instead beverages, which are drank, will cause weight gain and just because something is healthy does not mean to eat large amounts of it because it can still have the same effects as that of

According to Ambinder (2010), "by 2015, four out of 10 Americans may be obese"(p. 72) which is a serious health challenge that should be addressed. I do not support the opinion that people who are obese are personally responsible for their health status and the health outcomes or consequences that relate to it. There are many factors other than personal behavior or responsibility that attribute to personal obesity like environmental and time factors. By viewing the environment and time factors that attribute to personal obesity allowed me to move from an individualistic perspective to a more collective responsibility perspective. Environmental factors, according to Ambinder (2010) are "cheap corn, fast food, and unscrupulous advertising" (p. 74) which many people cannot control or get rid of as an individual. While time factors can range from healthy meal food preparation, work time constraints, school constraints and etc.

Obesity, or being overweight, is definitely a problem that many people face in this day and age. According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Weight that is higher than what is considered as a healthy weight for a given height is described as overweight or obese”(1). To determine what a healthy weight is, a tool called a Body Mass Index (BMI) is used. It indicates if a person is underweight, of normal weight, overweight, or obese by using the relationship between one’s height and weight in a given formula. In this formula, you divide one’s weight (in lbs.) by their height (in inches), then multiply by 703 to get their BMI. An individual is considered to overweight if their BMI number is between 25-29.9 and obese if it greater than and equal to 30. Over the last couple of decades in America, obesity has become more and more of a concern with more than one third of adults and about seventeen percent of children considered to obese today (CDC). While I was doing my research, there seems to be a debate on who is ultimately causing the sudden rise of the obesity in America. It has come to my attention that the debate has found itself stuck primarily between the food industry and individual’s responsibility for their own health, even though there are other contributing factors that play a part in this epidemic. Personally, I believe that the food industry is more to blame; however, both parties do contribute to the obesity epidemic in their own way.

Balko begins by introducing some of the policy the government put in place to response to the obesity epidemic in our country. He states that “For decades now, America's health care system has been moving towards socialism.” He cites President Bush’s decision to assign $200 million to anti-obesity measure and congress attempt to implement menu-labeling in to a law is a wrong approach to take on obesity. Balko state that the government policies are “bringing the government between you and your waistline” (396). In his opinion, “This is the wrong way to fight obesity” (Balko). He argues that our government should be focused on fostering personal responsibility and accountability among the public concerning individual health. He feels that consumers should take some responsibility of what they eat. Giving this example, “We’re becoming less responsible for our own health, and more responsible for everyone else’s” (Balko). He argues that obesity should be taken out of