Food Deserts

In “What You Eat Is Your Business,” Radley Balko tackles the issue of who is responsible for fighting obesity. Balko argues that the controversy of obesity should make the individual consumers culpable for their own health and not the government (467). As health insurers refrain from increasing premiums for obese and overweight patients, there is a decrease in motivation to keep a healthy lifestyle (Balko 467). As a result, Balko claims these manipulations make the public accountable for everyone else 's health rather than their own (467). Balko continues to discuss the ways to fix the issue such as insurance companies penalizing consumers who make unhealthy food choices and rewarding good ones (468). This forces the community to become responsible

In the article “It’s Portion Distortion That Makes America Fat,” by Shannon Brownlee explains how fast food companies persuade you to eat. In fast food places, they use fast food marketing strategies to induce an amount of people to eat more. Another strategy was called “smart research”. This strategy targeted “heavy users” and people who to go restaurants on a daily basis. Brownlee said that cheap products would influence us to buy more of them. Introducing an increase of size and a decrease of price catches our attention. Most importantly, adults are who to blame because it’s their responsibility to take care of themselves.

In both David Zinczenko’s “Don’t Blame The Eater” and “ Radley Balko’s “What You Eat is Your Business”, the argument of obesity in America is present and clear from opposing viewpoints. Both articles were written in the early 2000’s, when the popular political topic of the time was obesity and how it would be dealt by our nation in the future. While Zinczenko argues that unhealthy junk food is an unavoidable cultural factor, Balko presents the thought that the government should have no say in it’s citizens diet or eating habits.

Morgan Spurlock, an American Independent Filmmaker embarked on an experiment of eating only McDonalds for thirty days. He documented his findings in a documentary titled “Supersize Me” As a result, Spurlock gained nearly twenty-five pounds, and his body mass increased almost fifteen percent. The reason behind Spurlock’s investigation was to identify the problem with our countries rise in obesity, largely contributed to a lack of fresh and healthy food being available. Obesity is an epidemic plaguing our country ever so quickly and one of the biggest reasons for it is many communities don’t have access to fresh food, and in many times that food if available exceeds the families budget. The United States Department of Agriculture (1) defines

In the economically unpredictable country, the United States of America, there is obvious signs of corporate exploitation of the middle and lower classes in terms of economic status. However, the last thing you would think of are these huge food corporations scheming a class-based geographical empire of fast food chains with a scarcity of supermarkets. Food deserts are urban and rural areas, mainly of the lower class, that have virtually no access to healthy food options. Leading to more obesity and other dietary related diseases, such as diabetes. There are about 23 million people that live in food deserts, and out of that 23 million, “[more] than half of those people (13.5 million) are low- income” (Agricultural Marketing). A barren wasteland consisting of no healthy food options, or even a market where you can at least have a choice on what you eat, seems to be impossible to come by.

Junk food is responsible for the growing rate of obesity. This is outlined by David freedman in his article of “How junk food can end obesity.” David Freedman has credited the “health-food” motion, and followers of it along with Michel Pollan. Freedman claims that if the America desires to stop the obesity epidemic, or at least reduce its effects, they must shift to the fast meals and processed meals enterprise for assist, now not the “health-food” movement.

Food deserts are becoming a growing issue not unique to the United States. In 2010, it was estimated that 23.5 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, lived in an urban or rural food desert (Let’s Move, 2015). A food desert can be defined as a geographical area where communities lack access to healthy, inexpensive food options. The limited access to an affordable healthy diet presents a major challenge to residents living in food deserts. Instead of people’s main source of food being from a supermarket, communities will rely on eating at restaurants, fast food chains and convenience stores as their main sources of nutrition. The phenomenon is more prevalent in low-income, racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods, as it were reported

In “How Junk Food Can End Obesity” David Freedman argues that ending processed food is not going to help solve obesity problems. He knows that “Junk food is bad for you because it’s full of fats and problems carb” (Freedman 515). Freedman believe that we should use technology to improve fast-food by taking out the unhealthy products in it, instead of getting rid of fast-food entirely. He also talks about his experiences with food between wholesome food and McDonald’s. He discusses how McDonald’s smoothies have the lowest calories and are cheapest out of all other smoothies he had. He states that healthier food is expensive, and sometimes the cheapest way to have fewer calories is McDonald’s. Freedman argues sometimes healthy food is not

One serious problem that poor, urban cities face is the lack of available healthy and nutritious food in their areas. With little to no access to wholesome food, city dwellers around the country are forced to consume extremely low-quality and unhealthy food on a daily basis. However, there are many different ways that we can fix this issue and they are not as difficult as people think. Also, fixing these problems are very beneficial for not alone urban city dwellers, but also grocery stores themselves.

In David Freedman’s essay How Junk food Can End Obesity, Freedman makes the claim to policy arguing that instead of demonizing processed foods, Americans should instead support the idea and production of healthier processed and junk foods. He calls on the public to recognize that while many products on the market these days are labeled as “wholesome” and “healthy”, consumers should learn to become aware of the fat and calorie content in these products because many times they have the same- if not more- fat and calorie contents as that of a typical Big Mac or Whopper. In his essay, Freedman primarily places blame on the media and the wholesome food movement for the condemnation of the fast and processed food industries saying, “An enormous amount of media space has been dedicated to promoting the notion that all processed food, and only processed food, us making us sickly and overweight” (Freedman), he further expresses that this portrayal of the

Nearly half of America’s food goes to waste every year. Feeding America is an organization that specializes in fighting hunger and helping people that don’t have food. 42 million people face hunger in the U.S. today including nearly 13 million children and more than five million seniors. Hunger knows no boundaries, it touches every community in the U.S., including your own. Volunteers power the Feeding America network.

The rising health problems in the United States of America are caused by poor nutrition, people who are sedentary, the lack of healthcare prevention, and many more. As reported on the Tikkun website, “Of the many systems in our world today that need to be reimagined, none is more important for our future than our food system” (1). The lack of our food system is one of the many factors that has led the United States to its uprising dilemmas; one of the many factors are the food deserts across the U.S. Food deserts are geographic areas where access to affordable healthy and nutritious food are limited, or impossible to purchase, by residents in the area. Food deserts are prone to low-income areas that can’t afford transportation, and due to the lack of grocery stores and supermarkets that sells fresh produce and healthy food within convenient distance to resident’s homes, there is a difficulty in obtaining healthy food options which leads to countless health issues. According to the Diabetes Forecast website, “About 18.3 million Americans live in low-income areas and are far from a supermarket” (1). So the problem is, how can food deserts be eliminated in the

In his essay “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko sympathizes for port fast-food patron, like himself ages ago,  he agrees that food industry should take some responsibility for obesity. He supports his claim by warning consumers about the dangers of fast food,as it play a factor in obesity. Within his argument, he questions other counter arguments and uses his narrative tone to show consumers that the food industry is necessarily at fault. Zincenko believes  the prevalence of fast food and the lack of healthier food alternatives is causing obesity in America.

There are issues that come up when talking about these precise geographic are being affected the most without receiving the fair chance of having healthy meals to eat every night. Some people believe that there is no way that some geographies will tell you that you cannot receive the nutrients food one needs to have a healthy diet.There are various ways one can receive the sufficient healthy foods one needs, and it is nothing based on geographic or the color of your skin. “Pennsylvania passed a Fresh Food Financing Initiative, which offered grants and loans to supermarkets willing to open in distressed neighborhoods and helped smaller stores expand their supplies of fresh food.” (Gilligan). It states that food deserts are not existing as of now and it is not an issue anymore. In contrast, there is countless research on how people that live in these “food deserts” are being affected the most are low-income areas as of today. USDA had reported that nearly ten percent of the US population lives more than an hour away from a grocery store.

Today life is on the fast track. People are always on the go and don’t have time to properly take care of themselves or their families. For most Americans, fast food and junk food are ready to grab for a snack or a quick dinner. They don’t slow down to think about how the foods they are eating effect their long term health. Fewer and fewer families take the time to prepare a nutritious meal and are passing down bad habits to their children. If changes are not made now, then people will soon be living shorter lives and suffer most of their life from obesity and the health issues that come with it. The Government should regulate what Americans consume in order to curb obesity rates and potentially save lives.