In the article, “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko argues it is the fast food industry’s fault for the nation 's growing obesity epidemic. Furthermore, he believes people should not be blamed for their own obesity. Zinczenko argues fast-food is much more available to the fast paced lifestyle people live in rather than consuming healthy alternatives. He also discusses the fact so many people are on a low budget, it is then best and more inexpensive for them to consume fast-food. Zinczenko states a claim that the fast-food industry “would do well to protect themselves, and their customers, by providing the nutrition information people need” (Zinczenko 464). In other words, he is saying that fast food establishments do not advertise enough
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
Michael Pollan’s Escape from the Western Diet connects well with what Mary Maxfield says in her article. Both Pollan and Maxfield talk about the ways that dieting is taking over American people’s healths and causing them to become even unhealthier.
In “How Junk Food Can End Obesity,” by David H. Freedman, he claims that processed foods can help fix the obesity crisis in a more realistic manner, rather than whole-some foods. The popular opinion emphasizes whole-some foods because they aren’t informed about the similitude between processed and unprocessed foods. The essence of the essay is that people believe processed foods are bad and unhealthy for us, therefore whole-some foods are highly recommended for the health of an individual. Freedman mentions many prominent authors who wrote books on food processing, but the most influential voice in the food culture Freedman makes a point of is, American journalist, Michael Pollan. The media and Michael Pollan indicate that everything should be replaced with real, fresh, and unprocessed foods, instead of engineering in as much sugar, salt, and fat as possible into industrialized foods. With that being said, most restaurants and grocery stores are declining industrialized foods, giving the name, “food-like substances.” Freedman feels that it is not a realistic way to stop this obesity epidemic by trying to persuade people into completely changing their habits of eating. Instead, Freedman believes that incorporating better ingredients in processed foods will
As diets and health become more and more of a public concern in America. Two authors weigh in on their opinions on how the American public should handle the problem of obesity as well as their solutions to the overwhelming issue. In one article, “Against Meat,” published on the New York Times website in 2009, points out that the solution to obesity should be vegetarianism. Johnathan Foer who is a vegetarian, claims that his diet and way of living is his the way of improving health in the American public. Foer’s article provides a sense of humor as well as personal stories to attempt to persuade his audience for the ethical treatment of animals along with his personal solution for his own health and the health of his family. On a differing take on the solution, “Escape from the Western Diet” by Michael Pollan provides the complete change of our diet and way of life based around cooking and eating meals. however creates a more powerful and logical argument against the “Western Diet” in his article, He uses a combination of his credibility from his publications on health and foods, evidence against the practices of the medical community, along with his solution to the issue of obesity to create an article that draws in audience’s emotions and rationale.
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
Finally, the quality of counterargument expressed throughout Garretson’s essay, has also been effected by her biased stance on vegetarianism, because she has been unable to display and acknowledge opposing views in her piece. It is very important for one to present counterarguments in their writing because it shows that the writer is not narrow-minded, and instead, is fair by considering other perspectives. Additionally, the use of counterargument adds credibility to a writing and makes the arguments that one presents more believable and trustworthy. Since Garretson does not display or acknowledge any opposing views in her essay, her arguments lose a great deal of credibility. There are many different approaches that Garretson could have taken
This ongoing has been a large discussion for many people. He exemplifies that through Eric Schlosser of the “Dark Side of the All-American Meal” (2001) and how San Franciscans, fretted largely about, “the nutritional dangers to their children’s health, began the last century by banning “roving pie vendors” who catered to the “habitual pie-eating” habits of schoolchildren and prohibiting the sale of soft drinks on school campuses.” (Leitcher) The question then becomes at the center of all the health promotions advertised, the advice spoken, and advocacy, to what lengths do one literary novel change the social fabric of how Americans look at food
The fast food industry also hurts environments around farms in general. It has created an unsustainable cycle that farmers cannot escape. In order to feed themselves and their family, farmers play it safe and buy more fertilizer than needed. When the farmers do not use all of it, they must dispose of it, because that fertilizer will not be as effective next year, so they dump the fertilizer in the areas surrounding their farms. But what this causes is too much nitrogen in the environment because too much nitrogen can kill plants and throw the nitrogen cycle out of balance, in turn hurting the environment. In addition to hurting the environment, Pollan argues that because fast food restaurants need so much meat for their burgers and other food
He argues that the food movement of our generation has been successful in changing popular consciousness. However, it has been struggling with shifting, in any impactful way, the “standard American diet,” which he purports has only gotten worse since the 1970s (Envision in Depth p.g
Michael Pollan’s “Escape from the Western Diet,” is used to directly talk to Americans about the western diet and how he believes they should escape from it. His main point is that we should escape to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 420). Then he goes on to describes what Americans believe they should be eating and how they don’t even seem to care. They are nutritionist with their theories, the food industry supporting the theories by new healthy products, and the health industry reaping the reward by making medication to support those same theories. For Americans to escape this diet, they must get the idea of it out of their heads. Pollan then provides his own set of rules for escaping the
In the book The Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollan he brings us on his journey with him through analyzing the model of “four meals” and how our thinking habits have changed the way we choose to eat and go about eating throughout the years and the role our society and the different expectations put on individuals has effected their thoughts and relationship to food. Each section and chapter of the book is broken up into different fads, opinions and findings that Pollan has found along his journey. Throughout the book his pre determined notions and thoughts around our society with food is challenged but also is backed up by different healthful and food activists like himself and how like minded people can differer in opinions and thoughts on how our society has changed involving
He explained his critical attitude on the nutritionism, described the place of the Western Diet in the modern world and difficulties linked to its avoidance. The author also proposed several simple ways to improve food behavior. These rules can be treated as a logical fallacy of the article. At the beginning Pollan stated people should escape not only from the Western Diet, but from the nutritionism too. But his first rule “Eat food” that includes the separation of a “real food from the cascade of foodlike products that are surround and confound us” (Pollan 4) make the last task difficult. The author himself mentioned the modern industry made its impact on the “whole food”. So people need to check product’s chemical content to be sure they eat the real food; it makes it impossible to separate diet from science, like Pollan wanted. I also do not think the author treated the nutritionism fairly. While he was right in his critique of debates between different “cults” of direct nutrients, the nutritionism has the true basis. Food’s value really is in its nutrients, and the problem of the Western Diet is that meals lack of some compounds and have an excess of other. It would be difficult to value the food itself more, if people would not know its
In Michael Pollan's '' Escape from the Western Diet'' Pollan explains the negatives and positives of the scientific based diet, best known as nutritionism. Pollan calls nutritionist reductionist science because it focuses on individual rather than a whole foods or dieting pattern. He suggests '' stop eating a western diet’’, but Pollen states that it's hard to go back from the western diet because we inhabited such treacherous food environment. A new theory of diet means new product, that is normally the same except more processed than the old product. The Western diet is effortless, fast and cheap. Pollan suggests that we should convey our ancestors in the way that bulk of their time was spent gathering and preparing food. Pollan purposes to '' Eat food. Not much. Mostly plants''. In Mary Maxfields her essay '' Food as
An Omnivore 's dilemma is "what should we eat for dinner." Since humans are omnivores, they can eat whatever they want. However, all the things that people eat have side effects both for the human beings and on the planet. Some foods contain GMOs which are bad for are bad for the environment and us.