We Are What We Eat Essay

Schlosser took the time to research and give information about every aspect that pertains to fast food. He also gave a voice to the workers with leaves an impact on the reader. Letting employees work in terrible conditions, exposed to dangerous chemicals/gases and not training the employees enough to do the job well is pathetic on the part of these billion dollar companies. Although this book has not changed my eating habits drastically, it has made me a wiser consumer.

In a result of this many people, health officials, and parents are complaining because there has been an increase of child obesity. Children grow up learning healthy eating habits and how to make smart food choices which will continue to follow them as they get older. On the other hand, children growing up with

Supersize Me: It’s Time to Stop Blaming Fat People for their Size, Alison Motluk argues that we live in an “obesogenic society,” one that promotes weight gain and an increasingly unhealthy lifestyle. We do live in a society that makes it easy for people to become obese. For starters, the convenience and the relative ease it is to go to a fast food restaurant, and pick up breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Also the portion size that is offered at restaurants is enormous. We live in a society where most parents do not have the luxury to stay home and prepare healthy meals.

For example, he tells us that in 1970, Americans spent $6 billion on fast food, in 2001, $110 billion. He presents this numbers as a growing concern as now fast food is taking over the nation’s food industry. The author also makes an emphasis on the speed of the service keeps driving its sales. In class we discussed how one of the values driving fast food and the poor food industry was speed and convenience. In today’s fast paced lifestyle, a meal where you don’t even have to get out of your car to purchase and consume is as

Michael Pollan is the author of “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual”. Throughout his career, Pollan has been investigating about the hazards that industrial foods pose to us, and how we can avoid them and replace them with a healthy diet. He believes that “The way we eats represents our most profound engagement with the natural world.” (Shetterly, Robert. “Michael Pollan.”

Americans today are well-known for their eating habits. With all the options the food industry gives us it makes it hard to go to the grocery store and resist picking up that bag of barbeque-flavored chips or blueberry flavored candy. Due to these processed foods obesity is a growing epidemic in our country and who is to blame for it? In an article entitled “What You Eat is Your Business” by Radley Balko, Balko argues for less government intervention. Balko believes is it our responsibility to take care of ourselves and make it a priority.

In the article, “The Pleasures of Eating”, author Wendell Berry shares his knowledge of the food industry and discusses the act of eating as part of the agricultural process. Berry asks deep questions in his article that will make the readers question what they are putting into their homes and into their bodies. Most Americans, according to Berry, can be categorized as passive consumers that are basically allowing food industrialist to brainwash them by means of advertisement. He argues ,“They pay, mostly without protest, what they are charged” implying that the consumers do not even question what additional cost, such as transportation, might have added to the product .The article provides an interesting perspective on consuming food and Berry shares multiple ways that the passive consumer can become more educated on food.

Fast food is considered popular because it 's convenient, it 's cheap, and it tastes good. But the real cost of eating fast food never appears on the menu. Fast food marketers marketing to children and adolescents has skyrocketed throughout the last century. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, funded by the government, "In the United States, the percentage of children and adolescents affected by obesity has more than tripled since the 1970 's" ("Healthy Schools"). In fact, this statistic is predicted to increase significantly as fast food restaurants are continuously being built everywhere in the U.S. Fast food restaurants are everywhere.

This is simply not enough. In my opinion, there should be a variety of meals that are suitable for all eating habits. First, I would like to argue that having a salad bar daily, is not enough. There should be a plethora of options for all types of eating habits here at SIUe.

According to her research, children are fed with larger portions of junk food and very few young Americans eat the required foods in the food pyramid (Nestle, 175-176). Although, children usually eat one third of their meals in fast food places or school, most of them consume higher amounts of unhealthy items such as sodium chloride, fat, and calories (Nestle, 176). Nestle explained that companies do their job to market junk foods to kids (176).

They are both to blame. The parents keep blaming the companies and the companies keep blaming the parents. They should both just take responsability that they both are to blame for the obesity of the children. Parents are sometimes too busy to be able to make their children a homemade meal. There are so many fast food restaurants in every town or city, they’re everywhere and the food is prepared and quick so the kids want that because it taste good and the parents buy it because they have no time to make them a meal at home.

Evaluation on Tumbleweed When going to a restaurant a smiling face, knowledgeable staff members, a clean space, and flavorful food is expected. This is obviously something that Tumbleweed in Seymour, Indiana does not aspire to do. Tumbleweed in Seymour, Indiana was one of the worst restaurants I have ever been to. My friends and I all decided to go eat at Tumbleweed one day and it was very unclean, and took a long time until we got our food, also the people who worked there were not very kind.

The To put this into perspective Brownlees article shows “ For every dollar a quick-service franchise spends to produce a food item, only 20 cents, on average, goes toward food.” I mean who wouldn 't think that 's a good idea more for less, but just like Shannon explains “...and the customer thinks he 's getting a good deal. And he would be, if he actually needed the extra calories.”, and this is completely correct. All this is because fast food businesses found out how to work us like puppets, the mystery behind overeating has been scientifically proven.

The main contributor, widely reported by top experts, is the consumption of cheap, and convenient foods such as fast food and the myriad of boxed foods available in the supermarket. Diane Brady asserts in her essay, “The Employer-Friendly Case for Pricer Big Macs” that “Of all the reasons why a third of U.S. adults are obese, the lure of cheap, unhealthy food ranks near the top” (519). With continual attention being given to the effects of unhealthy foods on adults and especially young people, one would think that America would wise up and stop consuming it at such an alarming rate. Again, Brady points out that, “Fast food chains have raised their game with healthier menu offerings and support for programs that encourage physical activity, but they continue to thrive by selling high-calorie food. McDonald’s salads, introduced in 1987, make up just 2 percent to 3 percent of U.S. sales” (520).

Fast foods restaurants are multiplying due to the consumers wanting more from them, and it leads to obesity in America. Even some Americans, do not like the food some fast food restaurant provide for their options so they go to their second choice of foods. Some Americans are trying or did sue the fast food restaurant because they either are obese or they just want their money back. Parents are the ones who set an example by eating healthy foods in front of their children, so they eat healthy People would eat fast food and will blame the restaurant for the results from the food they chose to eat. The effects of eating fast foods are very dangerous especially if you are young child.