Processed food is a large problem in the U.S. Fast food, sugary drinks and candy are regularly considered as the motivating forces behind America 's child obesity epidemic, an issue for many people in the U.S, including child consuming processed food which results in an unhealthy lifestyle, leading to obesity and other serious diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. Processed foods have become a terrible addiction in American diets, resulting in a major difficulty for many citizens of any age.
While child obesity is a growing concern among society, it is an issue that should be dealt with as to who is responsible for the obesity epidemic itself, and how we can approach to solutions that effectively promote an end the obesity issue by
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The increase in obesity is a problem predominant in some U.S. by involving government in doing their part to implement state regulations that could heavily tax the processing food industries, retail stores and entities promoting unhealthy food could help tremendously our society in preventing obesity.
A. To make healthier U.S. environment, the Government could enhance laws that tax processing food industries, retail stores and entities promoting unhealthy food, to help with the obesity problem in our society.
1. Local governments around the country—including Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Berkeley, Calif., among others—have started to do just that, “enacting laws that tax sugar-sweetened drinks and sodas at a higher rate than other foods and beverages. Sugary drinks are a logical choice. They’re a major contributor to daily American calorie intake—roughly 7 percent of all calories consumed—while contributing little to no nutritional value. Consider that an average 20-ounce cola harbors about 16 teaspoons of added sugar” (Adamy).
2. Statistic from UNC-Chapel Hill résumés that while the average American consumes 150 calories from soda a day, 40 percent of the population consumes 300 to
Mark Bittman a columnist for the New York Times and author of “Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables” “July 23, 2011”, argues that people should open their eyes and fight to decrease obesity by going against the processed foods industries that make the bad foods. Bittman supports this thesis by saying how the food industry is incapable of marketing healthier foods, that instead of subsidizing production of unhealthy foods they should be taxed and make healthy food more affordable and available, then he goes on by saying how much money can be saved by taxing per ounce of sugar in sweetened beverages by one penny lastly Bittman claims how our society is profiting off of foods that make us sick and obese and how America could make a program
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
When the dinner bell rings in America, many families are not flocking to the table, but running to the car and the call of the “Golden Arches”. In today’s over-scheduled world, food has now become an afterthought and America is paying the price, literally. Obesity is now an epidemic and a crisis that is not slowing down. The nation is not only paying the price with sky-rocketing medical bills from the effects of the American diet, but also with the deteriorating health of its citizens and for the first time in history, a generation with a shorter life expectancy than the generation before. Food today looks nothing like the food of just 40 years ago, and now instead, is making people sick and obese.
Canada and the United States has a major obesity problem. Since the 1980’s the percentage of adults with obesity and diabetes has dramatically increased to a point where over 1 in 3 adults and 1 in 3 children age 2 to 19 in the United States are considered to have obesity (“Overweight & Obesity Statistics”). When children enter adulthood already overweight or obese it is much harder for them to live a healthy lifestyle. One of the major contributors to obesity is sugary drinks such as Monster energy drinks and Coca-Cola. These sugary drinks can have as much as forty grams of sugar per serving, and many people consume multiple servings per day.
It is believed that many of the soft drink companies are the main reason for the rise of obesity in America. As stated in the article Coca-Cola and the fight against the global obesity epidemic, “The soft drink industry as a whole, and Coke in particular, has received harsh criticism for contributing to the global obesity epidemic. ”(Gertner 15).This suggests that as soft drinks and other processed foods are becoming more popular it is heavily contributing to the recent rise in people becoming overweight. Before fast food and soft drinks were popular, less people were obese which leads to the speculation that it is a cause for the problem. On the other hand there are studies that reveal that dietary factors don’t always affect a person’s weight.
There are not any studies that prove that placing taxes on soda will decrease obesity. Lately, many cities and states are contemplating whether or not to add these taxes. Hillary Clinton agrees with the tax, but Bernie Sanders opposes it. Soda Companies think that using commercials and making healthier drinks will be better than taxes them. Taxing unhealthy drinks is a way to reduce America’s obesity level.
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.
That is true, however this argument is weak because there are in fact bigger problems than soda being a health issue. Itś your choice on whether you drink soda or not. It won't do much damage unless it becomes a very consistent thing. Though soda is bad, we have much bigger problems killing people. For example, cigarettes or smoking in general.
The average twenty ounce soda has about twenty two packets of sugar in it. As a matter of fact, liquid sugar is less healthy than solid sugar. Liquid sugars confuse your brain, and tell it, it’s okay to eat more food instead of cutting back. So, drinking soda makes you even hungrier/ thirstier. A study was done on children, and proved that drinking one serving of soda per day increased their risk of obesity by sixty percent.
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.
In her chapter “Starting Early” in the book Food Politics, Marion Nestle, a nutritionist, and professor of food studies, insists that children are introduced to junk foods early in life due to obsessive commercials advertisements, trying to persuade them mainly. Dr. Nestle started writing her chapter on how concerned she is because there are more obese children than ever (175). Statistically, the author explained that there are more non-Caucasian kids that are obese than white children (Nestle 175). She says that the main reason children become obese is because they eat foods that are not nutritious for them because the society tells do so after watching advertisements on TV. The author believes that the changes in the demographics, economy, environment, and society are part of the cause for the increase of childhood obesity (Nestle 175).
Is healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food the problem Is the people tend to go towards the unhealthy it’s easier more convenient and processed food sometimes can be a bit cheaper. In a study that shows that eating healthy is it really that expensive maybe it takes a little more time to prep your meals but it’s worth it at the end. ”swapping out some of these less expensive, and less healthy foods, for fresher and more nutritious ones added up to only about $1.50 more per day. ”-Alexandra Sifferlin.
Many children, if not all, have been subjected to the advertisments of multi-billion dollar corporations such as Hostess, McDonalds, and Mars, who wholeheartedly cling to processed foods, and then market the food to children. By definition, “food processing is the transformation of raw ingredients, by physical or chemical means into food, or forms of food into other ingredients.” For example taking an ear of corn and breaking it down on a molecular level, and transforming it into a sugary soda. Now of course its not that simple, since many other chemicals come into play while breaking down an already unhealthy food in order to create America’s iconic “junkfood.” All of
Making kids eat healthy food today is a really hard task, but if schools can start serving healthier foods, then kids will actually eat healthy. In today’s schools, most of the foods served contain unhealthy fats and sugars just to fit the student 's preferences. Due to the lack of healthy foods consumed by children, child obesity is the number one growing problem among youth. With the new unhealthy snacks today, it is becoming harder for parents to make their kids eat healthy foods. Schools should promote healthy food choices because childhood obesity is a growing problem, school lunches are lacking proper nutrients, and schools have the responsibility to educate students about healthy eating.
The fast-food industry is a contributing factor in the global obesity epidemic as a new study from the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that around two billion people worldwide, approximately 30% of the world’s population, are either overweight or obese. In that 30%, around 10% are obese and 20% are overweight. To this day fast food remains the contributing factor for gaining weight. Many people young and old are discouraged when they see their weight on the scale. They are placing the blame on the food they are choosing to eat for there weight gain.