Most Americans in contemporary society run on an automatic default setting, not bothering to question what they attest to on an everyday basis. A monotonous routine sets in that transcends into future generations. In this current fast paced way of life it’s not difficult to fall into the trap of the unregulated food industry. The least of many concerns is to worry about a couple of unpronounceable words on the back of the cereal box one has for breakfast each morning. Many of these ingredients and their derivatives are unknown to the common shopper. Therefore, the food industry must be regulated in order to keep society aware of what they are consuming, allow for a decrease in the dependence of fast food, and to prevent and control current and future health issues tormenting the nation. From fast food to a fast workout, everything in American society is set …show more content…
An unnatural concept, but a notion that is now accepted as another norm of American life. Barbara Kingsolver speaks out about such issues in, Springing Forward. She mentions that there are no longer any real seasons in the American market. Everything that we purchased is now massed produced and genetically modified to appear as the produce we now have. Fruits and vegetables at a Grocery store are now uniformly the same color, shape, and taste (631). American consumers have become accustomed to this notion of uniformity, without realizing that what is purchased now is a “notion of a tomato, picked green, and ripened with ethylene gas,” as Robert Kenner expresses in the documentary, Food Inc. There is a common denial forged between what is known and what one chooses not to know about what is being consumed. In order to make an informed decision society must first be given the option by being provided with the right
In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he directly to Americans about the western diet and why he believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 420). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionist, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads.
In the prologue of his book Salt, Sugar, and Fat, Moss recounts a time when CEOs of processed food giants, including General Mills, Pillsbury, and others, gathered to address the issue that many medical experts were slamming processed food as very unhealthy. Moss uses his word choice to paint former General Mills CEO Stephen Sanger in a very bad light when he writes, “But most often, he said, people bought what they liked, and they liked what tasted good. ‘Don’t talk to me about nutrition,’ [Sanger] reportedly said, taking on the voice of the typical consumer. ‘Talk to me about taste, and if this stuff tastes better, don’t run around trying to sell stuff that doesn’t taste good.’ To react to the critics, Sanger said, would jeopardize the sanctity of the recipes that had made his products so successful.
Relevance between Food and Humans with Rhetorical Analysis In the modern industrial society, being aware of what the food we eat come from is an essential step of preventing the “national eating disorder”. In Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, he identifies the humans as omnivores who eat almost everything, which has been developed into a dominant part of mainstream unhealthiness, gradually causing the severe eating disorder consequences among people. Pollan offers his opinion that throughout the process of the natural history of foods, deciding “what should we have for dinner” can stir the anxiety for people based on considering foods’ quality, taste, price, nutrition, and so on.
The Foods and Drug Act of 1906 has tremendously impacted the health of Americans. The act ensures that there is uniformity among food and drug products. Requiring uniformity makes sure that
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.
In every store, it seems that almost all the food that sits on the shelves are processed. Despite their poor nutrition value, the food industry gives them eye-catching packaging, creates nostalgia and most of all they give them addictive flavors. Eric Schlosser, an investigative journalist from the Rolling Stone, wrote a two-part investigation on the fast-food industry in 1998 and later published the book Fast Food Nation in 2001. During this time, fast food and processed foods were becoming much more popular and the ingredients used in most of them were unknown to the public. In an excerpt from his book called “Meat and Potatoes,” he exposes the industry’s use of chemicals to make food more appealing to the consumer.
Because of the growing fast food industry, an abundance of these inexpensive meals containing empty calories, little fiber, and high amounts of fat are now easily accessible to adults and children. According to Fast Food Nation, “the rate of obesity among American adults is twice as high today as it was in the early 1960s. The rate of obesity among American children is twice as high as it was in the late 1970s” (240), and according to a nutritionist at the University of Colorado, James O. Hill, “we’ve got the fattest, least fit generation of kids ever” (240). A failed number of attempts to reduce the possibility of obesity in customers by introducing healthier dishes on their menus demonstrates how much the fast food industry has changed the way we live and eat.
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
Jessica Garcia-Alvarez Professor Fred Hess English 101 Section 23 Essay 2 First Draft 25 October 2015 Fast Foods Obesity is an increasing national crisis. The main cause is hiding in between the wrappers of those yummy and tasteful fast food meals that we cannot simply resist. Some corporations blame it on the one who is consuming the product and some try to make better choices to change them. However, others are ignoring the claims that the fast foods are unhealthy and refuse to change it to a healthier food product.
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.
Action must be taken by the food industry in order to start eliminating the problems that are causing the society to deteriorate. There are countless health issues within America that continue to grow due to the fact that the food industry is not regulating the food being provided and sole enough. Obesity and being overweight are one of the many social issues that can be linked back to the food industry. While it is true that there are cases of obesity and being overweight due to lack of exercise or genetics, it is primarily the food that cause people to gain excess weight. So many foods nowadays contain surplus amounts of calories, fats, and sugar which have a direct correlation to weight gain.
What is Processed Food? The term ‘processed food’ applies to any food that has been changed from its natural state in some way, either for safety reasons or convenience. Some foods need processing to make them safe, such as milk, which needs to be pasteurized to remove harmful bacteria. Other foods need processing to make them suitable for use, such as pressing seeds to make oil.
In a 1988 act, cigarette companies were required to put warning labels on their products. This proves that putting warning labels on fast food is certainly possible, the same needs to be done to all fast-foods so that all customers will be aware of the hazards of fast-food. Fast food warning labels will make it more convenient to know about your food; it will benefit companies; and finally, it will help reduce obesity, obesity-related illnesses, and medical costs. In Conclusion, it’s time for warning labels to be put on fast food
Title: FAST FOOD POPULARITY A. Introduction: Nowadays, most people -especially kids and youngsters- prefer to eat fast food, such as McDonald, pizza, fried food, and etc. Why it has become so popular? It is tastes better than homemade food? B. General Statement: Fast food industry has grown dramatically and become so popular. According to the research, people spend more money on fast food than the education.
According to Centres of Disease Control and Prevention more than one-third (34.9% or 76.6 million) of U.S adults are obese. In this fast moving world, may it be people from the corporate world or even students no one really have the time to wait to get their food done. So the only way is that they buy themselves fast food. However, awareness is being created these days about the effects of fast food people are also starting to blame fast food for increasing rate of obesity.