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Chris Huckabay
Professor Watkins
Comp II MWF 11:30
27 February 2017
Companies or the Worlds People: Whos to Blame?

Have you ever wondered whose fault it is that the world is becoming more obese than it

was? The people in this world have put the blame on the companies for the advertising to be too

good. Which doesnt make sense to me, how can advertising be too good? I understand that it

will look good and make you want to eat that food but are they forcing you to eat it? Others can

say that this unhealthy food is cheaper and better. But is it better than spending a couple extra

dollars to get something that is healthy? Everyone can blame obesity on healthy food costing too

much, but it is the amount of food that people eat , how they reflect onto their children, and how

rush a meal.

The amount of food that we choose to eat isnt the companies fault, we can all think on

our own and see when too much is too much. If you eat so much that your stomach is starting to

hurt, you know you need to quit eating and pack the rest up for left overs. Some people have

reason to believe that because America is known for being mostly white or so what people think.

To come to the surprise of many whites arent the most obese race in America on average. In this

article, Carrol and Fernstrom say Sturm reviewed the all the available research for a study

published in CA: Cancer Journal for Clinicians and concluded that everyone, regardless of

race, ethnicity or socio-economic status, is gaining weight at about the same rate. His graphs

clearly show parallel tracks of increasing flab among all groups (Carrol et al). In his graphs, it

shows that African American and Hispanic women have a bigger body mass index than white

women. This honestly surprised me I figured living in America my whole life that the whites
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were the most obese race. Even with food this day being so cheap, that doesnt stop us from

buying it in bulk it might even make it more liable so we think. Debra Levey Larson told us in

her article that even with the healthy food out there it doesnt help anything. She says This

leads to one question: Why arent those policies working? Why arent consumers responding to

increased soda prices or calorie information on the menus? (Larson). Well I think people dont

pay attention the rise in drinks as much as they should they just believe that it is just inflation. I

can see where they are coming from if they think it is inflation, a lot of prices on everyday

things have sky rocketed since I was in middle school. Some say that you can eat whatever

food you want and still be in shape. Kate Bratskeir had a lot to say about this topic and it was

an interesting read. In her third paragraph, she explains that for 95 percent of Americans, there

is no relationship between how much junk they eat and their weight (Bratskeir). This means that

the people have been brain washed in a certain way to think that the food you eat makes you

bigger. It just means your weight depends on the amount of food you eat.

Childhood obesity is a problem that has been rising for a few years now. In a YouTube

video, I have watched it explains a kid named Luke go from being obese to being in shape. Jim

Morelli tells us Not many months ago, this teen was a physical and emotional basket case

(CNN YouTube). This proves that even if you are a victim of childhood obesity that you can

change your ways and get into shape and fulfil your dreams. Without stories like these some kids

would still not be motivated to work out and lose weight. Parents are also a factor in childhood

obesity, kids always take after what they eat based on what their parents eat. Schwartz and Puhl

proclaim that kids love shouldnt be bought saying Advertisements send the message that giving

a child sweets makes childhood that much sweeter or shows the child how much you love

her (Schwartz et al). Just buying your kids candy to either reward them or just to have isnt
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good for them and you should rethink on some of the items that you are buying. If you just buy

junk food and eat that all of the time your kids will assume that it is safe to do that and we need

to not put that in our youth of the worlds head.

With the youth of the world in mind why do we rush meals like their brains rush around

and think of all sorts of different things? If you end up rushing a meal you just buy the first

things you see on the shelves in a grocery store. Jacques Peretti states in his article So what you

see when you walk into a supermarket in 2013 is the entire 360 degrees of obesity in a single

glance. The whole panorama of fattening you up and slimming you down, owned by

conglomerates which have analyzed every angle and money-making opportunity (Peretti). He

speaks the truth it is only the bad things when you walk into a super market there are no healthy

items in the front of the store. Food places arent just called fast food because it take virtually no

time to go through a drive thru. With all of the fast food types of places even some foods in a

grocery store can be considered fast food. Bootie Cosgrove-Mather says in this article that It's

not the industry's fault that people don't get exercise, or that schools have cut physical education,

or that people prefer the taste of Twinkies (500 million sold a year) to tofu (much less)

(Cosgrove-Mather). If the schools these days wouldnt cut P.E out then maybe these kids would

be losing weight and not being so heavy.

The only people we can blame for our poor diets lack of working out and fast meals are

ourselves. For us humans we need to keep in mind how much food we eat when we have a meal.

We also need to make sure our youth of the world stay at least somewhat healthy so the future of

the world will still be like it is now with amazing athletes. Lastly dont rush your meals that is

just a good way to forget about what youre eating. If we all just stand up against fast food and
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how much they serve us we will make the world a healthier choice. Parents, we need to show our

kids that eating healthy or less can be a good thing.

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Works Cited

Bratskeir, Kate. Turns Out Fast Food, Soda And Candy Are Not To Blame For Obesity. The

Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 9 Nov. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fast-

food-and-soda-obesity-not-the-culprit_us_563cf83fe4b0411d3070e9d3. Accessed 26 Feb. 2017.

Carroll, Linda, and Madelyn Fernstrom. Cheap Food Blamed for America's Obesity

Crisis.NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 22 May 2014,

www.nbcnews.com/health/diet-fitness/cheap-food-blamed-americas-obesity-crisis-

n112141. Accessed 19 Feb. 2017.

Childhood Overweight. Childhood Overweight - The Obesity Society, The Obesity Society,

May 2014, www.obesity.org/resources/facts-about-obesity/childhood-overweight.

Accessed 21 Feb. 2017.

CNN. Childhood Obesity. YouTube, YouTube, 4 Aug. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?

v=h2ku2Ws_Zzo. Accessed 19 Feb. 2017.

Cosgrove-Mather, Bootie. The Blame Game And Obesity In America. CBS News, CBS

Interactive, 20 Mar. 2006, www.cbsnews.com/news/the-blame-game-and-obesity-in-

america/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2017.

my paper. I t gives me plenty of information about companies and peoples life choices.

Larson, Debra Levey. Who's to Blame for Obesity? Policy Makers, the Food Industry, or Individuals?

| ACES News :: College of ACES, University of Illinois, College of ACES, 22 Jan. 2014,
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news.aces.illinois.edu/news/who%E2%80%99s-blame-obesity-policy-makers-food-industry-or-

individuals. Accessed 24 Feb. 2017.

Peretti, Jacques. Fat Profits: How the Food Industry Cashed in on Obesity. The Guardian,

Guardian News and Media, 7 Aug. 2013,

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/aug/07/fat-profits-food-industry-obesity.

Accessed 24 Feb. 2017.

Schwartz, M. B., and R. Puhl. Childhood Obesity: a Societal Problem to Solve. Obesity

Reviews, vol. 4, no. 1, 7 Feb. 2003, pp. 5771. Wiley Online Library, doi:10.1046/j.1467-

789x.2003.00093.x. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.