Argument Paper Fast Food Essay

Zinczenko is saying that common sense would say it is personal responsibility to be an active eater and know what you are putting in your mouth. In discussions of fast-food obesity, one controversial issue has been the lack of the nutritional facts. On the one hand people should do research before they eat instead of blaming fast-food places. On the other hand the nutritional facts should be placed on the food itself. In my opinion, personal responsibility should be taken for what you eat because fast-food places are not forcing you to eat their food. For instance common sense says something that is dunked in grease and cooked in five minutes cannot be good for you. Becoming obese from fast-food is the result of no self-control. Grease in itself contains many calories and causes many problems with blood pressure, cholesterol and type two diabetes. Zinczenko states, â€Å"Today According to the National Institutes of Health, type 2 diabetes accounts for at least 30 percent of all new childhood cases of diabetes on this country† (Zinczenko 154). Type 2 diabetes is obesity related and a serious disease. Poulin 2 Common sense tells you eating two meals a day, in a fast-food restaurant, will cause you to gain weight. This unhealthy weight gain tells people that there is a problem to the way they are eating and it is not the washer shrinking their jeans. Instead of walking into McDonalds kids can walk into Subway and try a sandwich that is healthier and cost about the same as the huge meals they can get at McDonalds. There are healthier alternatives that re just as fast and taste as good as burger joints. Although I grant that many people might say there is no way of knowing how many calories are in fast-food meal has because of the lack of nutritional labels, labels are readily available on fast-food websites. The labels would not change the fact that it is personal responsibility to know that something that has been smothered in grease has no nutritional value. On the one hand, I agree with people that labels should be put on fast-food explaining what is in the food. But on the other hand, I still insist that people should do the research if labels are the main concern of nutritional values. Just because people have labels explaining the fat content does not mean they will stop eating the food. This is where personal responsibility needs to come into play. When people find out what really is in the food and the content of fat people need to be active and make the right decision to not add fast-food into their daily diets. Self-control is a huge factor here and people need to take charge, putting themselves in charge of a healthy lifestyle. In the end it is only the consumer who can control what they consume not the companies and blame cannot be put on that one party. Proponents of fast-food restaurants causing obesity are right to argue that the food causes you to gain weight when you eat it regularly, it is cheap, it is easily accessible, and it is catered to children. But they exaggerate when they claim that fast-food is the number one reason for child obesity in the United States. Poulin 3 You can argue that children who sit in front of video games and computers all day long are a huge contributing factor to the obesity rate. Their lack of activity can cause pounds to pile on and that has nothing to do with McDonalds Fast-food. For instance fast-food has always made me feel sick to my stomach. My common sense would tell me that as good as it does taste my body does not like fast-food. When I was younger I gained a lot of weight because I would eat at McDonalds every chance I got. I was unaware that I could be making better choices and choose not to eat it. Kids today are uneducated on how to make healthier choices and live healthier lives with the influences of fast-food. Zinczenko states, â€Å"But most of the teenagers who live, as I once did, on a fast-food diet won’t turn their lives around: They’ve crossed under the golden arches to a likely fate of lifetime obesity† (Zinczenko 154). If the country believes that fast-food is the cause of childhood obesity then why do we still continue to eat it? People need to realize labels are not put on the food because if people really knew what was in the food they would not continue to eat it. Again that is where common sense should tell you that you should not eat fast-food. Although at a first glance People, including young and old, might say that fast-food is the cause of being obese. But on a closer inspection it is really the individuals fault. For example people are so quick to blame fast-food restaurants for making them obese that they jump right to suing the corporation, but are they actually doing something about the obesity. Zinczenko mentions in his article how one meal can contain â€Å"up around 1,040 calories which is half of the government’s recommended daily calorie intake. And that doesn’t take into account the 450-calorie super-size Coke† (Zinczenko 155). The calorie intake should tell anyone that eating this way and especially eating this way twice a day is extremely unhealthy and fattening. People need Poulin 4 to speak up and demand labels. Zinczenko says, â€Å"They would do well to protect themselves, and their customers, by providing the nutrition information people need to make informed choices about their products. Without such warnings, we’ll see more sick, obese children and angrier, litigious parents† (Zinczenko 155). Parents need to be more active in their children’s lives and teach them about healthy life styles that way in the future generations can be much healthier. In conclusion people need to take personal responsibility for their own weight and stop forcing the blame on fast-food corporations. Common sense should tell you that greasy food is not good for you and that it has no nutritional value. Many people can say that labels are the cause of obesity because they are uniformed about what they are eating. Labels are readily available at any fast-food chain and on their websites. People need to speak up and come up with a solution to this issue rather than be part of the problem. Common sense also says that if it is cooked in grease it is a good chance it is covered in fat. People are responsible for their own lives and they need to stop blaming others for their short comings. Ultimately what is at stake here is a healthier generation.