Shelby Ray
M. Tetterton
Engl 1200
29 April 2011
Don’t Blame the Eater?
One of the more controversial topics in today’s society is the issue of obesity in America and the factors that contribute to its progression. In a recent article on the website webmd.com, some staggering statistics were revealed. In a study consisting of “phone interviews with 673,000 adults done in January2008 to December 2009”, “63.1% of adults in America were either overweight or obese” (Hendrick, Percentage of Overweight, Obese Americans Swell). As the study went on, more research found that “52.9% of obese Americans exercised at least one day per week, compared to 69.9% of overweight people, and 73.8% of normal-weight people” (Hendrick, Percentage of Overweight, Obese Americans Swell). Also, according to Jayashra Pahakare of buzzle.com, statistics show that “obese children, especially in their teenage years, have a 70% chance of being obese as adults” (Pakhare, Childhood Obesity Statistics and Facts). This disease called obesity is not only a “concern [of] the C.D.C (Centers for Disease Control) in America and the W.H.O (World Health Organization)” (Pakhare, Childhood Obesity Statistics and Facts), but to the general public as well. In his article Don’t Blame the Eater, David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health Magazine, writes about how fast-food corporations are the solitary contributors to childhood obese and that consummation of their products should be regulated by the government; comparing this industry to tobacco corporations. Although Zinczenko makes substantial points on the issue, he fails to mention the other contributing factors to the issue and other alternatives to fast-food; he just plays the blame game and pointing fingers solely towards fast-food. In collaboration with his statements on the issue, Zinczenko is stating that society is in a generally poor financial state, driving them to force unhealthy fast foods options on their children; therefore implying that this is the single factor contributing to obesity and there are no other alternative sources of nourishment.
In Zinczenko’s article, he recaps his childhood, saying that he can “sympathize with [the] portly fast-food patrons” (Zinczenko, pg. 153). He describes his past by telling the reader that when his parents divorced in the mid-1980s, they were too busy reconstructing their own lives to concentrate on a healthy diet for him. He continues by saying that “lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut” (Zinczenko, pg. 153). By telling us about his childhood, Zinczenko groups all lower-class families in the same category; he is saying that all families with this financial status and martial situation share his childhood circumstances. This brings to his point, that, for lower income families, these are the only options for nourishment; grease-drenched, unhealthy fast-food. However valid Zinczenko’s accusation may be, it is refutable because he states it in a biased tone. His beliefs stem from his own experiences. When this is done, other people’s situations and circumstances are thrown out of consideration and his own are seen as the norm, which may not be the case for every lower-class American family.
With this statement, Zinczenko is claiming that the American family is in a financial shamble; therefore the country can only feed off of unhealthy fast-food. He expresses this view by raising the question, “But where, exactly, are consumers -particularly teenagers- supposed to find alternatives?” (Zinczenko, pg. 154). This opinionated statement insinuates that there are no other options for families in the lower-class. I disagree with Zinczenko’s view because, as recent research reveals, there are more economically friendly, healthy alternatives for the family on a restricted budget. In her 2009 article on How to Eat Healthy on a Budget, Kristi A. Dyer writes about how and where you can find healthy alternatives to fast-food. Throughout, she lists several different instructions on topics about how to live a healthy, affordable lifestyle. One of these lists talks about how to stretch what she calls “Food Dollars” (Dyer, How to Eat Healthy on a Budget). A few of her tips include ideas such as “making things from scratch", "clipping coupons,” and “making your own microwavable television dinners” (Dyer, How to Eat Healthy on a Budget). She continues by describing each tip and giving a detailed description on how to do them effectively. For example, she explains how to make the homemade television dinners; you “fix double meat and freeze the extra for leftover” to use the next day or later on in the week (Dyer, How to Eat Healthy on a Budget). This provides a healthy, low-cost alternative to profiting fast-food corporations such as McDonald’s and Burger King “who spend $1 billion each year on just advertising” alone (Dyer, How to Eat Healthy on a Budget).
Another option for this lifestyle is to buy food in bulk. In an article from simplemom.net, it lists buying in bulk as one of “11 Tips For Eating Healthy On a Budget”. In the section on buying in bulk, it states that “You can choose the amount that works for your family, and bulk sections give a lower price per quantity ratio while saving on packaging” (11 Tips For Eating Healthy On a Budget). On a weekly bases, my family goes to Sam’s Club and stock up on different items such as fruit, cereal, and meat. Our goal is to live a healthy lifestyle without burning a hole in our wallets by avoiding high-priced whole foods stores and buying in bulk instead. So far, we have been quite successful in both health and financial wise. This is one of the most cost efficient methods to staying healthy and happy.
Zinczenko’s point proposes another contradiction. By focusing on just that one aspect of the issue, he overlooks other contributing factors of obesity in children. According to recent research, forty-two percent of Americans own some type of gaming console; fifty-two percent own a laptop computer, and fifty-nine percent own a desktop computer (Gadget Ownership, 2010). With the popularity of these items growing, children and young adults are not exercising as much as before. I can remember when I was a young child wanting to go outside and play tag or ride my bike around the neighborhood with my friends after school; staying inside and playing video games never seem to ever be an option. With a consistent workout routine, makes one not only want to eat healthier, but it also keeps one active, making it become a constant and seemingly effortless feat to practice. However, a lack this staple, along with an unhealthy diet of greasy, artery-clogging fast-food, can lead to health problems such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and, the hot topic of the hour, obesity.
Also, once again, this also goes back to the author’s history with this issue. During the description of his childhood, he never mentions ever having a consistent exercise until he joined the Navy Reserves after college. This leads the analytical reader to assume that his parents never made this a priority for the young Zinczenko, making him not consider it as an option; resorting to a fast-food only diet. Seeing as there are multiple, inexpensive methods of exercising, he could have easily kept a healthy weight and been physically active despite his financial situation.
The other factor to a healthy lifestyle, to have a healthy diet, is also just as important as an exercise routine. If the only thing being put into the body is fast-food, key vitamins and minerals that are essential for optimum growth and health are going to be in low supply. On the website fastfoodnews.info, bloggers write different blogs about the fast food industry and the healthy options, or in some cases, the lack there of. In one blog, a blogger named Ken wrote about how the sub sandwich restaurant Quizno’s finally posted their nutritional guide on their website. He went through a lot of the items on the menu and was shocked, as was I, at how many calories each one had. He posted several examples in the blog with the number of calories and grams of fat in each. The one item that was the most shocking was the large Veggie Sub. It contained 1,220 calories and 75 grams of fat (Quizno’s Nutritional Information…Finally). The one item that a health conscience person would go to for solace from the other high calorie choices available turned out to be an aggravation. So, as stated before, in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, one should keep to a regular exercise routine, and stay clear from fast-food altogether and stick to the alternatives mentioned in Dyer’s article of eating healthy on a budget.
Zinczenko’s purposes in writing his article Don’t Blame the Eater was to persuade and announce to the audience that the fast-food industry should be regulate by the government due to the fact that it causes obesity in the children of America, becoming factors of “swelling health care costs”. To accomplish this, Zinczenko goes through a process that extends throughout the entire article. Firstly, he tells the audience about his childhood, focusing on his unhealthy eating habits as a child and into adolescence. He blames it on his parents’ divorce, causing them to fall into the lower-class category. Then, he goes on to talk about certain statistics about childhood obesity and its health and financial concerns. This is where he mentions how health care costs have risen from “$2.6 billion…in 1969” to now a whopping “$100 billion” (Zinczenko, pg 154). By mentioning this fact, he starts planting the seed in the reader’s mind; making them think, “Wow, that is a big difference in health care cost from 1969 to the present. Maybe fast-food corporations are the cause of it all.” As the article continues, he raises the question, “Shouldn’t we know better than to eat two meals a day in fast-food?” (Zinczenko, pg. 154) Later on in the same sentence, Zinczenko insinuates that we do not “know any better”, as he says. He goes on by saying that American streets are cluttered with fast-food chains and are lacking in places with healthy alternatives.
However, Zinczenko does point out a very interesting fact about how the fast-food industry is slowly, but surely becoming one of the highest grossing markets in America. According to research done by those with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, they concluded that “over 25 percent of Americans eat fast-food every day” (Foundation). They also found out that “there are more than 500,000 fast-food chains” in the world and that “ninety-six percent of kids in school [can] recognize an image of Ronald McDonald” (Foundation). These scary and somewhat humorous facts not only coincide with the author’s thesis, but it shows just how important the fast-food industry is to our staggering economy, seeing as “Americans spend nearly $100 billion on fast food every year” (Foundation).
Another tactic that the author uses is bringing attention to fast-food restaurants’ lack of nutritional information for consumers. He states in Don’t Blame the Eater multiple times on this issue, saying that “Complicating the lack of alternatives is the lack of information about what, exactly, we’re consuming” (Zinczenko, pg. 154). He gives examples in everyday situations such as advertisements and prepared foods. Zinczenko goes on to state an opinion that is refutable. He says that “fast-food companies are marketing to children a product with proven health hazards and no warning labels” (Zinczenko, pg. 155). Since obesity has become such a never-ending problem throughout the United States, most restaurants are now required to put up nutrition guides either on their websites or in the stores. Zinczenko’s article was written in 2002, making his opinion skewed and inaccurate due to the time difference.
Although this entire article is just his own opinion, Zinczenko makes it seem irrefutable by backing up his opinion with facts that are common knowledge and can be grounded; this is not the first time the topic has come up in conversation. He is convincing and persuasive because he points out facts that the reader can detect for themselves in everyday life. Anyone can drive down the main street of their hometown and see that Zinczenko’s hypothesis is accurate. By pointing out these obvious facts to his audience, he has the power to persuade them to think the way he has ethos on the subject; to make them see his point of view and make it into their own.
All throughout Zinczenko’s article Don’t Blame the Eater, he describes in great detail his thesis; that the fast-food industry is the cause of obesity in children. However, at the end of the article, he seems to throw in another part of his thesis that he left out in the beginning. He states that fast-food should be regulated by the government, comparing it to tobacco. He says that “ As with the tobacco industry, it may be a matter of time before state governments begin to see a direct line between the $1 billion that McDonald’s and Burger King spend each year on advertising and their own swelling health care costs” (Zinczenko, Don’t Blame the Eater). With just this statement to back up this part of his thesis, it makes it very weak and unbelievable; making the reader confused on the purpose of the article.
With all this in mind, one can come to the conclusion that we really should not be pointing our round, constantly hunger fingers at the profitable and ever-growing fast-food industry, but, respectfully, back at ourselves; for we are to blame for the obesity of our own children. We seem to continuously ignore the facts and suggestions from research, saying that “We can’t afford it,” or, as Zinczenko puts it “Where, exactly, are [we] supposed to find alternatives?” (Zinczenko, Don’t Blame the Eater) Clearly, the alternatives are right within reach. The challenge that we, as Americans, seem wary to take on is to actually stretch out our idle, unmotivated arms and take hold of a healthy, full life that can make us a more fulfilled, enriched nation instead of one that is known for its “13,000 McDonald’s restaurants” (Zinczenko, Don’t Blame the Eater).
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