What You Eat is Your Business: Responsibility for One’s Food Choices

 Growing up, I struggled a lot with my food intake and dieting. I always got criticized by my family members by how much weight I had gained in an amount of time. This leads to shamefully blaming myself for not being careful with my choices. However, every time I try to change my eating habits, I always come across marketing ads through websites and social media apps promoting their latest cheeseburgers as it previous a video of the cheese gushing out of the burger, and how the patty is instantly dripping from its juices, then instantly I find myself in Burger King at 2 am. There’s no debate that Americans are notorious for unhealthy eating, many brand deals are paying their way to get social media influencers to promote their unhealthy trendy foods, ads about food are constantly popping up everywhere. This brings up the question of who is responsible for our bad eating habits? Although some authors such as Radley Balko believe that healthy eating means being more responsible for our food choices and not depend on the government to handle our healthy eating choices, I believe processed foods are not healthy for us and that it is the government's responsibility.

To begin, Radley Balko believes that healthy eating means being more responsible for our food choices and not depend on the government to handle our healthy eating choices. In his article “What You Eat Is Your Business” Balko emphasizes how important it is to have moral responsibilities with regards to choosing what you are going to fuel your body with. He insists that the government should never be the ones settling on the decisions for citizens and that individuals need to step up and take part of healthy eating for themselves. He thinks the best way to stop public obesity is to take matter into our own hands privately. He advocates that obesity should be removed from the realm of “public health” because what one chooses to eat should not be anyone else’s concern, and obesity only becomes a public matter. This also means that people would have to pay for their own medical needs in which he believes would force people to face problems and make them more responsible. He disagrees that the government should not have any type of involvement. He argues that “Instead of manipulating or intervening in the array of food options available to American consumers, our government ought to be working to foster a sense of responsibility in the ownership of our own health and well being” (Balko 652). What Radley Balko is attempting to state is, the government shouldn't attempt to change what nourishments are open to purchasers yet rather settle on shoppers liable for their decisions. According to Radley Balko, “The best way to alleviate the obesity ‘public health’ crisis is to remove obesity from the realm of public health”. In other words, Balko accepts stoutness wouldn't be such a major issue in general society on the off chance that we made it the individual issue that it is. Balko concludes by asserting that individual citizens would make healthier food choices if someone else was not paying for the consequences of those choices

Although some may agree with Balko’s argument that it is the individual’s choice whether or not they want to choose to be healthy. However, I disagree because many Americans have still complained that the government lacks a message to promote healthy eating and many are not blaming themselves for the issue. David Zinczenko describes his struggle as a kid growing up with a hard-working, busy mother, all he ate was fast food. It was always fast, cheap and easy. You would think that just because fast food is the cheapest way to go, it is ok to eat it all of the time, but it’s not. Author David Freedman explains the price differences between fast food and healthy foods. He describes how he had bought a low-calorie juice almost made entirely from green vegetables, that priced at $7. Whereas, a week later he had purchased a blueberry-pomegranate smoothie that costs only $3 from Mcdonalds. This goes to show that the pricing for real healthy juices and processed juices are completely unfair because real juices use whole vegetables/ fruits, whereas processed have many fats and unnecessary ingredients that give it an artificial taste. This leads to my argument about why the government is responsible for our lack of unhealthy eating.

I believe processed foods are not healthy for us and that it is the government's responsibility. Author David Freedman’s article “How Junk Food Can End Obesity” assets that making process food healthier will contribute to the battle against the obese phenomena. Freedman claims that with the right tools we are able to make processed foods much healthier while keeping the taste appealing. For example, in the reading, he states, “If the food industry is to quietly sell healthier products to its mainstream, mostly non health-conscious customers, it must find ways to deliver the eating experience that fat and problem carbs provide in foods that have fewer of those ingredients” (Freedman 700). He is stating that it is not whipping out the entire fast food industry rather than just making a health change by reducing fewer ingredients such as fats and carbs yet keeping the same ideal taste in the product. David Freedman criticizes Michael Pollan for his argument in support of unprocessed, local foods due to its impracticality. Freedman’s criticism is based on the idea that “It makes a lot more sense to look for small, beneficial changes in food than it does to hold out for big changes in what people eat that have no realistic chance of happening” (Freedman 710). He contends that processed foods already play a big part in our diets, so instead of trying to expand the wholesome food business, we should try to make processed foods healthier. In the article, “Escape the Western Diet” Michael Pollan claims that the fast-food industry is one of the main reasons why people struggle with their health. He believes that the processed food we consume gives us harmful diseases. Pollan urges us to listen to his words to avoid the western diet, he preaches that we should start eating healthier and to put more time and effort when it comes to buying food. Pollan provides us with his rules as well and claims that it will help us plot our way out of the western diet. He also informs us that when we intake we tend to overeat, thus it becomes a huge threat to our health. Michael Pollan says in his argument that the western diet is chiefly to blame for a majority of health diseases, he says “the scientist who blames our health problems on defiances of these micronutrients are not the same scientist who see sugar-soaked diet leading to metabolic syndrome and from there to diabetes, heart diseases, and cancer”. Due to all this negative impact to our health Pollan says that the food industry needs new theories to better redesign processed food and the medical community to make new drugs to get rid of diseases.

Not only does the government responsible for obesity, but social media also plays a big role as well. A social media influencer is essentially a celebrity who has acquired a lot of fame and nobility through the internet. The rise of social media has helped people increase their outreach to a global audience. Many social media influencers promotes many brand products and modeling, which all comes down to influencing their young audience into getting into certain habits to look like these internet celebrities. From the article, “Social Media 'Influencers' Can Get Kids Eating Junk Food” Amy Norton argues that “Experts said the findings point to the power of an insidious form of junk food marketing, in which companies pay social media influencers to feature their products.” This goes to show that many influencers don’t care when it comes to the consequences of promoting unhealthy eating habits to their young audience instead, they are blinded and only strive for the money. Before many celebrities would beg and pay for brand deals, but nowaday, brand deals come to these influencers to help promote their product. This makes influencers more motivated to get the paycheck rather than actually looking into the products they are promoting to their followers.

Individuals who suffer from obesity are not at their own fault. The government has yet to promote or continue promoting healthy eating in our country, which results in many citizens being overweight. The prices between processed foods versus real organic food proves to show that it makes it difficult to be consistent with healthy eating. Not only pricing but brand deals, ads in commercials and social media have promoted obesity, which exposes younger audiences to unhealthy eating habits.