When the subject of fast food comes up, most people can agree that it is not the most efficient source of nutrition. Fast food is unhealthy and can be the cause of many serious health issues found in today's teens and adolescents. In the article “Don’t Blame the Eater” written by David Zinczenko, he argues that fast food chains fill the void in children's lives left by their exhausted, overworking parents. Many teens choose unhealthy eating choices because they are left alone for meals, fast food restaurants are easily accessible, and many teens are unaware of what they are consuming.
The article “Don’t Blame the Eater” was written by David Zinczenko and was first published in The New York Times on November 23, 2002. In this article Zinczenko focuses on the fast food industry and their role in the rapidly increasing obesity and health issues commonly found in children and teens in America. He illustrates in the article that fast food is too easily accessible for Americans. Zinczenko argues that fast food is much more accessible than healthy alternatives, and we should not blame the consumers for being overweight, and unhealthy.
Because many parents are off at work providing for their families, this leaves most teens on their own when it comes to eating. Zinczenko himself writes, “My parents were split up, my dad
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He goes on to say that the number of healthy, nutritional food business is reducing rapidly. Zinczenko states, “Drive down and thoroughfare in America, and I guarantee you’ll see one of our country's more than 13,000 McDonald’s restaurantes. Now, drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit.” (Zinczenko 392). This quote reveals that finding healthy, nutritional food can be a difficult task. With fast food restaurants around nearly every corner, it can be a hard task to find a healthy, nutritional alternative to fast
In the article “Don’t Blame the Eater”, author David Zinczenko, the editor -in-chief of Men’s Health magazine comments on the lawsuit against McDonald’s which is initiated by the overweight children’s parents. He claims that fast-food industry should accept full responsibility for a serious public problem: leading American kids to obesity. Zinczenko supports his claim with his personal experience to show how the fast-food chains marketing on them with low price. He also said it is not easy for those obese kids to turn their lives back. He believes this should be considered as a public health problem because their obesity causes the society huge public health losses. Zinczenko insists that if fast-food industry doesn’t take actions quickly, it is only a matter of time for them to become the next tobacco industry.
In the essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater”, David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine, discusses the recent lawsuits against fast-food chains. He does not deny that there should be a sense of personal responsibility among the public, but has sympathy for the kid consumers because he used to be one. Zinczenko argues that due to the lack of nutritional facts and health warnings, it’s not so ridiculous to blame the fast-food industry for obesity problems.
Don’t blame the eater by David Zinczenko is an essay that talks about the obesity crisis in America with the youth. David argues that childhood obesity is mainly caused by the easy access to fast no healthy foods. This essay is an effective argument because he reflects back o0n his own personal experience, sites information from health institutes and breaks down the calories from an unknown fast food restaurants healthier options
However, it is important to remember that this essay was written in 2002; today, many fast-food restaurants have a variety of salads, and they serve fruit, juices, and milk on their children’s meals now. However, I do agree with what Zinczenko is calling for: fast-food restaurants need to display the nutritional values of their food. Like the warnings on tobacco and alcoholic items, fast-food nutritional information can be there to warn consumers about what they are about put into their
Although Zinczenko was able to turn his life around he states, “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” (463). Adding details from his own life give him more credibility in the sense that he has firsthand experience on the
In his essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater”, David Zinczenko brings forward his points about how the American fast food system needs to have a change or there will be serious consequences for the future of American children. Zinczenko presents an argument largely based on facts from sources such as the Center for Disease Control and the actual websites from these fast food chains to bring to light what is going on with the state of American health and how it relates to fast food companies. In one paragraph he breaks down a salad from a prominent fast food chain. He lists the calories that the website lists, (150 food calories) then goes on and show that a normal person eating that salad would most likely consume around 1,040 calories (Zinczenko
In today’s society a huge issue is that we constantly hear about the food industry in America. We often hear in the news that obesity rates have increased, or that Americans have many diseases that contribute to being obese. “What You Eat is Your Business” by Radley Balko expresses that people are at fault for making such unhealthy food choices. Others argue that the food industry is to blame for being so unhealthy. According to David Zinczenko in “Don’t Blame the Eater” he blames the fast food industry as well as the consumer. Zinczenko asks “shouldn’t we know better than to eat two meals a day in fast food restaurant’s?” (392). So, who is to blame for American’s eating so much unhealthy food? Should it be the consumers’ burden or the fast food companies? On one hand, as consumers we continue to purchase foods that we know are making us overweight. On the other hand, fast food companies continue to offer high in calories foods.
In David Zinczenko’s article “Don’t Blame the Eater” he focuses on the fast food industry and their role in the increasing health and obesity issues of our nation’s children, as well as these issues potentially becoming a serious problem that we will all have to deal with if we collectively don’t do something about it now. When it comes to the topic of fast food, most of us can agree that it is not the best source of nutrition. It is unhealthy and can be the cause of many serious health issues with our children such as obesity related Type 2 diabetes, stomach ulcers and even heart disease, high cholesterol, sleep apnea or even cancer. We can even agree that fast-food diets are a major contributing factor to
Is Greed actually not of a financial use rather than a emotional use. If so would employees who work at fast-food establishments or even major corporate heads of these billion dollar fast-food chains allow their own children to indulge themselves in them, knowingly aware of the vast risks they could embark on later in life due to their unhealthy choices? David Zinczenko brings up valid points on how fast-food is harmful to one’s body in “Don’t Blame the Eater,”. Zinczenko is able to effectively argue against the manipulation of the food industry by showing the reader that the consumer is the victim while the food industry is the one to blame. His use of questioning, personal appeals, imagery, direct tone and colorful diction results in a compelling case that supports his accusations of manipulation by the fast food industry.
As the obesity rate in America increases, people are pointing fingers at the fast-food industry. Teenagers, with the help of their parents, have filed lawsuits blaming fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s for their own health problems. However, parents, not the fast-food companies, are to blame for the amount of overweight children that are present today. They are the ones who teach their children eating and exercising habits, they are the ones who let their young consume unhealthy foods, they are the ones who allow their children to watch television and play on the computer for hours on end, it is obviously the parents fault for obesity in youth.
He claims that the prevalence of fast food and the lack of healthier food alternatives is causing an epidemic of teenage obesity in America. In his essay “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko notes “Drive down any thoroughfare in America, ... you’ll see one of our country’s more than 13,000 McDonald’s restaurants. Now drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit” (463). Zinczenko argues that there are no inexpensive and convenient alternatives to fast-food restaurants for teenagers. Especially for teenagers, unhealthy and fattening fast food
Fast-food industries may try to “target children in their ads”, but it ultimately comes down to the adults-the parents- choosing to dine at these places and pork up their kids on the high-sugar sodas, salty French fries, and greasy burgers. If they would just take the time to look out the window, they would see the healthy alternatives to fast-food, and how the alternatives are literally right in front of
The article “Don't Blame The Eater,” written by David Zinczenko evokes readers the crucial impact that fast food restaurants have in today's nation's youth causing them to be over weight and have type 2ndiabetes. Throughout Zinczenko's argument he makes the reader view the consumer as a victim yet on the other hand, what he is trying to persuade us to believe by using logos,pathos,and ethos in his argument is that the food industry is the one making the nation's youth to increase obesity. The capacity of impressive questions and personal experience, he composed in the text he is able to comprehensively argue against the fast food industry. The author persuades us right away by starting of with a question: “Kids taking on McDonald's this
Zinczenko’s rhetorical comments on the fast food industry are spaced throughout his piece. Zinczenko also states that alternative options are hard to find when fast food is readily available. “Drive down any thoroughfare in America, and I guarantee you’ll see one of our country’s more than 13,000 McDonald’s restaurants. Now, drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit” (Zinczenko 463). This strong statement proves Zinczenko’s irritated tone throughout his piece. Zinczenko’s stand that the fast food industry is responsible for obesity.
Obesity has become an epidemic in today’s society. Today around 50% of America is now considered to be over weight. Fast-food consumption has been a major contributor to the debate of the twenty-first century. Chapter thirteen, titled “Is Fast-Food the New Tobacco,” in the They Say I Say book, consists of authors discussing the debate of fast-food’s link to obesity. Authors debate the government’s effects on the fast-food industry, along with whether or not the fast-food industry is to blame for the rise in obesity throughout America. While some people blame the fast food industry for the rise in obesity, others believe it is a matter of personal responsibility to watch what someone eats and make sure they get the proper exercise.