Processed foods have almost completely taken over all of our grocery stores. It seems like everything you put into your shopping cart is processed and/or made with artificial ingredients. There are about 10,000 new processed foods products in the US every year (Schlosser). Processed foods have also taken the media by storm. You can’t watch tv, look at facebook, or even read the newspaper without seeing an ad for processed foods or telling us that they are bad for you. David H. Freedman tells us, “An enormous amount of media space has been dedicated to promoting the notion that all processed food, and only processed food is making us sickly and overweight.”(Freedman 70) Even fast food restaurants have joined the processed food bandwagon by switching their freshly made fries to frozen fries to cut costs and make production faster (Schlosser). Is it a coincidence that the prevalence of obesity started to increase as more processed foods hit the shelves? 85% of adults are predicted to be overweight by the year 2030 (Schulte 2). But is obesity really related to processed foods? We often hear in the media that all processed foods are the cause of obesity or they are “slowly killing America”, but is that the whole story? Cara Rosenbloom wrote an article for The Washington Post saying that not all processed foods are bad for you and some ways of preserving foods are quite smart (Rosenbloom 2). She goes on to tell us that frozen products retain more vitamins. According to Judith C.
They say that in modern society, living without processed foods is not possible, as most of the mass produced foods cannot be made at home. [The quality of whole foods vary depending on a number of factors. Therefore, instead of looking at all processed foods as bad, Vega and McClements suggest sorting through the processed foods, as processing techniques vary and can affect the healthiness of the product. Obesity that is related to processed food is what the authors claim to be the effect of overeating. Any food that is eaten in excess is bad for the diet. Advances in food technology have been made to make more nutritious and healthier processed foods, which is seen in the increased life span seen in Western
Around 160,000 fast food franchises have been opened all over America. America is the most obese country in this world. Healthy food is supplement rich, yet fast food has a tendency to be poor in nutrients and high in calories. Know that fast food can satisfy our day by day calories requirements; not only it gives us calories, but it also harms our health with other ingredients. For instance, fast food is high in soaked fats and trans fats. In addition, it has additives, chemicals, and artificial flavors. Fast food impacts our health and causes infections, for example, heart disease, diabetes, high blood sugar and high blood pressure. On the other hand, healthy food provides the best nutrients and protects our body from sickness, since it contains vitamins, proteins, and minerals. Fast food is addictive and unhealthy. (Obesity in America) (Chronic
1. David Freedman sets out to disprove that processed foods are inherently bad for you; counter arguing what Michael Pollan advocates. Freedman’s set out to prove to the readers that the praise wholesome, organic food receives, and the bashing that processed junk food receives, might not be entirely true. The author argues against Michael Pollan’s opinion on processed food. To do this, he uses a combination of his personal experiences, including in both Whole Foods and Trader Joe, and date he has derived from his experiences in said stores.
The author explains, that growing number of overweight and obese are the result of processed foods and lack of nutritional information serve in the restaurant.
The documentary “Fed Up” provides some important and disturbing details of the food industry. The 1977 heart disease and diet study known as the McGovern Report warned that the obesity rate was increasing rapidly due to American diets in fatty meats, saturated fats, cholesterol, and sugar. The food industry vehemently denied these claims, but the American people still demanded lower fat food products. The food manufacturers found that the fat removal made the food bland and unpalatable so to address this they replaced the fat content with sugar. Both the documentary and the Harvard Nutrition Source discuss the role sugar has in health conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. They both link the consumption of sugar as the causality for
Considering what processed foods are, we see that they are foods that have been made chemically from refined ingredients and artificial substances. They are filled with added sugar which is very detrimental to the health and mind soundness. Processed foods are chemically made to make us want more. They in fact leave a good feeling every time we have
In the article of How Junk Food Can End Obesity, David Freedman, the contributor editor at the Atlantic and Inc. Magazines, lays out a “they say” that then frames his argument. He states that making processed food healthier can contribute to the battle of the obese in our society. Freedman also says that the food these companies are cooking are making people sick and how it is destructive to an individual’s health. For instance, in the reading, Freedman states a quote from Michael Pollan, a journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley, “It is one of the reasons that we have the obesity and diabetes epidemics that we do… If you’re going to let industries decide how much salt, sugar and fat is in your food, they’re going to put in as much as they possibly can… They will push those buttons until we scream or die.” In other words, Pollan believes that we constantly let people put all of these things in our foods but no one is stopping it.
Behind all the corn, the processing, and the food that results, is the man in charge: food corporations. Because of food corporations greed for money, processed foods have escalated out of control, causing a serious health epidemic: obesity. Michael Pollan, also author
Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and a recent documentary Food, Inc. reveal how the modern day food system actually works. We then come to realize that obesity isn’t caused by laziness; it is caused by the modernization of our country (How Michael Pollan Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos). In Food, Inc., a farmer states “If we put glass walls on all the mega food systems, we would have a different food system.” In other words, consumers have really no idea how their food is produced or even what goes in their everyday meals. This transformation has altered how we produce and distribute food, which has affected the fundamental health of both people and the planet we live on. Stereotypically, obesity is affected to those who exercise less and eat more. However, it is a struggle to define obesity because it is more than that. Obesity is a “disease which is caused by the modernization of the food industry (How Michael Pollan Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos). In the new food industry, cooking is not required. Today, frozen and canned foods make it easy to have a quick dinner. However, many people forget that these canned and frozen foods have an extremely high amount of preservatives, fats, sugars, and sodium (How Michael Pollan Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos). The modernization also allows for longer periods of “TV watching, longer drives to and from work, supermarket product placement… and even clothing designers
In America today one in three adults are considered to be obese. Over the years the rate of obesity keeps climbing up and up. Some people blame fast-food or the environment Americans live in. After all,someone can purchase a chocolate bar at a bookstore nowadays. But, most people are looking at the incorrect factor to blame. Although the food industry is a huge contribution to obesity in America, people are ultimately responsible for their own health.
New innovations in the food industry also play a role in the increase of obesity. The creation and popularity of processed foods, genetically modified organisms, pesticides, and dangerous chemicals and toxins like fructose corn syrup have a detrimental effect on human health. People in the United States spent 6 billion dollars every year on fast food in the 1970s. However, this number dramatically increased in the year 2000 when the amount spent annually on fast food jumped to 110 billion dollars (Wile, Elise). Tons of money is also spent on enticing fast food advertisements, which draws many people in.
Putting our health into the hands of agribusiness and food corporations is one of many reasons our nation’s health is depleting and losing a battle against obesity. Food corporations target the poor, the time constricted, and the uneducated as a way to sell their product. All of these limitations are related to one another in some form or fashion. A high school dropout, making 19,000 dollars a year, who is a mother, has a higher probability of being obese than a woman the same age who is attending college. Convenience started with the introduction of Swanson’s T.V. dinner. Combined with a large advertising budget and a trusted name, processed foods entered the homes of Americans after the Second World War, selling over 13 million within its first year (Ganzel). The convenience of having a meal prepared for your family with minimal clean-up was sweeping the nation and other companies soon followed suit to keep up with consumer demand.
The fast food industry provides quick, cheap, and easy access to foods that in the customers opinion, is very delicious, and affordable, however this food which millions of people around the world are constantly consuming, could actually cause major health problems, and weight gain in the long run. Major fast food companies throughout the world know what they are doing when it comes to marketing towards all types of people. Some people will find numerous different things to blame for the epidemic of fast food making individuals overweight. In recent research on, or discussions of the fast food industry having an effect on people's health, a controversial issue has been raised, and that is the fact that this problem affects not only
From 1960-62 to 2005-06 the number of obese Americans almost tripled from 13.4% to 35.1% (Weight-control Information Network 2). These two extreme upward trends might make a convincing case that the extra fast food intake has caused the hike in obesity rates, and it may very well be a good indication, but it is far from proof. Too many things have changed over the years, from the way the average American exercises, to the types of other food that people are consuming.
Processed and junk foods have come to be the staple in American diets, and the result has been a nationwide epidemic of obesity-related health issues.