Is Fast Food the New Tobacco? Should the obesity issue be government regulated or remain personal responsibility?

 Fast food has undoubtedly come to change the lives of millions of people. Many believe it was for convenience, but the truth is that it was for destruction. Fast food is harmful, but it is so easy to obtain that people prefer to harm their health than eat something healthier. This leads to thousands of people in the United States suffering from obesity. Will the government have to intervene? Will we leave it as a personal situation? 

The article, "What You Eat is Your Business" by Radley Balko, talks about how people are responsible for their obesity condition, they do not seek help or a solution because they prefer to blame someone else for their condition. They prefer to say that they are obese because healthy food is expensive or because the health system does not help them improve, among other things. Many times, it is easier to blame others for what happens to us instead of trying to find a solution. Removing health insurance or public health services will not reduce obesity cases in the USA, on the contrary, it will increase them. This is not the kind of intervention that the government should do, but rather it should encourage people to have a better quality of life, in the same way, each individual who suffers from obesity should make an effort to improve their health, and not only Obese people, but each one of us, must all lead a healthy life, not because of standards or stereotypes, but for personal well-being. This article mentions that people should be responsible for their health and not get carried away by stores that show McDonald’s or Wendy's discounts. What we eat not only affects our physical health but also our mental health because we stop thinking about what is good for us and we settle for the minimum and what does us so much harm.

 

David Zinczenko, in the article "Don't Blame from Eater", points out how the easiest target to reach is youth (children and adolescents), they are the easiest to attract and get them to consume this type of food that they like but then don’t provide any kinds of benefits and vitamins to your body. Fast food can be seen as the easiest and cheapest option and that is why many people prefer to eat a hamburger with fries, instead of a tuna salad or sautéed vegetables, but the reality is that it is much more expensive than ready-made food. At home, with the money they spend every day buying food on the street, people can make food for almost a month, not to mention that fast food makes you sick and you would have to spend even more on medications and visits to the doctor. But this is something that youth does not think about, a soda, some chips, some tacos... can change your life forever, causing diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure. The limited information offered to consumers is also part of the problem, because if the person knows the truth about what their body is ingesting, the probability that they will change their eating habits is very high, but they do not know it, the labels They tell us enough, sellers want to sell their products and they will not tell you that they are bad. But just observe, whoever sells cigarettes doesn't smoke.

What the health? It is a documentary full of information about how associations say they work to reduce cancer or diabetes, but their websites promote the consumption of meat, processed, and dairy products. Kip, a filmmaker from San Francisco, is the one who decides to investigate further the true objective of these organizations, because they claim to support a cause and want to find a cure or solution, but the truth is that they are also part of the problem, because they promote the foods that most They do not harm just because those are the ones who sponsor them. At the end of the day, everything is a business and they only seek their benefit regardless of who loses. In the documentary, many corporations refused Kip's interviews because they did not want to be exposed, they did not want to tell the truth because that would bring consequences such as lawsuits or the closure of the corporation. The question is: is supporting diseases your goal? I don't think so, everything turns in the same direction, promoting processed foods means that more people will get sick, which will make them have to visit the doctor and buy medications for life, everyone wins except the person who fell into the deception of advertisements and promotions of red meats and cheeses. This is where intervention is needed, but that won't happen because they would lose more than they are already gaining.

In Michelle Obama's speech, she makes a comparison of how people lived then vs. now. She talks about how children of color are the most likely to be obese. Michelle Obama mentions how previously, when she was a child/teenager, she rarely went to restaurants, most of the time she ate at home with ingredients that were harvested in the yard, how the afternoons were spent playing with the neighbors, in the streets, how they interacted, schoolwork and how life was more active and healthier. Nowadays, children are obese because they spend their afternoons locked in the room playing video games and eating chips. It is a sedentary and processed life. Michelle Obama is advocating for our children and parents to improve their quality of life.

After reading the articles and watching the documentary and Michelle Obama's speech, there is no doubt that fast food is the new tobacco. The lack of information, the lack of help, and many times the lack of self-love leads to people not caring about their health and getting carried away that fast food is better because it is fast and cheap, but they are destroying themselves. life little by little.

Is Pop Culture Good for You?

 Is Pop Culture Good for You?

By Zolciree Marte

We may all have a definition of what popular culture is or how we refer to it, however, popular culture is nothing more than the advances and innovations that society or members of society have been acquiring. as the years advance; Art, beliefs, and different types of entertainment are part of what we call popular culture or pop culture. Popular culture, pop culture for short, generally refers to the dominant or prevalent traditions and aspects of material culture in a certain society. In modern Western countries, the term is used to describe various cultural products (movies, music, art, television, and more) that the majority of the population regularly consumes.

Nowadays, society is so modernized that it is almost inevitable not to belong to this popular culture that is talked about so much, the ease with which the internet, music, movies, books, comics, video games, novels, and so on, they are so accessible that it is almost impossible to avoid them. In the article "Watching TV Makes You Smarter" by Steven Johnson, we see some of the benefits that all this new technological culture can offer. What many may see as absurd or uninteresting, is quite the opposite, it helps the brain try to find other ways of seeing life, of solving problems, of identifying with the situations of others, it is a method of discovery, in which the person has to use their intelligence to be able to understand what is happening around them. Television and video games are not harmful to those who consume them, because everything depends on the material that the person is consuming, if it is not something that contributes to their development and growth as a person, then it will only be a waste of time, however If they are programs or games that help the person develop different skills or create a different way of receiving information, the person will be receiving benefits in a creative and fun way and it is most likely that said person will not even realize that.

StevenJohnson's article shows how society changed after television became part of the daily lives of Americans, and the same thing happens today with cell phones and their innovations every year, little by little society is becoming attached to these technologies that are seen as something so necessary, but that are not.

On the other hand, we have Malcolm Gladwell's article, "Small Change" which talks about how different life was before technology took over society. People who had the desire to change their society did not have the option of posting it on Instagram or Twitter, but rather they made their wishes come true. If they did not like how they were treated, they would go on strikes, sit-ins, and complain in front of large groups. or small audiences to show their disagreement and the reason why they want a change; They didn't wait for others to do it for them. Previously, people were activists, leaders, and revolutionaries who, even if they were afraid, faced society to express their ideas and feelings. They expressed the following: “Social media can’t provide what social change has always required.” This is extremely true, we must be the change we want to see.

In the video Pop Culture is Dead by Phil Miller, we see how he mentions different factors about popular culture that separate us from our community and create lonely people because people no longer want to sit on the patio on Sunday afternoons and listen the radio, everyone already has applications to listen to the music they like whenever they want, the same thing happens with television and movie premieres, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc., they came to improve us but also to separate us from others. On the contrary, the video Why Pop Culture? by Alexandre O. Philippe, shows us how despite being so different and with diverse tastes, we can approach others and share what we find interesting, debate where we differ, and celebrate where we connect. Popular culture is not bad, it just has to be used in moderation.

 

The answer to this question is that pop culture is not good or bad, but like everything, we should use it in moderation. Pop culture has its advantages and disadvantages, we just have to know when, how, and where to take advantage of it so that it does not harm us.