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.