Are We Taking It Too Far by Blaming Fast Food Restaurants for Obesity - Research Paper Example

2nd December, Are we taking it too far by blaming fast food restaurants for obesity? When is it individualresponsibility and when is it appropriate to place blame? If we sit back and compare our life with that of our ancestors, we would realize that we are more equipped with technology and resources than they were. However, when It comes to personal health and physical activity, we all seem to be getting in worse shape day by day and mostly one world explains it, Obesity. World health organization defines obesity as, “abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.” In technical terms it is measured by Body Mass Index which considers height and weight as two factors for calculation. A person having BMI 25 to 30 is overweight and BMI above that would be calculated as obese. Obesity is a major risk factor for several diseases which include cardiovascular problems, Diabetes, Gall stone and is a major health concern today. Working for BBC, Ray Dunne came up with some alarming statistics. The numbers around 300m people worldwide are obese, one in three American adults is obese and one in four Britons is obese. Obesity is estimated to cost the US $75bn annually. Obesity can reduce life expectancy by up to nine years and poor diet and a lack of exercise killed 400,000 Americans in 2000. These are some jaw dropping an alarming factors but the big question that needs to be asked in who is responsible for all this and who is to be put at blame? Last couple of decades showed a rapid growth of corporate world and so did the world of ‘food chain’ business came up. Now there are thousands of food chains all over the world and MacDonald’s being a leading industry in that. In 2003, Jazlyn Bradley aged 19 and Ashley Pelman aged 14, unable to resist the temptation of MacDonald’s and weighing 270 pounds and 170 pounds respectively sued MacDonald for making them obese. They argued that they didn’t know about the food ingredients and their father said that he always thought MacDonald’s was good for his children’s health. The court didn’t seem to agree and said that, "Its not the place of the law to protect them against their own excesses." This totally explains my personal opinion about it as well since it is the responsibility of an individual to decide what is good for health and how much they can consume it. After this case, US House of Representatives also passed a legislation which made it illegal to sue any food chain just because it makes people obese. Diane Fields (5) seems to propose the same idea. Just like you can’t blame tobacco industry for mouth cancer and casinos for problem of gambling, similarly you can’t blame fast restaurants for obesity since there are several other factors involving this debate. Top of this list would be the attitude change that we have adopted in modern world calling it as sedentary life style for us. In this world of competition, most of the people world for long hours and rarely gets time to exercise. Even when they do, they mostly prefer to sit in front of TV or play some video games. Have anyone ever blamed them for obesity? Not really because it turns to be the responsibility of a person as to what he wants to choose for himself. Sadly, this trend in even shifted to our children as well. Their ball-games and high athletic bodies have turned into skinny or fat and they seem to be more lazy them ever. Now we can’t blame cell phones and internet for this damage even if we know that it is a main contributory cause as same should be applied for fast food restaurants. One needs to take responsibility as how they want to shape their life and what is the yardstick that they can apply in going for certain things. Some people also blame the famous food pyramid designed to shape a health life and ensuring proper calorie intake. This however seems to be a bit outdated model. It certainly explains the calorie intake of certain food components along with the amount they need to be taken but we don’t see any explanation for fast food or ‘junk food’ as some people call it, on this pyramid. Fast food chains have this privacy that they would never disclose the true ingredients and will only get them passed from FDA. By doing this, customers would just have an idea that it contains fat without knowing the exact calorie intake. This puts the responsibility of the government and bodies like FDA to take steps so that this is included in food pyramid and people would certainly know what to expect out of fast food. Marni Jameson also proposed an alternative for controlling obesity rather than putting blame on fast food chains and the simple solution is, “Individuals as Target.” There have been several initiatives by several different organizations who have taken steps to control obesity on individual level e.g “Lincoln University in Pennsylvania to make students shed pounds, North Carolina now makes state employees who dont lose weight take part in a more expensive health plan. Southwest and other airlines reserve the option to make obese passengers pay for two seats.” The list goes on but this is one of the several ways that can be used to control obesity on individual level. Some people tend to blame fast food industry just because of the huge amount of money they spend on advertisement. The fact that they make people want fast food is the basic argument used against them. The fact however stands that in a free market there is ever growing competition and we can’t expect them to stop advertisement and go in loss. This is merely a scape that government and other agencies use to get away from the blame. Burg(97) suggest that promoting vegetable and healthy food industry on government level can be a better option to provide people with diversity in food. Food chains have also introduced health meals like vegetable burgers and salads which provide people with this choose as what they want to choose in their lives. Fast food industries donate a significant amount of money welfare organizations and MacDonald distributes more toys among children that any other organization in USA. As conclusion, I think it time we stop this blame game on food industry, stop portraying them as monsters and like reasonable adults start thinking about the choices we make in our lives. As explained in the article, fast food in not even a primary cause for all these problems. Sedentary life style, genetic predisposition and over eating of almost anything not just fast food is what makes most of the people obese. It is the individual responsibility to take a proper caloric intake and the responsibility of the government to make sure that people are well aware of their choices. Just like you can’t stop children from using internet and just like adults are not banned to go to casinos, you can’t put an end to people going to fast food chains. Change in health habits can only work if there is enough individual contribution for the cause. References Berg, Frances M. Underage and Overweight. Hatherleigh Press, 2004 Marni Jameson. “Who is to blame for obesity, and what should be done about it?” Los Angeles Times. 1st February 2010. Diane Fields. “Obesity. Who’s to Blame?” International sports Sciences Association, February 3, 2011. Ray Dunne. “Obesity: Who is to blame?” BBC News Online health staff. 14th March 2004. Read More