Corporate Responsibility for Childhood Obesity - Essay Example

Due Two Article Comparisons It is not a question that there are some serious issues concerning the epidemic occurrences of obesity, particularly, childhood obesity, and diabetes. The numbers have increase and it is becoming a more and more serious problem. "Don’t Blame the Eater,” by Zincsenko, and "Calories for Sale: Food Marketing to Children in the Twenty-First Century,” by Susan Linn and Courtney L. Novosat, both see a distinct and logical correlation between the increases in the instances of childhood obesity and the consumption of fast food items often marketed to them.

The authors of these two articles are supporting the same cause but in different ways. First and foremost is the length of the material, Zinczenko’s article is rather brief and reads very much like a discussion or a conversational blog posting. However, Linn and Novosat’s article is much more scientific and literary representation of their very similar arguments. Zinczenko takes the most direct route and blames the consumption of fast food directly is the cause of the childhood obesity. He argues that as a child he was a “latchkey kid,” a term in the 1970s and 1980s to describe children of, usually, single parent households, who are left to care from themselves when their guardian is at work; they used to keep the house keys are a string around their necks, hence the nickname (Zinczenko, 391-392).

He offers a number of supporting factors that do benefit his argument. Firstly, he explains that his personal experience as a latchkey child, he understood how fast food becomes the quickest, most convenience, and, often, the cheapest way to feed hungry children. The greater statistics of children in economically depressed environments are even more likely to consume larger portions of the fast foods available. However, the flaw in Mr. Zinczenko argument is that no one is likely to deny that if a child or anyone was to consume fast food for every meal of the day may ultimately develop health problems and obvious weight gain.

He, also, makes the correlation between childhood obesity, fast food, and the ever increasing numbers of diabetes cases among children (Zinczenko 391-393). Linn and Novosat’s article is a much more scientific and formal research work. It is considerably longer, detailed, offering statistics, and averages of test and studies performed. They do not blame the fast food items and products directly, the way that Zinczenko’s article did, but rather the specific advertising that is geared specifically towards children regarding fast food items.

They support the prevalence well. Firstly, the acknowledge the number of fast food corporations that ally with major animated or live-action children’s film; using the popular characters to endorse the foods and products available at restaurants like Burger King and McDonalds. Secondly they acknowledge that many of these advertisements are presented in social media or email, entirely bypassing any kind of parental influence (Linn, and Novosat 133-155).The problem with both of these articles is that neither really argues that people need to be more responsible with what they eat and what they feed to their offspring.

Zinczenko, Linn, and Novosat blamed the high caloric count of most fast foods is the direct link to obesity and the others say that it is the fault of fast-food companies. There is a lot of blame present in both articles and yet little accountability. Most intelligent adults know that the low nutritional value of fast food products, advertising or not, and no one is forcing you to stop there, get in the line, order the food and then go home and give it your children to eat. If you have older children then provide them with food alternatives and do not rely on cheap fast food to feed them.

It is convenient to pass all of the responsibility off of large companies and the products they produce. If forced to choose between these articles, the article by Linn and Novosat would be the most convincing. It offers a stronger, supported position, however to a layman and average readers then Zinczenko article would be more appealing with its use of simpler language and conversational presentation, Work CitedLinn, Susan, and Courtney L. Novosat. "Calories for Sale: Food Marketing to Children in the Twenty-First Century.

" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 615. (2008): 133-155. Print. Zinczenko, . "Dont Blame the Eater. “They say/I say with Readngs. 2 edition W.W. Norton & Co, 2011. 391-393. Print.