Obesity



We all know tha tamerica is fat. But what we don't all know is who is the guy that takes the blame. Is it the companies that should take the fall? Or do we blame parents, or consumers, or even the governmenty? Everybody wants to blame someone and says it's not //their// fault, but somebody else's. I think that everyone is partly to blame, and they should man-up, admit it, and try to fix it.

The first possible offender that people shove their chubby little fingers at is the fast food companies. They give us the food and promote the bajeezus out of it, so it must be them. Fast food companies started off well and good, with cheap quick food as a place to go in a pinch or as a treat. But in the mid to late 1980's fast food started getting cheaper, and then bigger. You could have half your days calories for $3.75? This seems like a bargain getting the food for 20¢ more, but that money goes straight into their wallet, and the extra food straight into your waistline and none of this was particularly healthy in the first place.Then there's the advertising. What fast food calls " brand extension and promotion" nutritionists call "a blitzkrieg that perverts children's eating habits and sets them on a fast track to obesity." This isn't just TV commercials, it's McDonald's in school, on books, in playsets, and at theme parks and in hospitals. As budgets for advertising to kids has risen, so has child obesity, which has doubled since 1980.

But fast food turns around and shoots the blame right back at consumers. They say that consumers have to take responsibility for what they eat and let their kids eat. That is true, consumers are the ones paying money to eat the fast food. Though in schools that serve fast food, parents don't have a choice to cut their kids off from fast food, and often schools are in contracts to serve fast food. This is where people start blaming the government.

People blame the government for not placing restrictions on advertising or making companies serve healthier food. None of this is the government's fault, but they certainly could have done more to prevent it. But even so, people need to stop relying on the government to do everything for them, and they need to pretty much force the government to listen to them. But I sure didn't see a whole lot of fast food protest, so people can't complain //about// the government, just //to// it.

As the ball of blame bounces around to everyone, a bit rubs off on each of them. They need to take responsibility for their part of it and fix it together.