Childhood Obesity In The United States

Fast food companies and television shows have exceeded the way they advertise their products, therefore, young children are becoming obese. To be obese means to be overweight or extremely fat. A young child to be obese is an enormous problem today in the United States. A massive amount of young children, teenagers, and adults are obese due to the fact that they are eating unhealthy. People think that eating junk food and going to fast food restaurants is totally normal. What people are not aware of is that junk food and fast food are super unhealthy. It may sound bizarre that people do not know that what they are eating is unhealthy, but believe it or not, it is very true. To stop obesity in the United States a tax should be enforced on all

McDonald’s is a great example of a fast food restaurant that makes sure they are being advertised all over the world. In the United States, McDonald’s has been seen on tv, toys, books, clothing, and theme parks. McDonald’s focuses a lot on marketing to children and it leads them to obesity. It has been said that McDonald’s spent 15 billion dollars on just advertising kids. In If You Pitch It, They Will Eat, David Barboza states, “Big food makers like McDonald’s and Kraft Foods Inc. are finding every imaginable way to put their names in front of children”(4). This quote from the magazine article explains how this fast food restaurant finds every possible way so that they catch children’s attention. Television shows like SpongeBob SquarePants and Scooby Doo are also everywhere on junk foods to make children want them. For example, they are in fruit snacks, cookies, popsicles and Lunchables. This is a major obesity pathway for children. All this advertising for kids needs to stop because that is why kids are becoming obese. The obesity amount of children has been doubling up and parents need to realize that. The worst part of this is that food companies do not think they are at fault for this, they think it is the parent’s fault. Food companies are partially at fault, but so are the

Americans consume a large amount of food due to the fact that they have a massive amount of appetite. What fast food restaurants like Taco Bell do is they make amazingly great deals so that they get customers to buy their food. What Taco Bell does is their prices are extremely low and believe it or not, it increases the amount of customers they have. Other fast food restaurants heard about what Taco Bell was doing, so they started doing the same thing. Fast food restaurants other than Taco Bell, also started coming up with bigger sizes of their foods and their drinks with a lower and affordable price. All fast food restaurants do is find ways to get customers attention and they succeed at it. By doing all this, fast food restaurants earn a large amount of money. Not only do all these deals benefit fast food restaurants, but they also benefit the people, they spend less money. This is a great reason as to why Americans and children are obese, they see food and they eat it all up. In It’s Portion Distortion That Makes America Fat, Shannon Brownlee states, “If you put more food in front of people, they eat more, as studies have consistently shown over the last decade”(19). Americans are obese because they love eating out and eating unhealthy, they do not take into consideration how unhealthy they are. Americans need to stop going out to eat and think about the amount of calories