Obesity Epidemic In America

Obesity: Swallowing America Whole
The American taste buds are hooked to sweet, spicy, and salty flavors. The mouth controls the diet and emotions of every American. This food obsession, however, has transformed from an excitement to an addiction. Food controls physical and mental health; one eats when sad, happy, or bored. Food answers all problems. As the obsession with food increases, the obesity crisis in America also grows immensely. The obesity epidemic in America stems from three sources: the food industry, the government, and the American culture. The food industry’s lies and greed prevent Americans from knowing what food possesses as ingredients and why one feels the need to continue eating it. While the government and the FDA fail

The government, responsible for protect those it serves, allows the obesity rate to increase rapidly and seems to ignore the large issue at hand. The government prompts the obesity epidemic by allowing the food industry to violate codes while doing nothing in retaliation and focusing on greed rather than health. Eric A. Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman, authors of The Fattening of America: How the Economy Makes Us Fat, If It Matters, and What to Do About It, discuss the power and role the government has on the food consumption in America: “Government has imposed numerous laws and regulations that, whether directly or indirectly, influence our food consumption and physical activity decisions, and ultimately our rates of obesity” (Finkelstein and Zuckerman 115). The ordinances and rules that governmental programs, like the FDA, dictate what Americans eat on a daily basis. The restrictions and codes, also provided by the FDA, force the food industry to create, produce, and package foods in a certain manner in order to sell them. These rules, however, are not always enforced; according to Nancy Deville, author of Death by Supermarket; The Fattening, Dumbing Down, and Poisoning of America, “Factory foods are manufactured or raised with toxic substances that have either received FDA approval or these substances have slipped through cracks” (Deville 61).

Magazines, TV, music, books, and movies help one make decisions and take action whether consciously or subconsciously. This large sphere of influence, however, is not always beneficial for those who suffer victim to these forms of public entertainment. The medias version of beauty, shames those who are considered overweight and scares almost everyone into thinking that being thin is the only way to be pretty. Jolene Hart emphasis how important beauty is in the American culture in her book Eat Pretty: Nutrition for Beauty, Inside and Out: “There’s a multi-billion-dollar industry built on helping us achieve greater physical beauty” (Hart 33). By creating this manipulated and untrue image of beauty, the American culture encourages eating disorders like anorexia (undereating) and sustains obesity (overeating). When interviewing Shannon Herman, a licensed professional counselor and certified eating disorder specialist, she revealed that adolescents in 2015 are exposed to media about body types and sizes more than any person in history. It goes without saying that mixed messages are bounding and truth is always relative. There are no absolutes. Media does not have mercy on anything but perfection. The perfection that surrounds today’s media causes eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. In order to achieve the body culture claims to offer, one resorts to dieting and exercise; dieting and exercise,