Obesity has taken over as the fastest growing cause of death in America. This disease has affected more than 33% of adults and 17% of children in recent years. With the amount of advertisements relating to unhealthy choices, the cheapness and growing portion sizes of fast food, and the quality of school lunches today, this trend of obesity will only continue to increase. Though many will argue that people have control over their own weight, some people only have access to the cheap and unhealthy food items they see on a daily basis and America needs to realize that this problem is not going to fix itself until they come to terms with that basic fact.
Children and adolescents tend to go with what they see on TV and what they see are hundreds of ads praising cheap, unhealthy food products. Media companies spend almost triple the amount of money advertising insufficient food items as they do promoting a healthy lifestyle. In order to correct this problem, “media companies should be required to devote either equivalent
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“The most recent research finds Americans now spend less than one-tenth of their money on food,” and cheaper food comes with less health benefits (CBS news). The decrease in price has also come with an increase in portion size. Most fast food chains offer regular, medium, and large options with everything they are selling. This means double or even triple the amount of calories, not to mention exceeding the standard portion size recommendation. Even the healthy choices, like the salads on the menus, could have double the preferred calorie intake due to portion size or overuse of condiments. These families should not be punished because they do not have the time, money, or equipment to prepare fresh meals daily. Serious changes need to be made in order to undo the effects of years of serving cheap, processed