Seeking Junk Food Judith Warner Summary

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David Zinczenko and Judith Warner agree that Americans have unhealthy eating habits. In her article, “Junking Junk Food,” Warner notes that more than two-thirds of American adults are obese; Zinczenko, in “Don’t Blame the Eater,” looks even more closely at the epidemic in children, specifically the 30 percent increase of Type 2 diabetes in children. A change in lifestyle and the way food is seen is necessary to end the epidemic, insist both authors. Drawing on personal experience, Zinczenko supports Warner’s claim that to escape the weight gain spiral, a lifestyle change must be made. In his case, joining the Navy Reserves and learning how to manage his diet provided the escape, but as Warner asserts, healthy eating requires more than just knowing how to eat better. The knowledge must incite healthy actions for any positive change to happen. Both authors go on to compare junk food to …show more content…

The “don't blame the eater” mentality, which Zinczenko represents puts the blame for the obesity epidemic on the fast food industry, who make healthy eating difficult. The fast food industry, Zinczenko argues, overwhelms the marketplace, making accessible healthy options almost non-existent. The confusing or absent nutritional labels paired with the deliberate targeting of children gives Americans little chance of overcoming obesity claims Zinczenko. Warner, on the other hand, challenges that idea, by not blocking the industry, but rather the eater, who, she claimed could eat healthier, but chooses not to. Warner gives the eater full blame, saying American known fast food is damaging their health but ignore the established negatives simply because it makes their psyche feel good. While Zinczenko holds that the fast food industry must change to make healthy eating easier, Warner believes that the public's attitude, the “fuzzy” feelings surrounding the “all American” foods, in particular, must