Obesity in the United States

What makes America's obesity rate so much higher than the rest of the world's? Maybe it is because we are lazy. Or maybe it's because people do not eat the right things on a regular basis. Whatever the answer maybe “The United States” has a 30% higher obesity rate than the rest of the country. The Obesity rate is this much higher because of cheap unhealthy foods and fast food chains and propaganda they use in multiple places in our everyday lives.

There is an extensive amount of fast food ads being shown daily on national television. So with so much exposure to these ads, speaking specifically ones directed towards young children, it's only obvious that there would be a high child obesity rate in the U.S.  On average preschoolers and young children saw approximately 2.8 fast food ads a day. Also 75% of the average ads shown are on kids websites such as: Nick, Roblox, and Cartoon Network, according to fastfoodmarketing.org.. This data shows how day after day, very young children ages 4-11, are being pumped with ads from fast food companies. These fast food companies spend 4.6 billion dollars a year on advertising for their food. This is important because without advertisements people may not be thinking about fast food as often so they need to keep our brains thinking about it constantly.

Eating healthier foods over the unhealthier fast foods will cost more over time. This obviously makes the choice for unhealthier foods more tempting and reasonable, especially because some people like the taste of fast food better. Also, people that are struggling to get by and need the cheapest food they can get to save money. Carey Polis, a writer for the Huffington Post wrote about how much an average American would be spending on healthier foods in comparison to eating fast and unhealthy foods daily. “The most comprehensive study of its kind indicates that yes, unhealthy food is about $1.50 cheaper per day, or about $550 per year, than healthy food.” This quote helps to show how much more people, on average, would be spending to eat  healthier and that is just a conservative number. There are so many people out in the U.S eating instant ramen everyday and they are sold at a dollar per pack at the most.

Fast food is an extremely unhealthy food choice, and can lead to many health problems to those who consume it regularly. Which sadly is the way it is for many Americans in the United States.  “-young adults who consumed fast food more than twice a week gained 10 more pounds than those who had fast food less than once a week.” -Ivy Morris a writer for SF gate. This quote shows how much of a big difference it makes when you eat fast food one time less per week. So imagine if the only way citizens in The United States could afford food all week long was to eat these unhealthy foods, and what this would be doing to the health conditions of everyone in the long run. This can also lead to later health problems down the road that can greatly decrease one's life span or how well it goes with minimal issues surrounding health.

Everyday people in “The United States” are being pumped with ads fast food restaurants trying hard to keep all of the countries minds occupied with the thought of eating bad foods. While spending billions of dollars a year to continuously keep the ads rolling in every part of media. People taking the cheaper route food in order to save as much money as possible in order to stay on budget due to low income. Also, people paying the consequences of eating unhealthy foods weekly with serious health problems looming down the road of weight gain and lack of proper nutrients. All of these things pile on together to make “The United States” such an obese country.

Works Cited:

-"Just Give Me the FACTS!" Fast Food FACTS — Home. Fast Food F.a.c.t.s, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015. <http://fastfoodmarketing.org/>.

-Polis, Carey. "Eating Healthy vs. Unhealthy Will Cost You $550 More Per Year, Study Reveals." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/eating-healthy-vs-unhealthy_n_4383633.html>.

-Morris, Ivy. "How Fast Food Affects You Negatively." Healthy Eating. SF Gate, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015. <http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/fast-food-affects-negatively-1728.html>.




Comments (2)

Stephen Buchanico (Student 2017)
Stephen Buchanico

This 2fer expanded my thinking on the topic of fast food influences on others. I say this because I already cut back on fast food because I realized the things that were said in this paper, but what really got to me was all of the numbers relating to children, and the advertising. That was a key point that really got me thinking how big of a deal it really is. For example, the amount that they spend on advertising is just crazy, the quote where you said "This is important because without advertisements people may not be thinking about fast food as often so they need to keep our brains thinking about it constantly." really just summed up what I was thinking and really tied together that paragraph.

Cacy Thomas (Student 2017)
Cacy Thomas

Your 2fer expanded my thinking by showing me different reasons for eating fast food, and why they are important. I liked the statistics of how many fast food ads people see a day and how it affects their thought process in buying healthy products. I also liked how you involved economics and stated that buying healthy food would cost a person $550 more a year. All of the facts that you wrote showed what people sacrifice in order to eat healthily or poorly.