Castellon 1

Fabian Castellon
Professor Altman
English 115
22 September 2014
An Obsession over Obesity?
Over the past few weeks we have read many articles ranging with topics ranging from
who is to blame for obesity, all the way to how Obama is ruining free will by promoting a
healthier lifestyle for Americans. Articles such as Junking Junk Food by Judith Warner and
Being Fat is OK by Paul Campos exhibit the more diplomatic and government involved side of
this while articles like Dont Blame The Eater by David Zinczenko and What You Eat is
Your Business by Radley Balko exhibit that as well as the theme of personal responsibility.
These two themes stood out to me the most in a multitude of these papers and they really got me
thinking about personal responsibility in regards to obesity, as well as how much control the
government should have in respect to controlling our choices regarding obesity, and who in
reality is to blame for the growing epidemic in America.
The Idea of government regulation in regards to food and food policy is a topic that
appears in quite a couple of these articles. The grandest example of this is in Junking Junk
Food by Judith Warner in which Sarah Palin utilizes rhetoric effectively by creating a great
analogy between cookies and free will. The author ultimately utilizes these campaign and
political setbacks on the war against obesity to get her point across of how we are fighting

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obesity in the wrong way. Judith warner states later in the article that cultural change is what
offers the best hope for transforming how Americans eat and this is her idea of how we need to
fight obesity in order to get results that will actually grant us any form of success. She even
utilizes an example of rationing during World War II of how government regulation can help if
done correctly, but again she emphasizes the importance of changing the social idea to
something voluntarily done, not something one is forced to do. Another article that paints
government regulation in a different light is Being Fat is OK by Paul Campos in which he
paints government involvement in a much more negative light than Judith Warner. Camposs
claims the BMI scale, which is the scale used to determine if an individual is obese, is based on
a remarkably elaborate set of lies which implies he does not agree with the way the government
is handling obesity and how it is gauged. Throughout the article Campos states how the diet
industry is a sham and he ultimately used the BMI example as only a sort of introduction into his
essay, but the implied idea (or at least the way I interpreted it) was that he believed the
government was only aiding the diet industry and was not really in it for the best of the people.
The second theme that I saw appear frequently was that of personal responsibility, not
just government responsibility, with regards to obesity. One article that is on the far side of
being anti-government intervention and pro-personal responsibility is What You Eat is Your
Business by Radley Balko. After giving an example of how president Bush fights obesity by
banning food, he argues that instead of intervening in the array of food options available to the
American consumers, our government ought to be working to foster a sense of responsibility and

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ownership of our own health and well-being. And finally finishing it off with the strong, short
but sweet statement were doing just the opposite. This essay was the best embodiment of the
two themes because it demonstrated both just about equally. The purpose behind the authors
article was to raise awareness of what is going on in the United States. He talks about how
instead of letting us take responsibility for our own actions, the government is putting the weight
of other peoples illnesses on everyone equally, so what is the incentive to get better. The line he
used that resonated in my mind was if the government is paying for my anti-cholesterol
medication, what incentive is there for me to put down the cheeseburger? which really drives
home his point of what happens if we dont take responsibility for our own actions. A second
article that centers on the ideas of self-responsibility is Dont Blame the Eater by David
Zinczenko. Zinczenko focuses more on the Idea that responsibility falls not mainly on the
individual, but on the fast food companies themselves. This article is a nice change of pace from
the other ones in where someone other than the individual or the government is to blame. It
emphasizes how we as the individual are not as much to blame as we are given credit for. I
believe he wants to change the idea that we are completely in control of our health and that there
are indeed outside factors that are out of our control, such as how fast food companies
intentionally market to children, when they are the most vulnerable to it, as well as basically
build bad habits at a young age and how it can be compared to smoking how the health cost
associated with it. Overall I believe Zinczenko effectively achieved his goal of arguing
effectively for the side that is not well represented in these articles.

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Lastly the argument of who is to blame comes to obesity in America has 3 very strong
arguments for it. Different authors argue different points but overall the main people to blame for
the obesity problem in America are society and the individuals themselves. the fast food
companies who market towards the people. or the government for being either too controlling. or
not controlling enough. All sides can be argued effectively for and against as we have seen in the
articles we have read. Junking Junk Food. Being Fat is OK. and What You Eat is Your
Business can be seen as arguing for the sides revolving around government regulation. Dont
Blame the Eater and What You Eat is Your Business can be seen as arguments for and
against blaming the individual and lastly Dont Blame the Eater can be seen as an argument
against fast food companies taking the blame.
The articles we read shared many common themes. some more than others. but in the end
they all seemed to come back to the central ideas of obesity. regulation. and responsibility. The
authors all effectively argued their points within their essays and articles and were somewhat
convincing to a certain extent. In the end if nothing else we leave with a better understanding of
what truly is going on with the fast food and obesity crisis in America and with new views we
may have never otherwise seen ourselves.