One Super Sized America Burger, To Go – English Essay (100 Level Course)
Even though there are concerns about obesity and its effects on health, the American people have never been fatter. Due to low cost of high fat foods and low wages that help in our decision to eat unhealthy the United States has become one of the chunkiest nations. In today’s society being obese also helps one to become an outcast, some people ridicule, tease, and ostracize those who are considered obese.
Also in our society today there is an ideal image, that image is of a thin, healthy, fit person. That image is projected on billboards, TV commercials and in movies. Obesity has become a growing epidemic due to the low cost of high fat foods, lack of time and places to exercise, and the fast easy diets that fail to produce results.
Never before has fast food been so cheap and so fast. Fast food restaurants are popping up everywhere. Fast food joints are in malls, schools, along the highway and just down the block from your home. And never before have Americans been so fat. Obesity has become a major outbreak and a major health problem. Due to these three factors, cheap high fat foods, lack of exercise and diets that don’t work obesity has become an American epidemic. But it is something we have to live with in today’s society.
First of all high fat foods have never been so easy to make and so easy to sell. They are cheap and you get a lot for your money. Meijer just ran an ad for its store in town, the ad at the top of the page was, 10 for $10 and the 11th one is free (on select items). You can bet that the deal did not include any produce of fresh foods. The 10 for $10 deal included Little Debbie’s, Lays Stax Potato Chips and 2 liters of 7-up pop. Those items that were included in the 10 for 10 deals are some of the unhealthiest foods around; they did include some healthy food choices like juice and carrots. The majority of items in the ad were for prepackaged foods that were high in fat. A big deciding factor in the products we buy is cost; we want the most for our money. As a result of the low cost and high content of the packages they are one of the biggest hits in a grocery store, but they are helping to cause people to over eat and become obese.
One way to beat obesity is to stay fit and healthy, people need to exercise and do some physical activity. As Americans we are constantly working the day away, we often leave little or no time to eat healthy. Exercising consumes much of our time out of the day and to some people it can become a hassle. There are those who work all day, so when they want to go to the gym it’s closed.
Children in schools are not getting the proper amount of exercise to burn off their calorie in take for the day. In the documentary Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock, he points out that only one state in the United States demands physical education for grades K-12 and it’s also the fattest state, Illinois. The fact that children are not shown how to exercise and what to eat is a major problem it shows that what they do in that physical education class is not helping. Those children need to learn why it’s a good idea to stay healthy and to eat right.
Instead of exercising people are trying to take the easy way out by going on a diet. They want to lose the pounds fast and with as little effort as possible. That’s where gastric bypass surgery comes in; it’s an operation where the size of your stomach is changed from the size of a wine bottle to that of a shot glass (Newman 48). It alters the size of the stomach so the person who has the surgery cannot eat as much, thus causing them to lose at least two-thirds their excess weight in the year following the operation (Newman 48). The operation is a last ditch effort to lose the pounds, it is more expensive then a member ship at a gym.