Debate - Whos’e To Blame For Americas Obesity

What do you think of America’s obesity, who is to blame? Is it social responsibility corporations have, is it the lifestyle television and the media conveys to us or is it purely the individuals fault.

My personal opinion is that its almost 100% a social responsibity, that were are getting brainwashed by television and its commercial plugs are seeping into every aspect of our lives, from billboards, movies, radio, television and the American ideal. The fat cont3ent of our food is outrageous. Granted there are alternatives, but many times there more impractical due to our fast paced lifestyle we live. It’s easier and more socially acceptable to go to McDonalds and eat a burger that has hundreds of calories and almost purely saturated fat than it is to prepare food that is healthy. Even the good places we go to eat (i.e. restaurants and sit-down places) offer a diner consisting of mostly meat, bread, and fried potatoes or dairy products. Fruit served at any table is a rarity, and reserved for dissert toppings. Its almost difficult to eat healthy in America today.

Ok if know this really isn’t the place for such a debate, but imp doing a small group discussion worth like 30% of my grade, and a little prep for the types of arguments ill see would be very beneficial. And I figure if StevieBM can pin a proofreading type topic, if should be allowed one too (unpinned). Also im not asking you to like write a paper for me, just offer your opinion on the matter.

Edit: i think this is how we should start taging threads, without the [] that is, i think it looks 10x neater

Please post opinions if you feel like it

#152482

the sugar lobby.

there's no way its 100% social. people need to make better choices. i'd say its 50/50 (you need a third choice-'both'). People need more non-biased info (ie. less corporate integration within the media and less dependence on advertising for funding all sorts of businesses), and meanwhile individuals need to understand that their hand isn't going to be held throughout their life and get some gumption.

The inability for the american media to cry "bull****" when they are being spun is a big part of the problem, caloriewhore advertising and vending notwithstanding.

edit: if you still eat mcdonalds... do yourself a favour; go get a bigmac meal, eat it, sit and let your bowels stir.... then smell your farts - that'll tell you why you shouldn't eat that crap. Its only barely food. Do yourself a bigger favour after doing the above experiment... never eat there again.

They should just synthesize mcdonalds fart and then have automatic mcdonalds fart boxes that emit the odour at all mcd entrances and drivethrus. That'll stop people from eating there.

edit2: somebody should make a mcdonalds fartbox icon.

#152490

I'm not fat. I take responsibility for my body.

#152495

The people who eat too much fat/bad food can only blame themselves... People need education...

ie: read and know about the goods and bads of what you eat.

#152514

Originally posted by Nobski@Apr 29 2004, 05:16 PM

The people who eat too much fat/bad food can only blame themselves... People need education...

ie: read and know about the goods and bads of what you eat.

i agree, but isnt it societies responsibility to educate them? people cant prevent something they dont know anything about.

-The Unknown

#152515

Individual all the way. There's no excuse for not knowing what is and isn't good for you these days. Stuff the advertising, if you know somethings fatty and you still eat it, then it's your lookout.

I am excluding those people where obesity is likely to be hereditary in this opinion. By this I mean genetic. Not a fat mum feeding kids burger kings till they become fat too.

#152522

I voted social responsibility because I believe that society is, not totally, but predominately to blame.

Hypothetical Example of why I think society shares the blame:

If you walk down an average aisle in an average supermarket and 1 in 8 of the products are likely to cause obesity then, on average, are you not going to have a society with an average of 1 in 8 obese people? I know this is simplifying the situation to an extreme, but talking averages does it still not hold true?

Also, IMHO the issue isn't just one of education, sure it helps but its not a solution; taking the example of cigarettes, name me one person outside of BAT who believes smoking causes little to no ill-effects?

Lastly, has anyone questioned how we got here in the first place? Capitalism? emphasis on profit over social responsibility? mass-production? our inability to share wealth (and food) with poorer countries? I don't know...

#152539

I find it very interesting that the poll has been 50/50 pretty much since it was posted.

#152573

No one makes you eat what you eat.

Its just not our fault fast food tastes so good lol.

#152594

McDonalds....<_

#152597

dude its because corporations feels they have power and no responsibility to make sure that we are healthy.

The first thing that popped in my head is McDonalds.

I mean think about it, They've started a new salad range, but have you looked at the calories? MORE THAN A BIGMAC!

WTF is that?

#152604

I eat what i want, when i want and can give two sh1ts what others eat. Also, most of the time it's genetics.

#152611

haha u really believe its social? ya we have all those advertisements and "ish" but in the end who is the one who eats it. who chooses to put it in their body? yes there are people who cant help their slow ass metabolism but thats not who im talking about. no one is forced to eat food, food is great, but its not forced upon anyone [ except babies ]. oh and the 1 in 8 thing. hey 1 of 2 products in the supermarket also causes cancer. so what does that really show. everyday there is a news report that this certain protein in the chickens pancreas causes "VD" [ out there but its realistic because are media is funny like that]. so i would say like 5%ocial and 95% individual.

this reminds me of the arguments that starbucks was to blame when that stupid girl spilled her drink on herself. she blames them for having "hot products, and there should be a warning label on their products" GOSH, she ordered friken HOT CHOCOLATE.

-bunkka :canadian:

[if anyone wants to go back and forth, im willing to]...tango if you want. :woot:

#152621

Originally posted by Timan@Apr 29 2004, 10:12 PM

No one makes you eat what you eat.

precisely.

except in the case of the fat mom dragging the kids to MikiD's or BK

but that's not social as much as parental responsibility

still, it's also like this:

customer: i'll have the 12 oz. new york sirloin please

watitress: for another 50 cents you can have the 16 oz and a free baked potato.

customer: baked potato simpson>

#152622

When you are younger, its the job of society and your parents (Why are they all of a sudden excluded from any discussion?) to teach you what is right and wrong, even in your eating habits. School tries to do that, but remember, most people don't start school until they are six, I was five when I started. At that age you have gained some knowledge of the world around you, and school doesn't really start to teach you what you should eat until around third grade. And then about 13 years, bhtat's when it becomes your job (IMO) to make the correct decisions. But if that knowledge lacked in their first 6 years, how can you be sure that you will make the right decisions?

#152626

Hello, for me individual responsibility

if you are of an age to make a decision.

But there are children of 4 years with obesity for responsibility of his parents

#152632

Maybe kids should go outside more instead of staying home and playing dress up with their computers lol.

#152637

Originally posted by Timan@Apr 29 2004, 08:58 AM

Maybe kids should go outside more instead of staying home and playing dress up with their computers lol.

I can't The clowns will eat me .

#152639

Originally posted by Timan@Apr 29 2004, 10:58 AM

Maybe kids should go outside more instead of staying home and playing dress up with their computers lol.

and maybe you need to stop playing ut2003.... :6

I use Windows Classic. :6

@wizard:

#152643

Taking the view away from individual guilt on being fat, I think you asked more for a cause of mass obesity.

I'm hauling the following equation into the debate:

massive freedom of choice = mass obesity

If you are given choice between fatty, spicy and healthy food, chances are

that you'll educate your local dealer to sell you more fat, more spice, more salt.

In world war 2 Britain, there was a food outage and the government

took away all food from the free market and made it available by coupons only.

Experts were consulted to produce a diet that would be nutricious enough to keep

the wartime efforts going and people healthy with minimum effect to the economy.

E.g. each person was allowed one egg per week - so many ounces of salt etc.

The generation that grew up that time is still the healthiest, leanest, oldest and most content generation ever. They took up the wartime diet and stuck to it afterwards.

Once people are free of choice, they're trapped. It's a mass phenomenon.

Even mass poverty can't produce a leaner population, if bad food is cheaper

than good food.

I wonder what Noam Chomsky would write about this question.

#152645

chomsky would have quite an opinion!

i wonder what j.s. mill would say about it.

i don't think the government or any other authoritarian body has a responsibility to be a paternalistic system. i don't need a governing body to tell me what to do, and i don't expect them to (go thoreau!). people do know about the ramifications of eating such foods, and people have ultimate autonomy (to an extent) over what they eat. granted, corporations control the production of the foods over which the general mass has autonomy, so changes could be proposed in this respect (and indeed it has), but imperfect restriction will have a negligible effect if it is more than a personal decision, but a culturally defined one.

personal decisions are never undertaken in a vacuum of beliefs; there is always a pre-existing set of beliefs that reflect the general conditions of the system in which the agent is operating, so the decision over food choice is shaped, in part, by the agent's beliefs. e.g. cultural values shaped from eras of growing up eating fish, sociological meanings of big steaks, etc. so there is no simple solution simply because the problem extends further than one thinks.

#152664

I'm going to say it's 50/50 but leaning towards society.

There is still personal responsibility for ones actions, but the way society places value on what one wears or eats or drives or whatever can play very heavy on an individual decision making process.

There are a lot of sheep in society and they tend to play follow the leader more often than not.

When I was growing up, I never sat in front of a TV for hours on end.

I would catch some of the Saturday morning cartoons, but that was it.

I'd spend the rest of my time OUTSIDE playing.

No video games or internet, I actualy ran and climbed and did all kinds of physical activities.

Today's kids have X-Box or PS-2 or my favorite one... the gameboy.

That way you can go outside to sit on your a$$ and play video games.

Today's society is all about convienience, eating on the go, but to go where??? People go get fast food so they can get back to work sitting on their arses all day long.

The U.S. is still the most overworked society in the world.

We have the longest work day/week and the least amount of vacation compared to just about every other country in the world.

Trust me... a 50 hour work week for me is a short one.

I spend almost my entire day behind a desk. The only reason I'm not a fat a$$ is I still like to get out and play things like basket ball or baseball or most any kind of sport.

Most people I work with just go home and collapse... and they are overweight to say the least.

Just my opinion, but backed up with some very truthful facts.

#152682

Originally posted by Sid@Apr 29 2004, 11:02 AM

and maybe you need to stop playing ut2003.... :6

I use Windows Classic. :6

@wizard:

I dont play ut2k3, and I too use windows classic in fact my desktop is only 8kb

http://www.twistedcpu.com/tim/desktops/pc/dt_02_02_04.gif

#152707

Originally posted by Timan@Apr 29 2004, 01:06 PM

I dont play ut2k3, and I too use windows classic in fact my desktop is only 8kb

http://www.twistedcpu.com/tim/desktops/pc/dt_02_02_04.gif

/me is proud of Timan...

#152710

What ever happened to personal responsibility. It is NOT societies job to teach people how to eat. It is a parental responsibility to educate themselves on how to eat a healthy diet and to teach their children the same. Society can provide information to assist the individual ... but it's the individual's responsibility to seek out that information and use it to their own benefit. Blaming corporations is the silliest thing I've heard in my life. "McDonald's MADE me eat their burgers!!" Yikes...what a load of crap!!

#152723