Melissa

Billings









ENGL 1010-410








Summary Response
revision

In David Zinczenkos article Dont Blame the Eater, he is discussing how

much of a roll the fast food industries play in the growing epidemics of childhood
obesity and type 2 diabetes. Zinczenko starts out with a joke, which is not really a
joke, about kids who are suing McDonalds because they are fat. He then goes on to
talk about the ease and affordability of eating fast food, and to address the issue of
this industry knowingly marketing an unhealthy product. Zinczenko claims By age
15, I had packed 212 pounds of torpid teenage tallow on my once lanky 5-foot-10
frame. He not only blames his own weight gain on eating fast food, but also the
growing epidemics that American children are now experiencing.
Zinczenko says he was a latchkey kid, being raised by a single mother, who
had to work long hours to make ends meet. When speaking about McDonalds, Pizza
Hut, Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken, he states these were his only choices for
lunch and dinner. He challenges you to drive any thoroughfare in America and see
which is easier to find, a fast food restaurant or someplace you can buy a grapefruit.
The fast food industry is making it easy for teens to choose their restaurants over
healthier options.

Another point he makes is the affordability of fast food. When speaking about
fast food restaurants Zinczenko states, Then as now, these were the only available
options for an American kid to get an affordable meal. With this statement he is
saying that because his mother worked long hours and was not home to cook for
him, not only was fast food his only choice for meals, but also the only ones he was
able to afford. Because these were his only options his weight gain was inevitable.
In his article Zinczenko also makes the argument that fast food restaurants are
marketing products they know have severe health consequences, much like the
tobacco industry did. However, unlike tobacco products, advertisements for fast
food are not required to have health warnings. Not only are fast food restaurants
marketing these products, they also make it difficult to obtain accurate nutritional
information about their food. He observes: There are no calorie information charts
on fast food packaging, the way there are on grocery items. Even when you are able
to find this information, often only by request, it can be difficult to decipher.
Zinczenko give this as an example, one companys Web site list its chicken salad as
containing 150 calories; the almonds and noodles that come with it (an additional
190 calories) are listed separately. It is almost impossible to know how unhealthy
the food they are eating is, or to accurately calculate the calories that are being
consumed.

I question some of the statements that he makes in his article. Are these really
the only options that American kids have as meal choices? I dont think so. I
understand that as a busy parent, especially a single one, it is not always possible to
be home when your child gets home to cook them a meal. What you can do is give
your child an alternative to fast food. It is up to the parent(s) to make sure that your
child has other options easily available to them. Stock the pantry with healthy food
and snacks; make it more appealing and easier to eat at home rather then going out.
As far as fast food being the only affordable option, this just isnt the case. It is
fast and easy to give your teen five dollars as you are running out the door, and tell
them to pick something up. If you are buying two meals a day, that gets expensive.
For the same ten dollars you could buy a whole-wheat loaf of bread, peanut butter,
and some fruit. In the long run this turns out to be the cheaper option, as you will
get much more that two meals out of it. Instead of giving them money, you can now
say there are apples and celery in the fridge and the makings for sandwiches.
Here is where David Zinczenko and I do agree, fast food restaurants do market
food they know is unhealthy, and nutritional information is not always readily
available. As a society, we have taken steps in assuring that the tobacco industry is
severely limited in their advertising. We should do the same with fast food. Also,
make sure that those advertisements have warnings associated with them as well.
Another crucial advance we need to make is to make sure that the consumer is

aware of the exact amount of calories and fat are in they meal they are eating. Have
the information out in the open and in a way that makes it easy to understand. No
more separating all the ingredients that come with a meal to try to make it seem like
you are eating fewer calories.