“Don’t Blame the Eater”

In David Zinczenko’s article “Don’t Blame the Eater” he focuses on the fast food industry and their role in the increasing health and obesity issues of our nation’s children, as well as these issues potentially becoming a serious problem that we will all have to deal with if we collectively don’t do something about it now. When it comes to the topic of fast food, most of us can agree that it is not the best source of nutrition. It is unhealthy and can be the cause of many serious health issues with our children such as obesity related Type 2 diabetes, stomach ulcers and even heart disease, high cholesterol, sleep apnea or even cancer. We can even agree that fast-food diets are a major contributing factor to
Do we honestly think a kid left alone to fend for himself is going to take that money, go to the grocery store, buy something healthy, go home and cook it? If we as responsible adults and parents are unable to cook our kids a healthy meal and are not home to monitor what they put into their bodies, then we must teach them the benefits of healthy eating, teach them to cook healthy meals and keep the refrigerator stocked with healthy foods. From experience, I guarantee when they get hungry enough, they’ll prepare the food, cook it and be happy to eat it. In June 2009 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an article stating “Approximately 17% (12.5 million) of our children and adolescents aged 2 – 19 years are obese.” Children who are considered obese are 70 percent more likely to continue being obese into adulthood. In addition, they are at greater risk for serious medical issues. Even sadder is we are feeding this crap to our kids. Those two-year-olds aren’t the ones walking to McDonald’s to purchase those foods for themselves.
Fast food restaurants have increased in number. Health care costs have skyrocketed. Childhood obesity is on the rise and, as I mentioned, fast-food, advertising and government industries are in it for the money, not the well-being of our children. Unfortunately, villages no longer