Rhetorical Analysis: Too Much of a Good Thing “At least 25% of all Americans under age nineteen are overweight or obese, a figure that has doubled over the last 30 years.” says Greg Crister in his article titled “Too Much of a Good Thing” which appeared on July 22, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times. In his article, Crister uses three common rhetorical strategies, ethos, pathos, and logos, in an attempt to persuade his audience, anyone raising children or interested in children's health issues, of how prevalent this epidemic has become and provide them with some solutions as to how they can help prevent childhood obesity. Overall, Crister's argument succeeds and his audience walks away convinced that childhood obesity is, in fact, an epidemic
Another rhetorical strategy is logos, which means using logic, common sense, and reason to appeal to an audience. In his article, Crister uses logic to provide some solutions to help prevent childhood obesity as well as discredited some long-standing myths on how these solutions might not work. One solution that Crister offers is when he points out the importance of teaching good eating habits early on so that overeating, one of the main causes of obesity, can be avoided. To help persuade the audience that this is an important step to take, Crister discredits the common misconception among parents that children will stop eating once they are full. Crister mentions a study led by Barbara Rolls, a nutritional scholar at Pennsylvania State University, in which she observed the eating habits of two groups of children. Rolls found that the three year old group would stop eating once they were full, regardless of how much food they were given, but the five year old group would continue to eat, long after they were full, until everything on their plate was gone. This study helps persuade the audience that what they believed to be true about the eating habits of children might not be true after all and that it is their job to help their children learn how to develop good eating habits at an early age. Crister goes on to point out that parents are led to