Lack of Personal Responsibility in Today’s Health

Justin Sprofera

Com 122- 13

Lack of Personal Responsibility in Today’s Health

In the article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko calls out the fast food industry for making the children of America overweight and unhealthy. Zinczenko not only accuses the fast food industry for their negligence with serving food with little nutritional value, but also blames the lack of proper warning labels and nutrient facts. Growing up in a family setting where eating fast food two to three times a day was the norm, Zinczenko sides with the children whose only option is to consume burger after burger with no regards to what it will do to their bodies. He puts zero blame on the parents who allow these overweight children to continuously indulge in unhealthy eating habits, but hopes with the strain of lawsuits popping up, that healthier options will appear for children in hopes to reverse this detrimental effect. Unlike Zinczenko, I believe the affected parties need to be held responsible for this epidemic, not the fast food industry.

        Despite the fact that many parents do work long hours, there are many things they can do to ensure their children’s health is a top priority. This can range anywhere from waking up thirty minutes earlier in the morning, to spending a few minutes in the evening prepare lunch for the day to come. It is of course, the responsibility of the parent to maintain the health of their children in all aspects of life, and watching the food they eat should be no exception. Zinczenko makes another claim about the difficulties involved in acquiring healthy, good quality food. He says, “Drive down any thoroughfare in America, and I guarantee you’ll see one of our country’s 13,000 Mcdonald’s restaurants. Now drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy grapefruit” (392).  Zinczenko’s claim about the difficulties of finding a grapefruit compared to the readily availability of fast food restaurants is basically comparing apples to oranges. Being from San Antonio, there was always just as many places I could grab a salad or grilled chicken as there were Mcdonalds. Now I can’t say the same thing about the accessibility to grapefruits, being a vaguely unpopular fruit.  Zinczenko’s biased view relating back to his childhood experience clouds his ability to accurately debate the argument of whether or not consumers should be held accountable for their own actions.

        Zinczenko’s report on the attack against the fast food industry stems back to his poor choices back in his childhood. He lacks the personal responsibility to admit his weight gains as a child came from his poor choices, not fast food restaurants offering a service. His attitude reflects directly to the new age off offended Americans concerned with getting more handouts while earning nothing. While many will blame the fast food industry for selling fatty, high caloric foods at a reduced price compared to salads, they fail to see these companies as a business. The point of a business is to have a successful profit margin, so these restaurants sell only what the people genuinely want. In other words, the people want these fatty foods, they ask for it, so why should a company be held responsible for giving its consumers what they want at a price they can afford. Other naysayers, like Zinczenko, have their own opinions to throw around saying things like, “Fast food companies are marketing to children a product with proven health hazards and no warning labels” (393). These companies don’t hand out burgers and fries to kids, they sell them. School aged children do not have a disposable income to throw around on food. This is just used as another scape goat for the parents, the real culprits leading to the increasing obesity rates among children.