Shame On You

Shame on You

It seems that the average family is spending more time going out to fast food restaurants than eating at home. With more Americans eating out, obesity is at a new high. With the ever rising obesity problem in America, fast food chains are being pointed out as the ones to blame. Who's at fault? Is it the consumers or the companies making the unhealthy food readily available? While eating out is becoming the easiest alternative to a sit down dinner at home, the effects of too much fast food can be harmful and sometimes deadly to one's health. It is too easy to place the blame on the companies when the one making the decision to eat out is the consumers.

Supply and demand is simple and easy to understand. Broken down it means this: supply is the product the companies have and demand is what the consumer wants. If the consumers thought that they shouldn't be buying unhealthy foods they wouldn't put any money into that product. Once that product stops making money, the companies reevaluate what the needs of the consumers are and then market a new product. Since fast food restaurants are still very much in business, the demands of their unhealthy products are still high.

An important factor with Americans gaining more weight is that as they are eating more, they are exercising less. Some people can get away with eating McDonalds everyday because they work out everyday too. But, the majority of us don't take that time out of our day to get rid of those extra calories. Can we blame fast food companies for our laziness? It wouldn't be fair for us to place the blame on them. We make our decisions based on our wants and needs. If going to eat a Whopper is on our to-do list but running two miles after work isn't, which one will we more likely not do? An article in the Boston Globe titled, "Finding Fault for the Fat with Two-Thirds of Americans now Overweight," states that "few Americans are dragged into KFC at gunpoint and forced to order a bucket of fried chicken (perhaps the way Homer Simpson likes it, with extra skin)." (Askt, par.28). This author points out that while more of us are eating unhealthy who is making us walk through that door and order the fattiest item on the menu?

Another factor in overweight Americans, especially children, is the parents. Not just adults are becoming bigger as time goes on, children are getting larger too. Many kids spend their time playing on the computer, watching T.V., or playing video games. Now the habits you have made for yourself have been passed down to your child. Except for one important thing; your child can't drive themselves to the fast food restaurants. If your child's only option is to eat where you have stopped and that place is Wendy's what else can they do? They could order a salad and a plain baked potato right? But, what did you order? If you ordered a double cheeseburger with biggie fries your child will probably follow suit. An article titled, "Summit on Obesity: Overweight kids? You might deserve a big slice of the blame" states that, "from the foods you [parents]