Unhealthy Food Choices

Nicholas Huynh

Ms. Washington

English 101

28 October 2016

Unhealthy Food Choices

        Today in society, many people in america are struggling with their weight . Obesity is a medical condition with excess body fat, which can be caused by the individual’s eating habits. Nowadays, food products have nutrition labels yet, many people are still continuing to make poor food choices for their body. Studies have been shown that in USA, the average life expectancy will drop sharply due to the unhealthy food choices the country makes. Even though there are many diet plans available everywhere, many people still make unhealthy food choices which causes them to live a lifestyle they do not wish for.

        Obesity is a health phenomenon which can be caused by poor food choices and lack of exercises. Poor food choices is the main cause of gaining weight. The reason is because today in America, most people are using their unhealthy eating habits unconsciously. This mean they don’t eat unhealthy foods by intentions but rather more for convenience and pleasure. For an example, their habits could be choosing for what’s convenient for a person such as fast food. It simpler to purchase a meal in a bag rather than purchasing separate items at a grocery store. Unhealthy eating habits can also be a person consuming too much food. Many people view foods for being things like pleasure or even for socializing. “The whole point of eating is to maintain and promote bodily health” (Pollan, Unhealthy Meals 2007). What people in society don’t understand is that the whole purpose of eating is to survive. Many people don’t have this kind of mindset and they would eat anything on sight or craving without knowing. Consuming many unhealthy foods is so easy when an individual don’t have the motivation to chose healthier. A person may think that eating fast foods may not seem so bad right now, but it has a long term effect for your future. Imagine being in your sixties and consuming a McDonalds burger to keep the body running. That kind of thinking is what drives americas life expectancy to fall.

        What caused this kind of lazy dieting? Back then, many decades or even centuries ago, the world was not struggling with this issue in staying in shape or even being healthy when compared to today. Foods back then were old fashioned and did not have chemicals that were unknown or hard to even pronounce. The reason for that shift is because of food culture. Nowadays we are eating a new form of diet called the western diet. This kind of diet consumes of junk and fast foods. Western diets particularly gets rid of the traditional cultural diets which are homemade and healthier food choices. This effects the world today since people are becoming lazier every day and are switching to this particular lifestyle. There are so many advertisements and marketing techniques that would make the consumers purchase their products. “The industrial food supply was promptly reformulated to give us low-fat pork, low-fat Snack-well’s, and even low-fat pasta” (Pollan, Unhealthy Meals 2007). Food industries came up with an advertisement scheme to low-fat their products in order to increase sales. This causes many consumers to believe that their product is healthy but, in reality it could possibly contain chemicals or even other added supplements which can cause weight gain. “So nutritional is good for business, but is it good for us?” (Pollan, Unhealthy Meals 2007).