Their Obesity Problem To Fast Food Companies example essay topic

Today, many people eat fast food instead of home made food. The reason is that fast food is fast, cheap and convenient. However, at the same time, fast food is contributing to a big social problem in the U.S., which is obesity, and recently some people are beginning to sue the fast food companies for causing their obesity. Should the fast food companies have responsibility for American's obesity?

My answer for this argument is 'No'. I think that whether people eat fast food or not is an individual choice. There are many people who eat fast food, but aren't obese. They may do some exercises for burning calories, or try not to eat fast food as much as they can, caring for their health. Moreover, some fast food companies serve relatively healthy foods, such as Baja Fresh, Subway and so on. Even though people don't have enough money or time to eat except for fast food, they can choose those fast food shops.

Therefore, the responsibility of obesity should be taken by obese people, though fast food companies should also take actions to decrease the number of these people by showing their food's calories, serving healthy food, and giving more choices. As I said before, in the U.S. some people are filing suits against fast food companies for causing their obesity and related sickness. It is clear that fast food is not so good for our health. Fast food contains lots of sodium, fat and cholesterol, and these ingredients make us overweight. Therefore, some people think that the fast food companies should be responsible for the negative effects.

However, people who decide to eat it or not, are us. Even though some advertisements stimulate our appetite, those advertisements don't say that their fast food is healthy. Moreover, it has been often said that fast food has bad effects for our health, through newspaper, television, and other media. Most people should know these facts. To add to that, as I mentioned before, there are some fast food shops which serve health foods compared to other fast food shops, so if people are really concerned about their health, they can choose those fast food shops. Therefore, the problem should be attributed not to the fast food companies, but to individual choice.

Comparing the U.S. and Japan gives another interesting insight into why fast food companies should not be responsible for customer's obesity... Although Japan also has a lot of fast food shops, and many people eat fast food, Japan doesn't suffer from such a serous obesity problem as the U.S. One of the reasons is the difference in the life style between the U.S. and Japan. In Japan, urban areas have more fast food shops than rural areas, because of the difference of demand. The main customers of fast food shops are businessmen and students. It seems that there is no difference between the U.S. and Japan in this regard. However, most Japanese use public transportation to move, while American people use their cars.

Although the difference of burning calories might be little each time, it will make a huge difference after one year. What I want to say is that the obesity problem in the U.S. cannot be attributed to only what American people eat. It is greatly related with their life style. Moreover, even if Japanese suffered from the same serious obesity problem such as the U.S., Japanese would not directly attribute their obesity problem to fast food companies, and would not sue those companies. The reason is that Japanese tend to share responsibility for their failures. For example, today if one business person committed a grave mistake, the boss would apologize for it in public, because it is the company who hired the person, and the company would have to share the responsibility for the person's failure as the company's failure.

On the other hand, in the U.S. it is rare for us to see the scene in which bosses apologize for employees' failures, because the U.S. tends to concentrate the responsibility for a failure on a particular person. I cannot say which is better, but it is sometimes questionable to concentrate the responsibility for a problem on a particular entity, like fast food companies in this argument. Although I mentioned that the causes of the obesity problem are related to the life style and culture in the U.S., in the end, the responsibility for the problem should be attributed to individual choice, such as what people eat or don't. The reason is that we have to take responsibility for our choice as a part of our given liberty. Some other countries' people, including Japan, have longed for the liberty found in the U.S. However, if American people attribute their obesity problem to fast food companies, they will be the beneficiaries of American liberty without taking their responsibility for their choice. In the case of children, parents must assure responsibility for the choices of their children.

Parents should monitor their children's diet. When I was a child, my parents never allowed me to eat fast food. Although I wanted to go fast food restaurants, as my parents taught me the negative effect of fast food, I lost interest in it. Now my parents don't say anything about what I eat, because I am an adult, and I have to take the responsibility for my food choices. To conclude, I think that people shouldn't attribute their obesity problem to fast food companies, even though the fast food companies provide food which causes negative effects on health. The most important reason is that obesity is the result of individual choices based on liberty.

We must take the responsibilities for our choices when given the individual liberty of choice. Moreover, the obesity problem in the U.S. is related to life style, not just food consumption. It is unfair to concentrate the responsibilities for the nation wide obesity problem only on fast food companies.