“The Cato Institute’s” Policy analyst, Radley Balko, in his article “What You Eat Is Your Business,” talks about the idea of obesity and whose fault it is. Balko’s purpose is to convey the idea that obesity is the individual’s responsibility, not the government’s or anyone else’s for that matter. Ultimately, Balko’s “What You Eat Is Your Business” has a strong hold on ethos, pathos, and logos, making for a successful and persuasive article. To begin with, ethos, being the author’s credibility, is efficiently used throughout the entire article. Each paragraph demonstrates the extents of Balko's thorough research, such as, “President Bush earmarked $200 million in his budget for anti-obesity measures. State legislatures and school boards across the country have begun banning snacks and soda from school campuses and vending machines. Sen. Joe Lieberman and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, among others, have called for a “fat tax” on high-calorie foods” (Balko, 2004, para. 2) and, “Sen. Hillary Clinton just penned a lengthy article in the New York Times Magazine calling for yet more federal control of health care. All of the Democrat candidates for president boasted plans to push health care further into the public sector. More and more, states are preventing private health insurers from charging overweight and obese clients higher premiums, which effectively removes any financial incentive for maintaining a healthy lifestyle” (Balko, 2004, para. 4). Every segment of information
Pathos, logos, and ethos are used throughout In Defense of Food to strength arguments on eating more healthy. Pollan contributes to his arguments by showing Americans what the Western diet has done to their health. These three devices help to provide support to enhance his arguments on finding a more healthy diet.
In the essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater”, David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine, discusses the recent lawsuits against fast-food chains. He does not deny that there should be a sense of personal responsibility among the public, but has sympathy for the kid consumers because he used to be one. Zinczenko argues that due to the lack of nutritional facts and health warnings, it’s not so ridiculous to blame the fast-food industry for obesity problems.
Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is an eye-opening analysis of the American food industry and the fear driven relationship many of us have with food. He talks in depth about all the little scientific studies, misconceptions and confusions that have gathered over the past fifty years. In the end provide us with a piece of advice that should be obvious but somehow is not, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He follows the history of nutritionism and the industrialization of food, in hopes to answer one question….. how and when "mom" ceded control of our food choices to nutritionists, food marketers and the government.
The obesity epidemic is rapidly spreading throughout America, reeking havoc on the nation. I have chosen two articles that discuss this issue and use different rhetorical strategies to convince the reader of the causes of this deadly epidemic as well as different aspects of the disease that should be focused on when researching treatments options. Examining the different rhetorical strategies used in the articles proves that, although logos arguments can be a good way to convince an audience of your point, use of ethos and pathos arguments is a much more powerful strategy to inform and convince the reader to take action.
This information helps to build the appeals of ethos as the Cato Institute is an established American public policy research organization. After establishing reasonable credibility, Balko then announces a special program called “How to Get Fat without Really Trying,” an event that Balko called a pep rally for media, nutrition activists, and policy makers all eager for an array of government anti-obesity initiatives. In the second paragraph, Balko brings to the reader’s attention the President Bush earmarked $200 million in his budget for anti-obesity measures. Along with the President’s actions, Senator Joe and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, among others, “have called for a ‘fat tax’ on high-calorie foods” (Balko). UTA students and the readers of The Shorthorn would be greatly concerned with having a ‘fat tax’ on high-calorie foods. Students tend to eat high calorie foods, because it’s cheaper and easier to ahold of, but if the government succeeded in adding a ‘fat tax, there will be
Judging from the title of David Freedman’s “How Junk Food Can End Obesity” published in The Atlantic, Freeman's audience, the upper middle class of America, conjures up an image of a crazy Freedman throwing away every piece of scientific data that shows junk food is hazardous to your health. However, this is not the case. Freedman brings to light a more compromising approach to solving America’s obesity problem. His opinion is that by manufacturing healthier fast food we can solve America’s obesity issue and that his method would be able to be established nation-wide in a cheaper, fast and more effortless way than some other methods proposed. Not all, but the majority of The Atlantic’s audience cares about
First off, in Radley Balko essay, “What You Eat Is Your Business” he thinks people need to start being responsible for their actions, because maybe it will help people from being so obese. Health Insurances should reward people for having a health style. Radley Balko talks about that if someone is paying for his health medicines, what is stopping him from not having something unhealthy (467). Nutritional testing is being conducted on restaurants by Congress (Balko 467).
In the essay, “What You Eat is Your Business”, Radley Balko writes to tell his audience about how the government is trying to control people’s health and eating habits by restricting food, taxing high calorie food, and considering menu labeling. Balko includes in his essay that government restricting diets and having socialist insurance is not helping the obesity problem, but it is only making it worse because it not allowing people to take their health in to their own hands so they have no drive to lose weight or eat healthy. In his essay, Balko is targeting society, including those who may be obese, he is trying to show them that the laws our
Judith Warner and Radley Balko have different opinions on the notion that the government is helping people to make healthier eating choices, where one opposes it and the other supports the claim. Radley Balko shares the idea that if the government stops aiding people with health insurance easily, it will stop the poor eating habits and force people to choose healthier foods when shopping. Balko expresses his feeling sin the following statement: “And if the government is paying for my anti-cholesterol medication, what incentive is there for me to put down the cheeseburger” (Balko 397). This statement paints a clear image of one of the reasons behind unhealthy food choices, which is encouraged by the government by providing insurance for citizens spontaneously. Balko is upset
When it comes to the topic of obesity, most will readily agree that it is a growing dilemma. This argument has many writers bringing different responses. Two explanations are debated in What You Eat is Your Business by Radley Balko and Don’t Blame the Eater by David Zinczenko. Both pieces create a good stance on the topic of obesity. Balko’s piece, however, has a better all around flow, organization and consistency.
Obesity is becoming one of the biggest problems in the country, but there has to be reasons for it. It can be the economy, society now, or people and companies. It’s time that our country starts to realize that we can’t live like this anymore. We need to see what is causing the sudden rise in obesity, and what we can do to fix it. Education of risks and solutions can be very helpful. Obesity is killing so many people, yet is still 100 percent avoidable. Our country is beginning to care less and really let themselves go. The fast food industry, supermarkets, and schools are the ones at fault for the spreading problem of obesity.
Did you know as claimed by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine American’s annually spend $3.2 trillion on health care? It was very eye opening when I, myself read the article titled “Unhealthy Eating Makes Health Care Expensive” by Timothy Philen. The article mentions how our unhealthiness began with our exceptional unhealthy eating habits. He points out what he thinks the root cause is in order for the readers to be persuaded. Therefore blaming Dante the food chemist as the possible cause for creating food “crave” with ingredients that included sodium nitrite, ingenuous hydrogenated oils, and monosodium glutamate. This was the author’s way of defending himself by using ethos as a way of reaching and connecting
This essay aims to discuss health issues related to obesity including causes, prevention and dietary aspects as well as underpinning principles and policies related to obesity. WHO (2011) defines health policy as the mandated aspect that must be standardizing to meet vital tasks of the health care as well as the society. Ham (2006) defines health policy as a product of interaction between different interests articulated by pressure groups, organizations and social movements. Buse, Mays and Walt (2012) defines policy as a broad statement of goals that create the framework for activities and ideas in the form of written document or unwritten. Policy implementation monitors, controls and review issues or demands that are addressed as policy
Over the years, obesity has become the number one preventable cause of death in the Unite States. This leads to the question; who’s to blame? Are the food companies to blame for the price of their fattening food or should we say the people paying to eat at these places daily are at fault for their own health issues? There is many controversies over this topic, but we’re going to discover who is actually the culprit to the lingering questions of the rise in obesity, for both adults and children.
According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2015), “the rate of obesity among adults and children have doubled since the 1980s” and “approximately one-third of the US adult population and nearly one-fifth of children between the ages of 2-19 are classified as obese”. The government can take a different stance to reverse this issue by redirecting subsidies to food companies influencing the food market, promoting a preventative stance (instead of reactive) on health care coverage tax breaks, and changing the children’s public school curriculum and regulating the practice the “food industry” spends on advertising unhealthy and processed foods to children. Research indicates that although personal choices may lead to healthier habits, the influence government currently has regarding the obesity epidemic can have a heavier impact on reforming our culture of unhealthy lifestyle habits.