Today I saw a very interesting thing on the social networking site twitter. A person on it said that it's the most ridiculous thing that our society is so appalled that a minor would drink a beer, but do not think twice about people eating excessive amounts of fast food or food in general. And that got me thinking....is that a legitimate argument, that eating too much is worse than drinking? Should it be a crime to go to a fast food restaurant too much, like it is for consuming alcohol under the age of 21? As i looked up the facts about both, in chapter 12, a person could make a case that it indeed should be. First of all, you have to look at why alcohol is banned for people under the age of 21 in the first place. It is because alcohol has bad side effects, like brain shrinkage and liver problems, while also trying to dissuade people from becoming alcoholics. But as it shows in chapter 12 on page 477, being obese has side effects just as bad or worse. Obese people are at heightened risk for heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, arthritis, some types of cancer, respiratory problems, and diabetes. If that is not enough, a study showed that individuals that were overweight were less wealthy, didn't progress as far in school, and were less likely to be married. Although alcohol has some very bad side effects, and make people make horrible decisions like drinking and driving, food has just as bad of side effects, if people do not eat moderation. So although I believe fast food or over eating should not be banned, I do believe that people should worry a little less about minors drinking, and a little more about the obesity problem that effects 1/3 of all adults. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment
Alcohol vs. Food
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I love your logic here. I totally clicked on this with intention to argue, but I agree with everything. One thing, though, is correlation versus causation on the obesity study. Obese people tend to be less wealthy, progress less in school, and are less likely to be married. I think that those first two may be directly correlated, and are causes of obesity, not the other way around... i.e. fast food is cheap, and thus, uneducated people who are thusly less well off probably buy a lot more cheap food. That last one though, yeah, I'm not too surprised that obese people are less likely to be married.
You make a very good point! I have never thought to compare drinking alcohol to eating fast food, but I see where you are coming from. Although I feel that banning excessive fast food eating would be a little extreme, I do think that our society needs to pay more attention to the sky rocketing obesity rates. Alcohol and fast food both do have negative side affects and cause health issues, so therefore, I feel that they should be talked about equally. People need to know that they are doing just as much harm to their body eating fast food as they would if they had a few alcoholic beverages.
This would be a very interesting precedent, however despite me trying to argue this, all i can find are similarities between the two. Alcohol causes upfront problems as well as long term damage. Overeating at McDonalds will cause you to gain weight, which is also an immediate health concern as well as a multitude of societal and safety concerns down the road. Very good argument! I can't really poke any holes in it...
I think you have a very valid point here. While eating fast food a lot isn't a crime at all it is still something that can be bad for you. You can see it in society today that the problems associated with eating too much fast food is real. Alcohol is illegal for those under 21 because it can also cause problems. I think it would be hard to argue that eating too much fast food should be illegal but I see what you are saying.
You make a very valid argument. I agree that there should be more emphasis on put on what types of food people eat, and how people take care of themselves. Alcohol definitely has a more immediate effect, but over time, over-eating looks like it will lead to a much worse outcome. The truth of the matter is, however, that people really just don't care what the effects are, because our society has led us to believe that we should enjoy what we have while we can get our hands on it.
This is such an interesting topic that I never thought of. One reason the public might be so freaked out about people under 21 drinking is that over consumption could cause even greater problems with judgment because the pre-fronal cortex, where impulse control takes place, is not fully developed. I totally agree about moderation. Obesity is such a big issue today, but it would be really hard to put limits on how often people can frequent fast food restaurants. It might work to put limits on what kinds of food that those restaurants can serve, such as not allowing a single food item to have more fat and sodium than a person should consume in 2 days.
As a nutrition major, I love this. Obesity is such a huge problem in the US, and alcoholism is nothing compared to it. Recently in Louisiana, the government tried to pass a law stating that if you had a BMI of over 30 (which is considered obese) you could not eat in restaurants. While this law did not pass, I still agree with the ideas of increasing taxes on pop and think it would be a wonderful idea to increase tax on fast food or require a "doctor note" to be able to eat out.
Though I think you have a great argument, the real issue with government sanctions on eating, is that it would be very difficult to enforce. Just think of all the regulations set forth on establishments that sell or distribute alcohol, so that it will not be available to minors, and how easy it is to get around those. (Just look around campus on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night) It would be even more difficult to set for enforceable regulations on fast food restaurants regarding body mass index or height weight ratio, and even then, fried chicken from home is just as unhealthy as fried chicken from KFC. I love the argument and I think you did a great job, now we just have to hash out the problems with regulations and enforcement!
I found this article to be very interesting. I had never thought of comparing the two in deciding which would be healthier, but now that I have read your argument, I think that more emphasis should be put on fast food consumption. If we are feeding our children unhealthy foods such as these on a regular basis, how do we have the right to say that alcohol is more unhealthy for us? We need to pay more attention to what we are putting inside of our bodies. Alcohol sounds a lot worse because it has the title of a "drug," but what is in fast food (do we even really know what is?) is considered normal to us, especially Americans. Everything in moderation.