The Problem with Junking Junk Food

Melissa Rose

Ms. Howe

English 1010

February 18, 2013

The Problem with Junking Junk Food

Thanks to talk shows, infomercials, and every news story ever made about New Year's resolutions, we should all know by now that America is facing a serious weight problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 68.8% of the adults in America are overweight or obese. Judith Warner wrote an article talking about this crisis and the efforts to reverse it. Ms. Warner's article starts out talking about how the Obama administration is trying to change Americans' eating habits by telling us to eat healthfully because it's good for us. Warner then goes on to explain that just saying and showing how healthful eating is good for you is not going to change eating habits, ultimately, we need something more. Warner further explains, "You need to present healthful eating as a new, desirable and freely chosen expression of the American way." She also says America must change its culture, from lovers of fast foods to lovers of broccoli, to change America's bad eating habits. According to her, we can do this by using psychology and emotion.

While I agree with Warner that we should do more than say eat healthfully because it's good for you, I cannot accept her overriding assumption that just changing our outlook on food will fix the obesity crisis. Warner's point that we need to present healthful eating as something new and desirable isn't really necessary because we already have that mindset. Models, athletes and Hollywood stars are healthy and skinny, and most Americans would love to look like them. We want to be healthy. Most of us know what foods are good and bad for us. What we are missing is the motivation to do it.

Warner then mentions two examples that the Obama administration should try to emulate to fix the obesity problem in America: the food rationing programs of World War II and the anti-smoking campaigns. Warner states, "The government realized it could successfully spread its message of ‘eat differently' only if it fought on two fronts: the nutritional and the psychological." She then talks about the success of this program and how it stopped succeeding when they stopped using psychology.

The World War II food rationing program, however, is not a good example of how to make long-lasting change. Warner says that because they stopped using psychology the program stopped being effective; however, the reality is that it stopped because the war ended. Rationing was always meant to be temporary, and the government promoted it by appealing to strong feelings of patriotism, not self interest. To help support the war effort, people grew their own food and they did more with less. They saw it as a way to help their sons and brothers fighting overseas. Once the war was over, people stopped rationing their food because there was no longer any need for it. The psychological reason this campaign was based on ended, so the campaign ended. And to be honest, I doubt we could emulate such a program in our current political climate, in which the two political parties can't agree on anything, and so many people distrust such government initiatives, calling it the "food police."

The other success that Warner suggests we use as an example is the anti-smoking campaign. Warner says that smoking went from being seen as cool to being seen as a disgusting addictive product. She goes on to say that it is