Olivia Eitel
Argument Essay
“I’m on a seafood diet, I see food and I eat it”. Obesity is amongst our country and is thriving rapidly. Our country has been looked at as one of the most obese countries for years. One of the biggest challenges that I feel that individuals have is the amount of food they consume and gaining a control of what and when they are eating. In the article “The Pleasures of Eating” by Wendell Berry, he states that most eaters think of themselves as consumers. In reality this is true because as humans we must consume food to keep us alive. However, the quality value of the food that most people consume is unhealthy and costly. By doing the exercise with “The Pleasures of Eating” it has triggered myself to look at what changes can be made to help fix the rate that obesity is increasing.
Within my personal life, I have had a family member struggle with obesity to the point where her health was severely at risk at the age of 40. After interviewing her about her experience and the struggles she faced to get healthy, she would like to remain anonymous; I will use the term Person X when referencing her statements. In September of 2012, Person X had her physical check-up and was diagnosed as obese; weighing in at 237 pounds. During the years from 2009-2012 she had been going through some serious life changes such as divorce and struggling financially to provide for her family on her own. As a close family member, I have always seen her as nothing but a beautiful individual who works hard and loves her family even more. When I initially asked her to let me conduct and interview, I thought she would feel uncomfortable and say no thank you; but she said of course, have a seat.
Our interview began simply with the question “What do you see when you look in the mirror?” Person X responded, “At first, I didn’t see the weight that I was putting on because I have always had self-confidence with how I have always looked, even after having children; but as the months went on, my clothes were starting to feel tighter and eventually I found myself shopping at stores in sections for bigger ladies.” I was astonished with the reaction I was witnessing with her emotions and her tearing up. Person X began to tell me about the visit she initially had with her doctor and stated, “I was told that I needed to be exercising more and watching what I am eating and the portions sizes I am consuming each meal. I’ve been back to the doctor over 10 times.” After months of doctor visits, Person X felt defeated and didn’t understand why the weight wasn’t coming off. At that point her weight had become an even greater health risk to diabetes and she souk out a specialized nutritionist. During her first appointment with the nutritionist, they performed a few tests and she stated, “I found out I am partially allergic to gluten, not as severe as most cases and the doctor gave me a food tracker to see what ingredients I was consuming in my meals.” This was the beginning of her new journey to see if cancelling out gluten in her diet were the issue.
After about three months, Person X had successfully lost 22 pounds. I went on to ask her about the diet she was maintaining and what tips she could offer to obese people with similar issues. Person X said, “For people struggling with gluten allergies should maintain a strictly gluten free diet by supplementing in protein and vegetables. As far as fruit goes, I will occasionally eat a grapefruit or apple for breakfast but because of the sugar content I have stayed away from them.” After hearing her tip about cutting out more of the fruit I went to and compared some options. I compared the difference with agrapefruit, an apple, that an apple has close to 15 more grams of sugar and less value in protein. I then compared what a cucumber would be and found that one serving size barley contains a gram of sugar and only has 8 calories due to the amount of water that it contains. When speaking with Person X she stated, “Fruits are not bad for you by any means but when trying to lose weight you want to stay away from the sugar as much as possible and eat as many vegetables in raw form because they do not become a carbohydrate until they are cooked.”
In the article “Don’t’ Blame the Eater” by Zinczenko, David I agreed with changing the way that our government funding is being spent to benefit the youth of our nation. As a twenty-two year old, I can remember the nasty food that they served when I was in grade school and then moving on to junior high and high school the amount of vending machines that had only one slot for a granola bar. The increase with obesity has also increased the amount of bullying that has been happening in schools. By the governments funding to help schools a healthier environment can help reduce the rate of increase in children’s obesity and help reduce the bullying that obese children endure because they don’t look like the picture perfect model. I have volunteered at West Kearns Elementary School, Kearns UT which is a lower class elementary school and is a perfect example of why we need to be spending more funds to better the heath of young children. I had also noticed that each class only has one gym day a week where they exercise for an hour. I feel that schools should be incorporating at least one more day for physical activity so students are getting their heartrates up and pumping; junior high schools require a gym period so elementary schools should be doing the same.
All in all, our country does need to do serious review of what our goals and motives are to help our nation’s patriots in the healthiest manner. Help to promote young children to stay active and make eating fun for them. Cooking together is a great way to encourage a healthier lifestyle and can help with prepping food for the week and being able to save money on eating out. Be who you are but each day strive to be even better.