The Danger of Over-Consumption
The appetite to try out new things has, over years grown not only to make Americans eat and possess more than they may need but the entire human race. Fancy corporate advertising and marketing are tailored to make their subject matter appear to be the coolest commodity to have or eat, thereby manipulating humans to try out (Rolls, 44). Humans are made to believe that trying such commodities will change their prior experience with “average commodities.” It is true that these commodities are not only changing the humans’ experience but they are also changing humans themselves. As a result, people are dying from once known as rich man diseases. Rich man death is currently a common man death. This paper aims at synthesizing two articles exploring how Americans are over-consuming their way to an early grave due to the adoption of unhealthy lifestyles.
Summary of Texts
Morgan Spurlock is a writer, director, and producer and in 2004 he was awarded the best director prize at the Sundance Film Festival. In addition to ‘Don’t Eat This book’ from the excerpt “Do You Want Lies with that” analyzed by this paper, he has also authored ‘Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden.’ “Do You Want Lies with that?” portrays over-consumption as a plague to America which is instigated by what Americans put in their mouths (Spurlock, 2006). William Saletan is an American journalist who writes for New York Times and a national correspondent for Slate.com. In 2010, Saletan won AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards in the online category for his article, “The Memory Doctor.” In the article, “Please Don’t Feed the People”, Saletan claims that human achievement has been impressive from relying on the mercy of scarcity to producing enough to not only feed the race but also to over-feeding it with fat. The resultant is overweight and obesity ultimately leading to rich man’s diseases.
The Connection Between the Texts
Both texts are describing how the Americans are killing themselves as a result of their lifestyles. Americans have adopted lifestyles which are detrimental to their health and nobody seems to care. Saletan notes, “Now we’ve achieved such control over nature that we’re dying not of starvation or infection, but of abundance… We’re killing ourselves (Saletan, 2006).” Americans are opting for processed and more refined packed foods rather than buying raw groceries to cook. Consequently, Americans end up being obese and overweight. Spurlock agrees that as a result of disastrous effects of over-consumption, Americans are spending over $227 billion on antidepressants aiming that they would be healthy again. In an attempt to avoid certain hassles such as cooking, makes Americans cruise to the nearest fast-food joints, feeding their systems with more calories without exercising or engaging in a demanding occupation (Rolls, 46).
The Role of Common Sense
Spurlock claims that some of the issues affecting the over-consumption of Americans involve common sense. It is a matter of common sense for an individual not to stick their fingers in whirring blades of steel but currently, companies do not presume people will apply senses. Companies have to insert a warning label even to obvious commodities. For instance, Spurlock sarcastically notes, “Yes, thanks to them, blow-dryers now come with the label do not submerge in water while plugged in (Spurlock, 2006).” Saletan sarcastically claims, “You no longer have to be rich to die a rich man’s death (Saletan, 2006).” The poor are foolishly consuming high-fat diet associated with rich man’s diseases. However, the rich have whole foods, gyms and personal trainers to help overcome disastrous effects of overconsumption on their healthy while the poor do not even have safe streets for walking in a bid to exercise.
The Importance of Walking
Both articles agree that some of these effects can be conquered through simple activities such as walking. Walking will help Americans burn out excess calories, thus enabling the body to self-regulate its systems. However, this old-fashioned technique is not appealing to the current society where everybody desires to own a motor vehicle (Hubert et al., 349). Spurlock observes that vehicles are used for personal travel six times the rate of population increase. In fact, there are more cars than drivers in America. According to Saletan, the number of cars has grown from 6 to 20 million in the past six years and the households owning such vehicles have 80% chances of being obese as compared to their peers. Dependency on vehicles has reduced appetite to walk, thus accumulating calories.
The Challenge of Changing Habits
Regardless of the fact that people are aware that certain behaviors lead to ultimate death, they cannot abandon them. They continue to eat their way to their early grave. Spurlock claims that it is only overeating, that is rivaling smoking as the leading cause of preventable deaths in America. Saletan says, “The hard part is changing our mentality (Saletan, 2006).” Filling our bellies proves to be too hard to let go. Consequently, Americans will continue to be manipulated by corporate advertisements due to their extravagant desires and wants.
Works Cited
Hubert, Helen B., et al. "Lifestyle habits and compression of morbidity." The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences
57.6 (2002): M347-M351.
Rolls, Barbara J. "The supersizing of America: portion size and the obesity epidemic." Nutrition Today 38.2 (2003): 42-53.
Spurlock, Morgan. Don't eat this book: fast food and the supersizing of America. Penguin, 2006.
Saletan, William. Please Don't Feed the People. September 3, 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090101400.html
