Radley Balko, a writer and reporter for the Huffington Post, has a long history writing for many publications, and has a degree in political science and journalism wrote a commentary almost ten years ago that is more relevant now than ever.It is on the social, political, and economic impact of America’s nutrition. The commentary was published by the CATO Institute in 2004, and it explains his opinion on a matter many of us have heard about, the government intervening in what we put in our body. Balko is opposed to the method the government is approaching the issue, they are enacting laws that ban junk food from being served to kids in schools, a more in depth nutrition labeling system for many foods at restaurants, and more restrictions on companies advertising junk food to children. He believes the government should promote a sense of responsibility to the people eating the food rather than regulations on the people providing it. He goes on to point out how that method of thinking cost everyone more money because if insurance companies have to pay more for overweight people, but can’t charge them more, the difference needs to come from somewhere.
David Zinczenko, is the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health and a best-selling author of several health related books, offers an opposing argument on the issue. He wrote an article published by the New York Times about the lack of options many Americans face when trying to find healthy foods, as well as a lack of understandable information on the food we are taking in. He sympathizes with people who had little choice or understanding on the subject because he claims to have been one of them when he was younger.
While I feel sorry for those people that have harder access to healthy food, it really is hard to build a case for them based on ignorance. We are constantly bombarded with reports, studies, regulations, and articles just like these that constantly inform us of all the garbage we are constantly putting into our bodies on a regular basis. We live in an age of technology that allows us to find out anything we want at a moments notice, which makes it hard to support Zinczenko’s view. We do have are capable of making healthy choices, fruit instead of dessert, running instead of TV, or even something as radical as smaller portion sizes, it all comes down to how much responsibility we want to apply to the issue. And if we can all accept that then we wouldn’t have to worry about new regulations and, to a degree, higher healthcare costs.
Regardless of what side of the issue you stand on, we can all agree that something needs to be done about America’s degenerating health. There will always be the tempting path to accept that it’s out of your control and just accept it and someone will take care of you, or you can work hard to live a healthier more active life to help offset the costs of the first group.
Info on Zinczenko- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/fashion/03davez.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Info on Balko- http://www.cato.org/people/radley-balko
Balko's Article- http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/what-you-eat-is-business
Zinczenko's Article- http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/23/opinion/don-t-blame-the-eater.html
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