Elizabeth Quarles

5/2/16
Mr. Murphy
The War on the American Diet
Americans around the world have been struggling with the issue of what is a healthy diet
and what is not a healthy diet. The government feels that they have the right to pry into
Americans life and decide what is good and is not good for citizens. This is the overall best
result for Americans. The government knows what is healthy because they have many health
experts and the Drug Administration working to improve the whole country. The question that
really needs to be addressed is How do we get trans fat and sugar out of the American diet?.
Back when people were unknowledgable about healthy foods and trans fat, American
citizens didnt think twice about what they put in their mouths. It was up until about a decade ago
did people realize that major food corporations were basically poisoning us when they were
adding trans fat and added sugars into their foods. When you see a yogurt with pictures of
blueberries and strawberries on the label - right now there could be a teeny tiny amount of real
fruit in there and an awful lot of added sugar, or lots of fruit and dairy and little added sugar, and
the consumer cannot distinguish between the two, said Susan Mayne, the director of the Center
for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the F.D.A. (Rabin pp.2). This amount of additives kills
the right to know what is going in the American food. When people find out actually how much
sugar was added in their foods, people are less likely to buy it. The taste between natural sugars
and added sugars is unrecognizable. Kris Sollid is a dietitian and an author for the International
Food Information Council and does not believe in added sugars. The council he works for, on the
other hand, receives funding from food and beverage companies including CocaCola and
PepsiCo.

Usually when it comes to the Government deciding what is good and bad for us, they
make laws so citizens cant beat it. However, movements such as abortion advocates and drug
advocates have some-what of say as to what they can do. When it comes to the American diet,
the federal government for years have told us what we can and cannot put into our bodies. The
war on the American diet is certainly not the first time the government has stepped in and made a
healthier lifestyle for us. Back when the Prohibition on alcohol started, things didnt stay smooth
sailing throughout that time. There was a black market for alcohol and people got around the
laws in getting what they really wanted. Even though the government knows what is best for us,
people are not going to stop getting what they want as long as there is a desire for it. In the
1960s after a damaging government health report, cigarette and tobacco taxes turned punitive in
nature, as congress and the FCC waged an ad war, utilizing the Fairness Doctrine to provide
free equal anti-smoking commercials. (Groff pp. 1). If there is a ban for trans fat and added
sugars, there certainly might be a tax along with a war following the ban.
When people start talking about food and health, things suddenly become complicated
because you have to consider all of the latest studies. In the winter of two thousand and fourteen,
there was a release of news about low-fat diet and shortly after came a study of trans fat and
what it does to your body. Now there is a study from Harvard University that said just by eating a
few servings of fish a day or a decent amount of fish oil, that can prevent you from getting any
type of heart disease. Every year there will be new studies about the latest thing that is bad for
you. Arguing and protesting against the government has never been so easy but is it really the
right thing to do? The only people that are benefitting from these unhealthy foods are the people
that make them. After nineteen seventy seven began the carbs and the fat as a percentage of total
calories in the American diet. The consumption of meat mounted. Nutritionists claimed a lot to
be true about carbs. However carbs are good for you if you eat the right ones. They said eat more

low-fat foods and so Americans did so. low-fat cookies then, low-carb beer now. Its hard to
imagine the low-fat craze taking off as it did if McGoverns original food-based
recommendations had stood: eat fewer meat and dairy products. (Pollan pp.3). Nutritionism is a
fake way of trying to change the mind of the eater.
The American diet has been a controversial issue for many decades. The problem now is
deciding is the government has the right to pry into peoples lives to decide what is healthy for
us. Health experts and the Drug Administration is recommending the amount of sugar that we
consume. It is a start but there needs to start being more rules on what the company can put into
their foods. Just because they can label what goes into their food, its not enough for the
consumer to see whats actually in their food because most people dont know that trans fats,
corn syrup, and added sugars are very unhealthy for the human body. My stance on this issue is
informing the American citizens more often that what is in food today is very unhealthy. Also,
government should have the right to regulate what is healthy and unhealthy for their citizens. It
seems like other countries do a great job of this.

Work Cited

Rabin, Roni Caryn. "Placing a Cap on Americans' Consumption of Added Sugar." Well. New
York Times, 9 Nov. 2015. Web. 02 May 2016.

Pollan, Michael J. "Unhappy Meals." Michael Pollan. The New York Times Magazine,
28 Jan. 2007. Web. 02 May 2016.

Groff, Joseph. "The Government War on the American Diet." Center for Individual
Freedom. Center for Individual Freedom, 5 May 2010. Web. 02 May 2016.