Ch.

12 Let Them Drink Water

-Daniel Engber

Main idea:

This essay is mainly about the effects of fast food, increasing obesity and its controlling
measures. The writer proposes a concept of 'fat tax' on people and a surcharge on soft drinks
which will protect the health of the people and also help the state with the outstanding revenue.
But the tax system should not be discriminative to the poor people and the revenue taken from
the fast food should go back to the society for making health awareness.

Summary:

In the beginning, the writer introduces the concept of 'fat tax' that could be applied for keeping
people healthy and making them aware about the effect of fast foods. The 'fat tax' is the
implementation of the tax system for the overweight people according to their body mass index.
In the context of bringing the 'fat tax' policy on the table, he says that the legislature should
approve it wholeheartedly. It is already approved in the state legislatures and some states have
already taken the tax but why not the federal legislature?

Taxing fast foods and soda drinks should be as natural as taxing cigarettes. In fact, one bottle of
soft drink is more harmful than one stick of cigarette. But cigarette is heavily taxed while the
drinks are not. The sweetened soft drinks can cause diabetes which is a killer disease. It is not
only a fast food but it is also a type of addictive drug which you want to take again and again.
After all, how does it make us feel like eating time and again and how much it affects our health?

According to the neuropundits, such fast food items are specially engineered to enslave us
because they add some dopamine chemicals on the food which give us pleasure when we eat
them. These foods stimulate our pleasure system in the brain and we find them hyperpalatable.
For example, soft drinks have some addictive chemicals and they cajole us into the consumption
of more and more drinks. We want to drink more for pleasure but after the supply of so much
sugar, the metabolism of our body changes. Our pancreas cannot produce so much insulin to
control sugar level. When this happens for a long time, we suffer from the diabetes, a killer
disease.

The writer says that there are two types of hunger: a hunger to stay alive and a hedonic hunger.
The hunger to stay alive is the biological requirement we really need. When we are hungry, we
want to eat meal. But hedonic hunger is the hunger our body does not require. It is an urge to eat
some tasty food for pleasure when we feel like eating or drinking even if we are full because they
have some seductive elements to attract us at any time.
The writer says that the tax should be imposed to the food for hedonic hunger because they are
not really necessary for our body. People just eat them for pleasure. At the same time, the writer
says that the tax system should not affect only the poor people. It seems that most of the poor and
black people seem to be drinking soda and they are likely to be affected. So he says that the tax
taken from them should go to their own community for preventing obesity and controlling
diabetes. And they need to understand that so much sugar-sweetened beverages are not necessary
for their health whether they are rich or poor. Therefore, the writer says that we need to create
awareness about fast food and we need to let them eat cake and let them drink water which is
healthier than the soft drinks.

Argumentative essay

Argumentation is the process of reasoning supported by some logic and evidence. Originally
essays are argumentative and persuasive since they try to give some opinion and convince the
readers on their point. The readers can agree or disagree on the writer's point. The views against
the writers are ideas are called counter argument and the writer's logic to disqualify their ideas is
called refutation. While they convince the readers, they can use their logic, evidence, examples,
and data. Documentation of the facts must be reliable for convincing their readers.
Argumentative essays do not use stories, like narratives. They just give their ideas and
information that might be knowledgeable.

Structure of an argumentative essay

- Introduction gives the main idea or the opinion of the writer.

- Body paragraphs use evidence and logic like induction, deduction and refutation
- Conclusion gives a focus on the thesis statement again.