It is no secret that Americans’ love affair with unhealthy food has caused a drastic change in the waistlines of it’s citizens; but is it really their fault? After hearing of a lawsuit against McDonald's, David Zinczenko explored this very question in his essay Don’t Blame the Eater. This paper will “drive through” some of what Zinczenko wrote, the facts that Zinczenko presented, as well as who is really to blame in this weight epidemic.
Zinczenko's defense for the eaters is a passionate one rooted in personal history. Zinczenko begins the essay by discussing children who are suing McDonald’s for making them obese and compares it to a Jay Leno monologue. However, since he himself was a child who ate fast food several times a week he did not blame the children but instead agreed with their way of thinking. He later goes on to discuss how easy it is…show more content… Zinczenko first states the statistic of diabetes going from only 5% of cases being caused by obesity to now more than 30% (465). To this he also adds that diabetes accounted for only $2.6 billion a year in health care costs in 1969, whereas today it accounts for $100 billion (Zinczenko 465). Another compelling point that Zinczenko made was that fast food doesn’t label its food, and when you do receive nutritional information it can be difficult to understand. Zinczenko used the example of one company's information on a chicken salad, which didn’t include key ingredients in the salad such as almonds, noodles, and dressing,which doubled the salad’s original calorie count of 150 (Zinczenko 464). Zinczenko also pointed out that the salad dressing that is given with the salad actually contains 2.5 servings, instead of the 1 serving implied, and that contributed to the rising calorie count as well (464). Although Zinczenko makes a fairly compelling argument, he allowed his history to dictate his