Methods to Fighting Obesity

Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and is causing lots of money to be used for medical purposes to ameliorate diseases caused by it. After reading the article “Downsizing Supersize” by James Surowiecki, his display of an alternative outlook on how human choice is influenced by perceived options. The 2012 New York City bill to ban the selling of 32oz soft drinks is an example of  former Mayor Bloomberg trying to influence New Yorkers by “[offering] a choice in which one option is seen as default, [and] most people go for that default option” (123). This is a subtle way of battling obesity by influencing people’s thought process when they’re buying soft drinks. It would be more expensive to buy two 16oz drinks if the 32oz option was taken away and people would be indirectly conditioned to not want to drink as much soda. The rhetoric used by Surowiecki to emphasize his point is logos driven because his argument makes sense and he has reasoning behind the idea of this ban on soft drinks could be a step in the right direction towards combating obesity in New York City. The other text that I read was a piece by Dhruv Khullar titled “Why Shame Won’t Stop Obesity” and how the contemporary thought process to fight obesity is by shaming people into losing weight. In this piece he discusses how this mindset is ineffective due to the fact that “Americans today are exposed to an unprecedented amount of readily available high-fat, high-calorie, and low-nutrient foods” (127). I liked an idea that Khullar had about reversing this current trend by “[providing] monetary incentives to promote the production of and access to fresh, healthy food”, it would allow citizens to make healthier choices and be a real solution to the problem. Khullar’s argument was Pathos driven because he strategically addressed emotional aspects of obesity and shame in his piece. But he also used it in a positive way to inspire the millennial generation to want to make changes to status quo society.