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Fat your Fault? Or Big Bad Corporations?

An article at RedNova News entitled Political Debate Looms Over Obesity talks about whether being fat is your own fault or the fault of corporations. Supposedly some people think that it is the corporations fault for advertising their product so much without telling people how bad it is for them. The article also said 95% of the 10,000 advertisements children see each year are for candy, sugary cereals, fast food joints, soft-drinks, etc.

I tend to agree with the people that say it’s your own damn fault for being overweight. I’m getting a little belly myself, but I certainly don’t blame the fast-food restaurants or soda makers for it. I know that stuff is bad for me, but I go there anyway because it’s fast, cheap and easy. I’d rather spend $5 and get some burritos than spend 10 minutes each morning preparing my lunch.

One thing people suggested in the article is not selling so many sweet things at schools, which I would agree with. At school the kids are away from their parents and the parents aren’t able to advise them on choosing a healthy meal, so they end up eating corn dogs and burgers and ice cream every day. Which is where most kids probably get hooked on eating unhealthy foods. Especially if they normally get healthy meals at home, they probably load up on crap at school when they have the chance. All of that plus the fact that kids don’t seem to play very much anymore. They just sit around playing video games all day inside without moving anything but their thumbs. I mean I love video games, and played them a lot myself when I was younger, but my parents at least put a limit on it, and would only let me play like an hour a day. The rest of the time I was playing outside or even playing inside with toys. A lot of kids I see today just play video games every spare minute. They play the PS2 and GameCube and Xbox when they are at home, then when they get in the car they play the Game Boy Advance. I even see kids playing the GBA at restaurants all the time like little zombies off in their own little world. I’ll let me kid have video games, but will use restrictions similar to that of my parents, only letting them play a little each day, and never at the table.