Should the Obesity Issue be Government Regulated or Remain Personal Responsibility?

The responsibility of managing fast food intake should remain a personal responsibility, because a person’s personal health should be their own personal business. Imagine having rules and regulations about what you can or can’t put in your body, because other people don’t want to take care of themselves and are relying on the government to do it for them. As he stated in his article, Radley Balko has highlighted many issues on why the government shouldn’t interfere with the obesity issue. Ranging from the mere fact that he believes that obesity should be a personal issue to listing the consequences that government interference would have. He states, “And if the government is paying for my anti-cholesterol medication, what incentive is there for me to put down the cheeseburger?” He makes the assumption that people would care more about their health and actually be more cautious about the food they eat, if they were spending their own money on medication and medical bills, and I agree with him. People tend to be more mindful and hesitant about what they do, when they’re using their own money, but if the cost is covered for them, it encourages them to do as they please. But that begs the question of ‘do people eat unhealthy because they’re covered or are they covered because they eat unhealthy?’ And that is a whole other debate. Author Zinczenko tried to place the blame on fast food companies by saying that, “Fast food companies are marketing to children a product with proven health hazards and no warning labels. They would do well to protect themselves, and their customers, by providing the nutrition information people need to make informed choices about their products.” Firstly, let’s address the whole ‘marketing to children’ situation. Children do not work, so they do not make their own money, therefore they do not buy these “health hazards” on their own. Their parents are still responsible for them and should know better than to buy their kids food that would make them obese. Even if these companies are marketing to children, the parents still have the authority to say no. Secondly, there needs to be no label on these products because we, as a society, know that these products are bad but we yearn for them anyway. Anyone who says that they buy fast food because they don’t know the nutritional value is deceiving themselves, because everybody already knows that it is not nutritional. Like girl, you know good and dang well that that big, fat, greasy burger has no nutritional value and even if it did have a label, that wouldn’t stop you from buying and eating it. It’s not like these companies hide what they use to make these products; we all know that we are eating a big ole chunk of unhealthy meat, so let’s not kid ourselves with those lies. However, I do agree with his sentiment that a part of the problem is the lack of affordable and accessible alternatives to fast food. So if one of the government’s ways of solving the obesity problem is trying to get rid of fast food as a whole, they would not only have to make healthy foods more affordable, but also make it more accessible. One of the many reasons so many people are indulging in fast foods is because there are so many stores from different companies surrounding them, especially if you live in or near a city, but that’s also where self-control comes in. It is not that stores with healthy foods don’t exist, but as I stated before, it’s just that they are more expensive than a cheeseburger. So, personally, I believe that the obesity issue should remain a personal responsibility.