In our society, we are seeing more sick people, obese children, and angry parents because our government is making it harder for us to eat healthy with thousands of fast food restaurants everywhere, yet not providing the full information of what we’re eating off their menu. Author David Zinczenko wrote “Don’t Blame the Eater” published in 2002 in The New York Times, and he argues The Food and Drug Administration is not providing the full details which is making it harder for the people to eat healthy if they are not being presenting with the correct information from the beginning.
Zinczenko begins building his trustworthiness with personal facts and well-thought-of sources, citing convincing details and data; however nothing has been done to change the situation and him writing the article he wants to persuade the public that something needs to change.
Zinczenko exhibits ethos in his article through the process of seeing what is happening to children or adults that are eating nothing but fast food and not being fully informed, and also by experiencing it himself when he was younger.
In his article, Zincenko first sets the phase by describing a storyline of when his parents split up when he was smaller, his parents were always working, and that left him home alone most of the time. Zinczenko outlines that the only choice of eating for lunch and dinner was either McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and whatever other fast food choices that were available. By Zinczenko giving his audience this example, he wants to point out to the parents that they need to be more aware of what their children are eating for the parent to pay more attention or make some household changes for their kids to have a healthier lifestyle.
Since Zinczenko was never watched over by his parents when he was young, he struggled to eat healthy, and that’s why he understands how hard it can be when you don’t have someone stopping you or teaching you what to eat and what not to eat.
Throughout his article, Zinczenko uses many dependable sources that builds up his reputation and appeal to ethos, as well to build his argument. These sources include diabetes in children by the National Institute of Health. Zinczenko supports this statement with his research and provides the audience with facts such as today at least 30 percent of all new childhood cases are diabetic, type 2, when before in 1994, only about 5 percent either were caused by a genetic disorder or obesity. The numbers of children becoming obese or borderline diabetic are rising, and this is why Zinczenko urges for parents who leave their kids unattended to come up with a solution to help their kids eat healthier instead of going to a fast food restaurant. Mentioning this source it raises Zinczenko credibility by showing that he has explored the situation and has provided information that are right.
Zinczenko also uses firsthand examples from his past when he was younger to launch and reinforce the matter, which reveals that he has a direct stake in and first- hand experience with the problem. Adding to his ethos appeals, Zinczenko uses strong facts to persuade the audience he makes another ethos appeal, in the introduction, the middle section of his article. Zinczenko mentions that some teenagers don’t get the chance to change their lives like he did when he joined the Navy and, as a result, that will cause teenagers to likely end up being diabetic or obese. Zinczenko goals are to make the audience feel like they need to take action to stop from the childhood cases numbers rising. Additionally, Zinczenko wants to reach out to The Food and Drug Administration so something can change in the food industry. Zinczenko exposes the lack of alternatives we have and the lack of information about what exactly we are consuming.
Citizens are not being provided with the correct calorie information charts on the fast-food packaging. The purpose of Zinczenko exposing this issues is due to the uprising of children becoming diabetic or being obese. Zinczenko knows and understands how hard it can be to eat healthy or how confusing it is to read the calorie chart on specific food because it doesn’t provide the correct information this is another example of an ethos appeals. Zinczenko presents the problem we’re having with fast food: children are becoming sick, and the numbers of people who are developing diabetes are rising as said before in his article. Another example Zinczenko gives the audience is that fast food restaurants are not giving us the full information of what we’re consuming, like when you go to the store, and there is calorie information, and even if they do provide it to us, it can be confusing sometimes. Zinczenko supports this statement by informing his audience how complicated it can be to read a calorie label. The label might say a specific caloric intake, but then, upon closer inspection, it turns outs to be a more significant number of calories.
Zinczenko also states fast food restaurant is marketing to the public a product that is not healthy but is not warning the customer of the health hazards it contains including no warning labels. Even if the customer understood how to read the calorie label it always good to know if it’s a health hazard, but with no warning label then the customer might not think of it as toxic food. Overall, Zinczenko expresses his concerns with today’s society, specifically with our government not helping us as citizens to eat healthy, or to not be fully informed of what we’re eating, and of the consequences. The Food and Drug Administration is not adequately doing its job, and that’s what Zinczenko wants to communicate to the audience that children are getting sicker and becoming obese. Readers can see the problem exists both in a family household and also outside the world. Zinczenko wants his audience to realize that fast food is not healthy food at all and to be aware and ask questions about what they are eating and what alternatives can be enjoyed
Another Call to Ethics. (2022, Dec 13). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/another-call-to-ethics/