Responsibility for Food Choices Belongs to the Consumer Alone

By: Bailey Cassidy   

In his article “What You Eat Is Your Business,” Reason magazine editor Radley Balko emphasizes the necessity for personal responsibility when it comes to what food people choose to consume and insists that the government should not interfere with consumers’ choices.  Balko explains that anti-obesity initiatives, such as removing junk food from vending machines in schools and requiring more detailed food labels, are taking off and are gaining federal support.  With individual Americans’ well-being becoming a matter of “public health” instead of simply a matter of individual responsibility, Balko argues that America’s health care system is moving towards socialism and that people are becoming less responsible for their own health and more responsible for that of others.  For example, laws have been passed that require some people to pay for others’ medicine.  Balko argues that a collective ownership of private health may eventually lead to more federal restrictions on consumer choice and civil liberties.  He advocates that obesity should be removed from the realm of “public health” because what one chooses to eat should not be anyone else’s concern, and obesity only becomes a public matter when the public is forced to pay for the consequences of other consumers’ poor choices.  Balko concludes by asserting that individual citizens would make healthier food choices if someone else was not paying for the consequences of those choices (Balko, qtd. in Birkenstein, Durst and Graff 395-398).

I agree with Balko’s stance that food choice should be nobody’s responsibility except the individual consumer’s.  I remember being in seventh grade and arriving at school on my first day to discover that all the candy, chips and sodas had been removed from the vending machine in the hallway at my junior high school. Naturally, this upset me very much.  Not only was I upset that my favorite snacks were no longer there, but also, even at age twelve, I felt that it was an injustice to myself and the other students that our freedom to choose to eat junk food if we wanted to spend our money on it was disabled.  Being a free country where citizens can make their own choices is something that America prides itself on, and that fact had been rammed down my throat in all of my history classes.  Thus, it made no sense to me that my fellow students and I were being stripped of a choice that we used to have in the halls of our very own junior high school (the place where we were regularly lectured on the importance of freedom of choice).  As Balko states, a “collective ownership of private health paves the way for even more federal restrictions on consumer choice and civil liberties” (Balko, qtd. in Birkenstein, Durst and Graff 397).  I agree that not allowing consumers to have total free choice with regards to what they are eating, or a sense of personal responsibility for the consequences of poor food choices, strips consumers of freedom of choice, which is an essential civil liberty that is at the foundation of our country.

When I got home from school after my first day of seventh grade and my mother asked me how my day went, I regaled her with tales of teachers, friends, homework and the “improvements” that had been made to my beloved vending machine over the summer.  She said she understood how disappointing this must be and how it may seem like a violation of civil rights.  However, she supposed my school found it necessary to decrease the availability of junk food for the sake of students who do not make responsible food choices because child obesity was on the rise.  She then proceeded to tell me that she would pack dessert or another treat in my school lunch every Friday, because the previous year, she had given me a dollar to spend at the vending machine every Friday.  The snack offerings previously provided by my school’s vending machine were by no means healthy, but my mother thought it was okay to treat myself to a cookie, some chips or a soda once a week as a reward for working hard in school and dance classes.  This illustrates an important point; parents who foster a sense of responsible food choices in children can make all the difference when it comes to a child’s health.  By not providing me with the means to purchase junk food on a daily basis, my mother effectively made sure I did not eat too much junk food.  However, students who buy vending machine snacks or fast food every day may become obese as result of this behavior.  I was fortunate that my parents provided me with healthy meals, the occasional treat, and lots of exercise opportunities (I took dance classes for at least four hours a week all through elementary school, junior high and high school).  While I understand that it is difficult for some families to provide their children with healthy meals and exercise opportunities, I feel that parents are responsible for having healthy food around the house or providing their children with dining options other than fast food, as well as encouraging regular exercise.  It is certainly not up to the federal government to make sure that all the children in America remain healthy and fit; parents need to take some responsibility.

In a counterargument to Balko’s article, David Zinczenko, author of health related books and editor of Men’s Health magazine, asserts that obesity is not the consumer’s fault, but the fault of the fast food industry for providing so many unhealthy yet affordable dining options (Zinczenko, qtd. in Birkenstein, Durst and Graff 391-393).  While I understand that fast food is convenient and affordable, it is not the industry’s fault that Americans are becoming increasingly obese.  Fast food chains are just trying to make money by selling products in a capitalist society, just like every other business in America.  I do not hear many people blaming clothing stores or car dealerships for the fact that many Americans are poor, so why should we blame the fast food industry for the fact that many Americans are obese?  It is the same principle. Companies attempt to sell products to consumers, but the consumer must choose whether or not to purchase the products.  If more consumers were to choose to purchase fresh fruit instead of a Big Mac, some of the obesity problems in America would be ameliorated.

I agree with Balko’s stance that the government should foster a sense of personal responsibility for food choices in its consumers.  Trying to manipulate consumers or trying to control what they eat is only doing them a disservice.  If consumers are manipulated to not eat junk food, when an opportunity to choose an unhealthy option presents itself, they are likely to choose the unhealthy option because they have been deprived of it.  When children are young, it should be up to their parents to foster a sense of healthy eating habits, and when the children grow up, it should be up to the individual to decide what to eat.  My parents have instilled healthy eating habits in me.  Therefore, even though I am now living on my own and there is so much unhealthy food available that I could buy if I wanted to, I try my best to avoid junk food and remain healthy.  But when I am craving a Pop-Tart from the vending machine in my residence hall, I am grateful that the government is not taking it away from me, and I know that if I continue to eat Pop-Tarts, I will need to exercise more frequently in order to avoid gaining the Freshman 15.  All consumers should have the freedom to choose what food to eat and the opportunity to develop a mentality that encourages healthy food choices.  To have that taken away by the government is to have an essential freedom and a good learning experience taken away.

Works Cited

Qtd in: Birkenstein, Cathy; Durst, Russel and Graff, Gerald. They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. Balko, Radley.“What You Eat Is Your Business.” Cato.org. 23 May 2004.

Qtd in: Birkenstein, Cathy; Durst, Russel and Graff, Gerald. They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. Zinczenko, David. “Don’t Blame the Eater.” The New York Times. 23 November 2004.