Junk food should be outlawed! Agree or disagree?

Question

agree or disagree? Here are my reasons why I think junk should be outlawed. It is not necessary. Junk food is just a waste of resources. Poorer people are somewhat forced to buy it because its cheap then they become unhealthy and it costs them and society more money because of medical problems. If we didn't have junk food we wouldn't miss after a couple of generations. I have more reasons but I will hold off on those. So do you agree or disagree. Debate!

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Absolutely not. That limits quality of life in terms of enjoyment. My friends and I like to go out to local ice cream shops, chocolate shops, bakeries, etc. to try new things, all sweet goodies that have little to no nutritional value and are packed with sugar and yummy carbs. In this country we are supposed to value freedom, to a certain extent. Not only would you be infringing on my rights and freedoms to live as I choose, but also on my right to eat certain foods that are not healthy, that are specific to my religious and cultural traditions and my own individual lifestyle. Food is a huge part of culture, and if you start telling people that all junkfood, as defined as food with no nutritional benefits, food that will make you unhealthy if you eat it in excess on a regular basis, then you start suggesting that the government has control over constructing or reconstructing cultural traditions and foods that have been around for years. While I do think certain cultural aspects should be subject to legal intervention, food is not one of them. sorry.

i think fast food restaurants, specifically, should be taxed more. its very similar to cigarettes. I hate smoking, I think its disgusting, but I believe in freedom so I'm not going to tell an adult that he/she should not be allowed to smoke at all. However, it is reasonable to limit public exposure (i.e. don't f***ing smoke in front of my building, on certain private properties, etc.) and to tax the sh*t out of them ciggies. I wouldn't feel bad if someone had to pay 7 dollars instead of one dollar for a cheeseburger or fries, just as I don't at all feel bad when my smoking friends complain that the cost of cigarettes has gone up. If you are addicted and don't seek out help for what could end up in a health risk for you, then that's your business. I don't care if they charge you 30 bucks a pack for cigarettes. Its disgusting and is linked to cancer. tax that sh*t all day. its similar with fast food, especially since mega businesses like McDonald's can offer poorer people so much for such a little cost. There needs to be a change there, however, you can't just eliminate an entire market that is already extremely lucrative. its anti-capitalist, and whether or not you believe in the values of capitalism is irrelevant. its a reality. so make the food more expensive.

also there needs to be more educational outreach for families in poor areas. most of my family members live in the ghettos and projects of this country so you're not telling me anything I don't already see on a regular basis when I go to visit them. there need to be community programs, education about nutrition and health, I don't know, f***ing school field trips to farmers markets in the city. You have to teach people, you can't just infringe on my right to eat what I want just because one class of people is especially suffering. stop being a lazy ass and create effective programs to educate people and create a culture of knowledge.

confusedgirl239 · Accepted Answer

No way. Why don't you think about who the junk food companies are employing. Factories are places that employ many people, many of whom do not go past high school. If you look at it this way, then some underprivleged people get all the money they have from these junk food companies. Also, if you know anything about econ, what makes things expensive are the input costs, (so for example if egg costs are rising, so are cake costs), and the amount of demand for goods (& services). Businesses want to maximize their profit, which is partly why junk food is cheap. Many people don't want it, and those that can afford it won't buy junk food, and the input costs are less. If you erased junk foods, you would increase the competition for other foods, because there is scarcity of all goods. The prices of these now scarce goods would increase because companies can get more money for them, and therefore they will charge as much as they can get. So, in reality, getting rid of junk food would hurt more than it would help. Don't bother suggesting we put price ceilings on our goods either. If that is done, then good wil go to the places where the companies can get the most money, which won't be here. Therefore there will be no food, and we will have descended into communism.

swimmerchik · Accepted Answer

AGREE! I was just taalking to my friend about this the other day. Junk food is killing our country. People wonder why so many others are obese and get heart attacks. Aswer: food. Look at history people! countries start to fall when unhealthy food and leisure time creeps into their daily life. Our food is crap. The average flour you would buy at the average grocery store has absolutely no nutritional value. Even the expensive stuff you buy from health food stores has been genetically modified over the years into something virtually devoid of nutrients. That is why I don't eat gluten anymore. If fact, I don't eat any grains whatsoever. My diet consists of raw nuts, organic fruits and vegtables, cage free organic eggs, and organic grass fed meat. Yes, its expensive but totally worth it. If you eat all the crap our country thinks is acceptable than your just trying to kill yourself. I could rant on but I doubt anyone will listen to me because the listen to htier bellies not their heads, which is why America is falling in the world. Ask me if you have any questions about eating healthier- I may only be 16 but I've done a lot of research.

NotJustAnotherGuy · Accepted Answer

Because what the public views as "junk food" isn't unhealthy. Over eating is unhealthy.

Millions of healthy (in fact the healthiest of people) athletes, including Mike Phelps (Olympic Medalist and arguably the best swimmer ever) eat McDonalds.

How can they be so healthy, and so talented eating food that causes serious health problems!?!? Duh! they can't. Because then the person eating berries and nuts would always win, but -- guess what -- they don't.

So is it the food? Or is it your eating habit? Stop looking for a scapegoat. Fat people are fat, because they either don't care, or they're incapable of managing their eating habits. No one says you have to eat 5,000 calories of McDonalds when you eat there. That's your choice! You can get fat eating 5,000 calories of anything when not exercising. Including tomatoes! And are tomatoes unhealthy? How about carrots? Or salads? It's not the foods fault that it tastes so good you over indulge yourself every time.

Science has proved over and over weight gain and loss is decided by one sole factor... energy input versus energy output. Obesity (which I'm pretty sure is the major health problem we're talking about) isn't caused by anything other than higher calorie intake than output. Which is why thousands of people have lost weight with a 1,400 calorie McDonalds diet. And why thousands of people have gained weight with a 4,000 calorie diet at McDonalds.

Your knowledge of so called junk food is formed by the media which feeds you their junk until you are convinced of it. If anything, "factual" news should be illegal if not backed up by clear, supportive, scientific experiments.

What are you going to say next? High fat foods make you fat and you should stick to carbs?

You want a debate, but there is absolutely nothing to debate here. The average American consumes 4,000+ calories a day, yet do you think the average American workouts enough to counter act that? No. The result is obesity. Has nothing to do with the quality of the food. And I'm pretty sure food that is truly unhealthy is already illegal for you (e.g. people who get salmonella poisoning have strong court cases against the manufacturing companies and the FDA finds any malpractice they get shut down).

You can be more healthy with nutritionally dense foods, yes. But you can be even more healthy with calorie dense foods (McDonalds) combined with daily exercise. Your "junk food" is my healthy food. I need the calorie intake, because unlike the majority of people I care about my health enough to workout and thus need calorie dense foods.

Yum yum McDonalds. Taste good and fuels my workouts.

IN5AN1TY · Accepted Answer

Hell No! I love my KFC.

Tamikaze · Answer

I read that there was a movement to treat sugar like a controlled substance, much like alcohol and cigarettes. I find it doubtful that anything will come of it though it would be great if they had warning labels. I think the average person does not realize the power that sugar, and even sugar substitutes, have on appetite. I found out about 10 years ago how powerful it was. I stopped eating simple carbs (basically sugary items with no fiber) in the morning and afternoon about 10 years ago and was shocked at how much my hunger went down.

I would sometimes start off the day eating something ridiculous like a candy bar or piece of pie (yes, ridiculous). I was thin, so I did not think much of it. But, within about an hour I would be starving hungry. When I changed it up and started eating complex carbs (breads high in fiber or fruit with yogurt and nuts) in the morning and throughout the day, my hunger pangs were gone. Sure, I can tell it is time to eat, but I don't have this gnawing urgency to eat something quickly.

I notice that some friends who have weight problems are diet soda junkies. I have seen some studies that say that fake sugar just sets your body in motion waiting for the calories it expects from real sugar, and when it doesn't happen, you end up very hungry and eat more than you would if you had not had the sugar substitute. I have to say that I do see some people who are absolute fiends for diet drinks and they are not skinny. Hmmm.

nonyabiz2002 · Answer

What I think should be outlawed are idiots trying to tell me how to live my life.

If I want to eat a twinkie, I'm gonna eat a twinkie. If I wanna eat a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Large sized, then I'm going to eat it.

It's nobody else's business what I eat and what I don't eat. I have a job, pay for my own health costs, and am responsible for myself. I don't need a nanny state telling me what I can and cannot do. Ultimately I am responsible for the choices I make in my life, not you. I have to live with the consequences to the choices I have made.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

Thousands of men died to defend this idea, so elloquently stated in the US Declaration of Independence. This idea was very radical back in those days, as most governments believed that your rights were given to you by the Government as it saw fit. The Founding Fathers firmly believed, just as I do, that the only thing that Government can do is take away your God-given rights. Taking away your rights to choose is the epitome of evil.

It is time to end the nanny state. If people want to smoke, let them. When they get cancer, they have to deal with it. If people want to eat 5000 calories a day and become obese, they have to deal with that. If someone is stupid enough to burn their mouths on hot coffee or a hot pickle, then they have to deal with it.

Stop trying to save people from themselves. Let people have their freedom, and stop the tyranny that has become engrained in our society.

Red_Raconteur · Answer

I wouldn't go so far as to outlaw it, but I think it shouldn't be as easily accessible or as cheap to buy. Or healthier foods should be more accessible and cheaper.

In Boston healthier food is actually cheaper IF you can get to it. It takes me over an hour to get from my neighborhood (which is in the ghetto) to the nearest health food store. Shopping at the health food store actually decreases my bill by 25%, but it's such a hassle. The regular grocery store has some healthy options but the cost is astronomical.

It's a real shame that only the wealthy/people who can afford to live in nice neighborhoods are given access to affordable health food, while the people who live in the ghetto get junk.

raindropsXx · Answer

I entirely agree. Junk food isn't the only bad food around... the whole fast food industry is sickening. Watch the film Food Inc. It teaches you about how our food is coming to be.

I personally believe that people should try growing their own food, or at least buy locally. I've been wanting to start Aquaponics for awhile now but haven't yet.

Junk food is priced so cheaply, in order for it to be affordable for everyone. The only benefit it gives is a quick fix, and a mouth full of cavities, a body full of toxins, and a rich pharmaceutical industry...

Prof_Don · Answer

"Outlawed" is too strong of a legislative move.

Taxation, and those funds moved to overall reduce prices for healthier food...yes.

This is a cold hard fact: the snack food industry WANTS people to be addicted to their products, and typical snack foods stimulate brain chemistry 90% similar to "controlled substances" like nicotine and cocaine.

There's a reason why kids (and adults, too) literally fiend for chips and snack cakes, but rarely fiend for beef jerky or milk.

gotc147 · Answer

Wow, everybody look at the bleeding heart liberal who thinks that outlawing something will make it go away. Did you not learn about the prohibition era? Have you not heard of violent crime rates NOT changing when the assault weapons ban was enacted in 1994 and again wen it expired in 2004?

Have you not heard of all the drugs being smuggled into the country and sold on the street to anyone who wants them? Have you not heard of all the prostitutes selling their bodies to make money? Do you not notice how many people (outside the state of New Hampshire) who do not wear seatbelts? How many people still use their phones when they are driving?

Pull your head out of your ass and wake the hell up. This is America, we have the freedom to endanger ourselves if we want to. This is why most people were against Obamacare, so that our society would not have to shoulder the burden of other people killing themselves.

You want to f*** yourself up, you are going to have to get yourself fixed.

DebiPie · Answer

No, because then you might have the govt. dictating what you can & can't eat, and that isn't cool.

I do, however, believe that there should be a better way to get wholesome foods to lower income families at a lower rate. I know there are food pantries, however, if you've ever gone there you know you get what they give you, it's not always healthy, and sometimes expired.

People do need to have the right to choose, that's what our country is all about. Some folks don't make the right choices. Shame on them. I still want a free society.

GoodManDave · Answer

Everyone tells me I should buy an IPhone. I'm a technophile, anyway. I own a Mac, and I am in the creative industry, which IPhones seem to be made for. I would LOVE an IPhone. It would even make some sense for work. That doesn't mean I'm going to go out and buy one. I can't afford it, and can't afford the internet on it. So I don't buy one. I have a lot of bad things happen. Doesn't mean I have to make life worse by making poor decisions, like buying this IPhone when I can't afford it.

It's how you USE resources that helps or hurts... and there's only so much we can do to control what people choose to do with their resources, and many will STILL make poor decisions. We all have. That's our choice, as long as we are aware of the consequences and deal with them in an appropriate manner.

Blobb · Answer

Disagree.

Without junk food I'd be screwed. Regular food is lower quality than "junk" food where I live and caused me poisonning on a couple of occasions. So I pretty much enjoy having the option of not f***ing up my intestinal tract too much once in a while.

Of course you can get good food over here, but it's pretty f***ing expensive

I would love not to have to eat this crap though, I think healthy fresh food should be made more readily available for sure.

Maybe tax junk food a little more and pump that money back into healthy food producers as subsidies while making them cut their prices by an amount equal to the subsidy. Thus making junk food a little more expensive and healthy food a little cheaper, allowing people true choice.

People will still eat junk food because it tastes good and I even like to eat crap once in a while when I'm eating healthy regularly.

CubanRaftRider · Answer

Where exactly would you draw the line on what is junk and what is not? Even McDonalds wouldn't be too terrible if people didn't eat it 4+ times a week. Not saying it would be healthy but it wouldn't be AS BAD as it is now.

I would like to see drive thru's closed though. May encourage people to go in an get food or just skip it altogether because the convenience isn't there anymore (or is reduced).

Or have fast food places do what Chick-fil-et does and be closed every Sunday. That may help too.

Anonymous · Answer

No, just for the same reasons we don't need to legislate everything else that's bad for you. People are going to make bad choices, people are going to make STUPID choices and there's nothing we can do about it. Even if you ban junk food there are plenty of other poor life choices for people to make. At least if it's there they can see there are consequences to their actions...You can't legislate common sense, and even if you could you'd have to assume the legislature HAD common sense. (lol- that was a crack at my own Canadian government no offense to other legislatures I haven't seen in action).

Seriously thought, if we legislate all it's going to do is cost more money to try to enforce it and guaranteed it'd be on the black market and not regulated with calorie and fat content on packaging the way it is now. And, side note, I would totally go black market for my chocolate- I try to eat healthily but every once in awhile, I just need chocolate :)

jokersgirl · Answer

I think there SHOULD be junk food, but only limited choices..   I live in Canada and we have 6 or 7 major food brands to choose from, for the most part, with all foods. When I go to the States, however, I see 50 different choices for cereal, candy, chips, etc..  and the US is the fattest country. Coincidence? I think not..  I'm not saying every other country ISN'T fat, but I think if people were limited to what they can choose from, then it wouldn't be such a problem. So no, it shouldn't be outlawed just restricted access.

goflipaburger · Answer

No, we should make healthy food more available and affordable.

rachiee · Answer

I can see how it should be. People these days, especially kids, are becoming way more obese. Its not healthy. But you also have to remember that its their choice and that junk food is a luxury. If you want to get rid of junk food because it leads to obesity which can kill them then you should outlaw sports cars since people abuse those too and speed and wreck and die/kill others.

kasiecakes · Answer

I remember them removing the chips and soda vending machine out of my high school and filled it with more nutritious goodies instead. So I guess there has been an effort on some level to reduce junk food with minors in school and such. Adults are going to eat what ever they want, though. There's no stopping that. I know I love my ice cream :)

Brando · Answer

Disagree. Who's authority is it to mandate what people eat? SELF-responsibility is what is needed, not some authoritarian method of restricting EVERYONE'S diet.

Also, what constitutes "junk food"? Fast food? I'd be pretty pissed because I myself am on a weight GAIN diet so burgers, meat lovers pizza, etc. is what helps me with that. If that is taken away because everyone else doesn't know how to properly diet, that's not my problem.

DiamondKutt · Answer

I assume you live in America. America is a free country, meaning you can't ban everything that you don't like. Instead, you deal with it & move on with yours. What's stopping people from creating their own junk food, or better yet, what even qualifies as unhealthy food? This is never going to happen, health nut.

Anonymous · Answer

I'm not saying we should only eat it, but there comes a point when processed or junk food becomes to unhealthy.

You CAN make amazing tasting food and treats that don't have pure sh*t for the ingredients. Candy doesn't HAVE to be made from high fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes. French fries don't HAVE to cooked in rancid hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Junk food shouldn't be outlawed, it should just be made with healthy ingredients. The reason it's junk is because it's cheap for companies to make, which gives them more profit. If they whernt greedy and didn't care about health, we could still eat tasty and healthy at the same time. Go to any health food store and look at their 'junk food' which is practically the same, just made with healthier ingredients. It would still be junk food, but at least it wouldn't be causing nearly as many health problems as the standard stuff does today.

JanJan · Answer

Although I understand where you are comming from, you are not arguing valaid points. Our legal system is based on certain rights and freedoms that can not be denied here.

For something to be illegal it must be

1) Harmful to society (and being unhealthy does not fall into that category)

2) Harmful to specific individuals

3) Intentionally harmful in some way

sketchy · Answer

It shouldn't be banned. If people want to eat unhealthily, that's their choice - the same as it's their choice if they want to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes.

The more sensible solution, would be to put a "fat tax" on unhealthy foods, which would cover the increased cost to society (due to cost of providing medical treatment for obesity, heart disease, etc).

Denmark already introduced just such a tax, a year or two ago.

Junk food should be outlawed! Agree or disagree?

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