In The Consumer A Republic of Fat, Michael Pollan talks about how today’s addiction to corn syrup is comparable to the national drinking binge of the nineteenth century. Despite the fact he did not connect the two topics as well as he could have, Pollan did a great job of expressing his opinions and giving a factual and emotional appeal to his audience. He gave an emotional appeal by using present day problems that affect Americans, and a factual appeal by using real events that have happened. The excerpt is really eye-opening about how unhealthy the habits of the majority of the American people are.
To begin with, at the beginning of Pollan’s short essay, he talks about the nineteenth century drinking binge. He explains the American people became addicted to the corn whisky because they could drink a lot of it for cheap. The American farmers were making a lot of corn and were able to produce this whiskey for cheap. He compared this event to today’s problem with unhealthy eating habits and obesity. In both scenarios the farmers make too much corn. Corn syrup is a cheaper option to get good tasting food. Although the food made with corn syrup is good taste wise, it is not good health wise. Pollan states in his essay, “By inducing people to consume more calories than they otherwise might, it gets them to really chomp …show more content…
Pollan writes, “ Most researchers trace America’s rising rates of obesity to the 1970s. This was, of course, the same decade that America embraced a cheap-food farm policy and began dismantling forty years of programs designed to prevent overproduction” (Pollan 285). Pollan argued that the reason America began being unhealthy was because of the fact that America embraced overproduction of food. Although the most of the food produced with corn syrup are good and cheaper, it is unhealthy. In America 17.5 billion pounds of high fructose corn syrup is being
To begin with, at the beginning of Pollan’s short essay, he talks about the nineteenth century drinking binge. He explains the American people became addicted to the corn whisky because they could drink a lot of it for cheap. The American farmers were making a lot of corn and were able to produce this whiskey for cheap. He compared this event to today’s problem with unhealthy eating habits and obesity. In both scenarios the farmers make too much corn. Corn syrup is a cheaper option to get good tasting food. Although the food made with corn syrup is good taste wise, it is not good health wise. Pollan states in his essay, “By inducing people to consume more calories than they otherwise might, it gets them to really chomp …show more content…
Pollan writes, “ Most researchers trace America’s rising rates of obesity to the 1970s. This was, of course, the same decade that America embraced a cheap-food farm policy and began dismantling forty years of programs designed to prevent overproduction” (Pollan 285). Pollan argued that the reason America began being unhealthy was because of the fact that America embraced overproduction of food. Although the most of the food produced with corn syrup are good and cheaper, it is unhealthy. In America 17.5 billion pounds of high fructose corn syrup is being