Double doubles, chicken nuggets, and McFlurries have taken over our vocabulary when deciding what to eat. More and more Americans today are choosing to eat fast foods and microwaved lunches. Despite the low cost of these foods, they are costing us our health. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, over 1 in every 3 adults are considered to be overweight or to have obesity. One in every thirteen adults were considered to have extreme obesity as well as 1 in 6 children are declared overweight from the ages of 2 to 19.

The epidemic that surrounds the U.S. comes to question, What is the average American eating on a daily basis? This can range from race, religion, and class but at the end of the day the average Americans who are obese are families with lower incomes.

While grocery shopping, Americans are looking at the prices and not what’s in the foods their buying. Processed foods like potato chips and microwaved lunches contain unknown chemicals that the average American will shadow over because it’s foreign to them. People are buying foods without truly knowing the effects of what these foods can do to their health. There are chemicals with GMO’s and high corn fructose syrup that not many people are aware of.

Along with these processed foods, they are shifted towards children that are being fed with prices in their cereal boxes. Based on Netflix’s documentary Fed Up, companies like Kellogg’s are planting kids favorite superheroes or cartoon characters onto their boxes causing kids to be attracted to these foods. What can a parent do when they see their kid happy and their amount a bit lower?

The effects of these foods are harming kids’ and adults’ health. Over time, buying these foods are hurting the American people with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart concerns, and massive weight gain. Today if an American chose to shift to a healthier lifestyle, according to the Huffington Post they would be adding an extra $550 a year due to the high costs in healthier substitutions. Not many people in America have the income nor access to these foods in today’s wave of poverty. The American people are stuck in a position of having to balance their choice of foods and income all to live a long and healthier life.

The Obesity Epidemic in America brings the real question if the reason our belts continue stretching in the United States is because our foods are in the hands of businesses that only believe in their sales and not in what their putting down our throats?

Senior Andrea Franco shares her perspective on the Obesity Epidemic in America: “I understand why people in the U.S. are overweight because of what’s fed and sold to us on a daily basis. Not everything on the shelves are healthy or even relatively safe for our bodies. It’s a horrible thing that businesses are allowing their products to be sold with these harmful chemicals.”

She then shares her opinion on the difference of prices of healthier food compared to processed foods. “I had noticed here and there of these prices but now it’s shocking and a bit ironic that America is being screamed at for eating unhealthy foods, when healthier foods are so expensive.”