ANALYSIS /CRITIQUE OF THE ARTICLE

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Article critique

Obesity is the biggest health problem in the United States. Childhood overweight is a particularly worrying cause. Greg Crister’s article “Let Them Eat Fat” with the sub heading, “The Heavy Truths about American Obesity” talks about the realities of American obesity. the article opens up with some case of young men who brought in to hospital and the reason was their obesity. Then this article talks about the facts and tell the readers about the epidemics of obesity and reason behind obesity

What are the strengths of the article?

There are many strengths of this article including its simple language, incorporation of facts with realities, true cases, examples and above all factual detail. For example, author talks about the obesity in children that “Children are most at risk. At least 25 percent of all Americans now under age nineteen are overweight or obese” (Greg1). For this she provides few researches including the research of Dr. David Satcher.

At another place author states that, Then the author uploaded his work with lots of examples and facts or figures. The fact that this is a Pan-American epidemic, these terrible figures eloquently speak: 33% of obese men in the USA, 35% of women. In short, every third person (over the whole age scale) is overweight. Yes, in the USA, obesity has become a national problem. However, scientists have noticed her and were horrified more recently, although the fat men, fat women and fat chaps have long been calming eyes in the street and in public places.

Furthermore, she stated that, fat, sugar and salt became the main ingredients in these creative searches of culinary specialists: various “fascinating” food elements were mixed with these ingredients in different, but always high-calorie combinations. “Obviously, fast-food and nationwide restaurant chains like Krispy Kreme that serve it have long been the object of criticism by nutritionists and dietitians” (Greg 2).

What are the weaknesses of the article?

This article provides a good piece of information but the weakness that I have found in this article including lack of references, reliability of sources and author, no date of publication, and chronological order.

I am only able to find out only one reference that is of Harper magazine in foot note other than this there is no intext references. For any academic piece of writing sources and citation is most important. for example; author claimed that, “today, one fifth of all Americans are obese, meaning that they have a body mass index, or BMI, of more than 30” (Greg1). But how author can claim this without support and he failed to prove it without source.

Then again author incorporated his claims with a research, “As William Dietz, the director of nutrition at the Centers for Disease Control, said last year, “This is an epidemic in the U.S. the likes of which we have not had before in chronic disease” (Greg1) but no source or intext provided for this research. this makes the reliability and validity of this article doubtful.

There are no details about the author and no one knows who is Greg Crister? Because there are no details of author mentions nor the publication date and who published it. Other than that, the information are not updated and old researches used like one study of 1998.

At another point Greg provide statistics “The obesity rate for Mexican-American children is shocking. Between the ages of five and eleven, the rate for girls is 27 percent; for boys, 23 percent. By fourth grade the rate for girls’ peaks at 32 percent, while boys top out at 43 percent” (Greg3) now from where these statistics are coming from? This makes this article very weak.

What makes this article sociological?

Obesity is a social problem as the number of cases related to obesity are increasing. As this article discusses the various issues related to sociology like culture, cultural relativism and class.

Culture plays an important role in sociology and culture impacts a lot on behavior of individuals. This article talks about the culture and its impact on rising obesity. “Definitely, culture plays a role in the actions of any subpopulation” (Greg6).

Cultural relativism is important factor in sociology. It is nothing but a judgemental system. Cultural relativism suggests that the rules of morality vary from place to place. It argues that the variability of moral perceptions depends on cultural factors. “The ascendancy of cultural relativism led to a growing disinclination ………….. “stylishly stout.” (Grey6)

How does the issue/topic impact society? Are there specific groups impacted by this topic more than others?

Obesity is not an issue of any specific group or class it is issue of all people without gender or age specification. Obesity is a complex and often unsolvable problem, and the obesity epidemic in America continues to have a major impact on the health and spending of people, their families and all people in the United States. Obesity is directly related to many diseases, from hypertension to diabetes and cancer etc.

Which sociological perspective(s) would you use to analyze this article?

I believe all the three perspective can be used to analyze this article. From structural point of view macro analysis possible that how every part of society helps to make an epidemic of obesity. And from symbolic interactionist will be explain the obesity as a problem produced by human behavior and according to conflict what are the reasons of obesity in people of different classes.

Work cited

Greg Crister. Let Them Eat Fat; The Heavy Truths about American Obesity