\magnification=\magstep3
\bigskip
\bigskip
In his essay ``Don't Blame the Eater,'' David Zinczenko says 
he sympathizes with a group of children who are suing McDonald's 
for making them fat.  Drawing on his own experiences as
a ``1980's latchkey kid,'' he describes how easy it is
for teenagers to put on weight with a steady diet of fast 
food meals.  Part of the problem, he argues, is that 
nutritional information about fast food is often either
unavailable or hard to interpret.   For instance, at 
many fast food restaurants, when added ingredients and 
serving sizes are taken into account, even seemingly 
``healthy'' menu options such as salads can include a 
shockingly large number of calories.   In his opinion,
the sheer number of fast food restaurants is also part
of the problem, since if you ``[d]rive down any throughfare 
in America, ... you'll see one of our country's more than 
13,000 McDonald's restaurants.  Now drive back up the 
block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit.''
In sum, Zinczenko argues that, especially for teenagers, 
unhealthy and fattening fast food is almost unavoidable.  
\vfill
\eject
\bigskip
\bigskip
In his essay ``Don't Blame the Eater,'' David Zinczenko
claims that the prevalence of fast food and the lack of 
healthier food alternatives is causing an epidemic of teenage 
obesity in present-day America.  This is a serious 
issue, he argues, because of the consequences for society of increased 
rates of incidence of Type 2 diabetes, a disease closely
associated with obesity.   Drawing on his own 
experiences as a ``1980's latchkey kid,'' he describes how easy 
it is for teenagers to put on weight with a steady diet of fast 
food meals, claiming that ``by age 15, I had packed 212 pounds of 
torpid teenage tallow onto my once lanky 5-foot-10 frame.''  
Although he does not say so directly, Zinczenko seems to be implying 
here that there are hard and fast limits to the weight that a person of 
a certain height can carry safely.  This raises 
a question, though.  Is being ``overweight'' a medical condition that 
can be precisely defined, or is it at least partly a matter of perception 
and possibly dependent on cultural factors?
\end
