Write your topic:
The dangers in unhealthy foods and what we should be eating instead
Write your tentative question:
Just how bad are the foods we eat? What should people look out for and eat instead?
Write your tentative thesis (this should be a statement that is debatable, with which someone could disagree):
A growing number of people, kids and adults both included, are choosing the unhealthy food options over a nutritional diet. There are a lot of long term health effects, like obesity, that are caused by eating processed foods with high amounts of fats and sugars; people should be more aware about the harmful effects about a lot of foods and find healthy alternatives.
Claims that support/strengthen your argument:
1. I want to expose just how unnatural the foods are that we are eating. I will need to include specific ingredients that are used that are processed and how much ingredients, like sugars, are being added into our foods. In order to reveal the effects of unhealthy foods, I would like to go into detail about why these foods are so unhealthy.
2. There is a correlation between obesity and fast food/packaged foods. I want to find specific numbers and statistics that prove how more and more people are being diagnosed with obesity, and how there are more fast food options available to people. I would also want to find specific cases of people/families/common lifestyles that admit to how they eat these packaged/processed foods and are now facing the challenges of obesity.
3. The majority of people are more inclined to choose the unhealthy option over the healthy one. I want to provide evidence that people tend to choose junk food over fruits, vegetables, and homemade meals. And that even those who do choose to make foods at home, a lot of people resort to canned foods or anything that make it easier and faster to cook at home. I basically want to incorporate just how big of a problem this is among people. And I might narrow in on specific people, like kids, college students, and young adults in general.
4. There are healthy alternatives that are available to people, they just need to be introduced to them. I want to include what nutritional options are out there and how these are the foods that people should be eating. And it would be great if I could find statistics on certain foods that include how popular certain healthy foods are so that people realize that healthy food doesn’t necessarily mean disgusting or bland food.
Claims that undermine/challenge your argument:
1. One claim that will definitely challenge the idea of needing to eat healthier is that healthy foods are very expensive. A lot of people choose to eat fast food because it’s cheaper and most people can afford that. It’s very hard to maintain a healthy diet when the prices are so high. I’m going to try to counter this claim by including how people can either try to grow their own produce; identify the super markets with healthy foods, but lower prices; and find any deals that allow the buyer to buy healthy foods for good deals, like buying in bulk.
2. A lot or chain restaurants and fast food restaurants claim that they have healthier options, like salads and fruit. In order to counter this, I want proof that these alternatives that are available are not all that healthy. Salads get drenched in fattening dressing, and are loaded with meats and cheeses to cover the taste of the lettuce. And a lot of the lettuce used is iceberg lettuce, which has virtually no health benefits. Even if there are “healthier” options at these joints, most people do not pick them over the other choices.
3. Some people simply believe that healthy foods just don’t taste good. And for a lot of people who grew up eating an unhealthy diet don’t believe that it’s possible to stop eating the only foods that they know. So I want to find sources that identify a lot of foods that are both healthy and found to be popular based on their taste, like a fresh smoothie over a milkshake.
4. A lot of people argue that they don’t have enough time to cook food for the family and that it’s just easier to go pick up fast food. While it definitely is difficult for people to find the time, it is still possible. There are plenty of healthy meals that are extremely quick to make, and there are also meals that can be made in advance and then heated up later or used for a couple meals. It’s better to have the same healthy meal twice a week than constantly have fast food.
WRT 102.22: Science and Society 