judith warner

cookies, eating junk food is patriotic

you need to present healthy eating as a new, desirable, freely chosen expression of the american way

spread message of eat differently by fighting on the nutritional and psychological front

shift of attitudes

what have we shifted attitudes toward?

change in cultural attitudes that led americans to quit smoking



“Junking Junk Food” [p. 400]
Judith Warner
In “Junking Junk Food,” Judith Warner examines arguments against government
intervention in Americans’ eating habits and concludes that those habits won’t change
without a significant cultural shift in attitudes about food. She describes how Sarah
Palin and Glenn Beck have resisted anti-sugar campaigns and other efforts to change
children’s access to unhealthy foods, and she suggests that Michelle Obama’s campaign
on behalf of healthy eating will struggle because it tackles an integral part of the
American way of life. Warner notes that World War II–era nutritional campaigns
succeeded because they also employed psychological approaches, and she quotes
former FDA commissioner David Kessler, who argues that the decline in smoking
happened because of cultural changes. Without similar changes in Americans’
approach to food, Warner argues, little will change.
Teaching Notes
Ask students to consider how a cultural shift in attitudes about food might take place.
What factors would lead to such a change? How likely is it that such a shift will take
place?
R

Joining the Conversation
1. Citing such influential figures as Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck,
Judith Warner suggests that changing people’s eating habits could prove far more
difficult than many imagine. Why does she think this change will be so challenging?
Warner argues in paragraph 5 that “in waging war on fat and sugar, what the
administration is doing is taking on central aspects of the American lifestyle.” She
considers eating to be culturally constructed behavior and argues that cultural change,
not government policy or advice, is necessary to alter Americans’ eating habits.
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2. How are historical changes in public attitudes toward cigarette smoking, discussed
in paragraph 8 of the essay, related to Warner’s argument about Americans’ eating
habits?

Warner points out that “it was a shift in cultural attitudes, not laws or regulations, that
led Americans to quit smoking.” She quotes David Kessler, who notes that cigarettes
shifted from being “sexy and cool” to “a terribly disgusting, addictive product” (¶8).
Warner argues that this sort of cultural shift is necessary for changing Americans’
eating habits.

3. How might Warner respond to the main points of Michelle Obama’s campaign to
promote healthy eating (pp. 417–33)?

At the end of her essay in paragraph 9, Warner notes that Michelle Obama “has her
work cut out for her” if she hopes to change Americans’ attitudes about food.
Obama’s plan focuses on four components: providing information about healthy
eating to parents and families, having healthier food in schools, getting kids moving,
and ensuring that all communities have access to healthy food stores. Much of her
plan involves government policy, which Warner would note is not necessarily an
effective solution. Certain elements of the first part of her plan might work towards
changing attitudes about food, but Warner might argue that a propaganda campaign
showing “healthy eating as a new, desirable, freely chosen expression of the American
way” (¶5) is the only effort that would change attitudes.

4. Does Warner include any naysayers, possible objections to her own argument? If
not, do it for her. Insert a brief paragraph stating an objection to her argument and
then responding to the objection as she might. (See Chapter 6 for examples and
templates that will help.)

In paragraph 4, Warner notes that “teaching Americans, and children in particular,
healthier eating habits seemed so commonsensical a venture, so wholesome and safe,
that Michelle Obama chose it for her apolitical personal project as first lady.” Here
Warner includes the opposite point of view: that changing Americans’ eating habits is
possible through campaigns such as Obama’s. However, Warner does not have many
other naysayer arguments, so students might consider how changes in eating habits
might happen without a cultural shift or how attitudes towards food are already
changing.
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