Annotated Bibliography

Does taxes on fast food and store bought food change the obesity outcome in Utah over time?

With my research I would like to find out what people think of fast food price vs.
obesity; along with​ the numbers and facts about this topic. I also want to hear about
other factors that could be contributing to the obesity rate.

Carroll, Linda, et al. “​Cheap Food Blamed for America's Obesity Crisis.​” ​NBCNews.com,​

NBCUniversal News Group, 12 Feb. 2017,

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/diet-fitness/cheap-food-blamed-america-s-obesit

y-crisis-n112141.

In this article, Cheap Food Blamed for America’s Obesity Crisis, published February 12,
2017, Linda Carroll wrote about how easy it is to get fast food whenever you want to. It’s
cheaper and a lot faster. Carroll also talks about how much times have changed and what we do
that’s different from before. Linda said, “​In the 1930s, Americans spent a quarter of their
disposable income on food. The most recent data show that share is now under one-tenth”. We’re
eating more and fast food is the easiest option.

This article is against the prices of fast food and believe that this is the way to bring down
the obesity percentage. Linda used logos and ethos in her argument by showing facts and her
own opinion. The audience would be adults who are interested in this. Linda doesn’t seem too
credible but the other author, Madelyn Fernstrom, has a Ph. D. in diet and nutrition.

Darcey, Melissa. “Fast Food and Obesity – The Cause and Effect Relationship.” ​Pathway

Genomics​, 12 Apr. 2019,

https://www.pathway.com/blog/fast-food-and-obesity-the-cause-and-effect-relatio

nship/.
 In the article, Fast Food and Obesity, published April 12, 2019, Melissa Darcey talks
about all of the ways that fast food is a factor to obesity. One of the ones she mentioned was on
prices. Darcey included that “a diet containing 2000 calories of fast food costs much less than a
diet with 2000 calories of healthy food.” which means people will end up buying more because
of the lower prices.
Melissa also included that it’s easier to get to. She pretty much said if you go get food
and a fast food restaurant, then it would take maybe 20 minutes at most; where as if you were to
get groceries and make dinner, it would take a lot longer. Darcey concludes with the meaning
that fast food is more convenient for people who don’t have time for the hassle of making dinner.

The viewpoint of this article is obesity is a problem and this is how fast food restaurants
are causing it. My argument is that fast food is a big part of obesity so Melissa’s article fits
perfectly with my opinion. Darcey uses logos in her argument by saying “75% of the American
population is likely to be overweight and obese by 2020.”.
The intended audience are Americans who eat a lot of fast food and need to cut down.
The owners of the website all have degrees in stuff like this so I think it’s a reliable source. I
think it’s a good article with a lot of points but not a lot of information to back it up. Melissa says
“... has increased…” a lot but doesn’t say how much it has increased.

Finkelstein, E., Strombotne, K., Zhen, C. and Epstein, L. (2019). ​Food Prices and Obesity: A

Review​. [online] Available at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4224221/ [Accessed 12 Nov.

2019].

In this article, Food Prices and Obesity, published November 3, 2014, Eric Finkelstein
wrote about the outcome of increasing the tax on unhealthy food and lowering the tax on
healthier food. His results were quite small and very different from his prediction; however the
results were different between adults and children. As Erik said in the article, “Combined, these
results suggest that targeted tax/subsidy policy may have a greater positive effect on children’s
dietary/weight outcomes than adults.” With the adults, it depended more on whether or not they
wanted it, not really the cost of it. In the end,Finkelstein described​ that increasing the tax on
unhealthy food barely lowered the probability of obesity.
 This article was more of a study than an opinion on something. In the beginning it was
trying to find a solution to the obesity problem but it turned out barely changing anything. My
question is on fast food prices compared to obesity so this article fits perfectly. _____ uses logos
by listing all of the numbers and data with their research. He also uses ethos by citing the places
he got his information in the text.
The audience would be people who are interested in this and looking at what to do to
lower the percentage. I would say they are very credible, they list all of their sources and what
exactly happened in their experiment. They answered all of my questions with their research.
This topic is in the middle of agreeing and disagreeing with my opinion. They say that it helped
but not enough to keep it going; there are other, bigger factors playing a part in this too.

Powell, Lisa M, and Frank J Chaloupka.​ “Food Prices and Obesity: Evidence and Policy

Implications for Taxes and Subsidies.”​ The Milbank Quarterly, Blackwell

Publishing Inc, Mar. 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879182/.

In this article, Food Prices and Obesity, published March 2009, Lisa Powell describes
how much the tax would actually change. She added that many places have tried doing this to
help the obes​ity rate and it all depends on how much they tax and what they put the tax on. Lisa
said that the places that had the most results had to add a higher tax rather than smaller. Powell
wrote “No statistically significant differences in obesity between states with no taxes and those
with a tax or with at least a 5% tax.” When​ she talked about lowering taxes, she wrote that
lowering taxes on fruits and veggies had the biggest impact.

This article is half and half. It was a lot like the last source and more like an experiment;
it was more with finding out what worked. It fits into my topic because it helps with what has
been working the best. This article uses a lot of logos and it makes it really good for research.
The audience would be adults looking to see if this works. Lisa Powell is credible to her
audience, she writes about prices of places and health of people in a lot of her articles.

In conclusion, these four articles have answered all of my questions. I know a variety of
things that would work and what wouldn’t work. I’m glad I found some articles that were more
facts than opinions; I think they really helped me with the project and what exactly I would do.
except for the other side of the spectrum. I learned that lower fast food prices are a reason for the
obesity problem but might not be the only reason.