Obesity in the United States has been a growing epidemic over the past 20 years. The dramatic spike in overweight children and adults has come in a time where we push exercise and physical fitness more than ever. We are often led to believe that the problem with obesity in this country comes from individuals not exercising enough, when in fact that is not the only source of this problem. I am very interested in writing about this research question because it effects absolutely everyone in America. We all have to eat everyday to survive, including myself, and in this country it has become increasingly difficult to find a truly, healthy meal to eat. While in college I have really seen the scale of this issue rise dramatically because I have been personally effected by this issue more than ever. College students often exercise and try to diet correctly, but still do not see the results that they want to. This is because of how difficult it can be to find quality food options that are healthy for our wellbeing. An argument is that if you want a healthy meal you need to go to the super market and buy all natural products to cook your meals at home with, but as a college freshman is this really practical? Living on my own now for the first time in my life I have found how difficult it can be to get truly nutritional options. I am qualified to write this because I am an American who wants to make a true difference for the better in this country. I will do extensive research to backup all my claims and hypothesis. I am truly giving an unbiased opinion because I do not work for the food or diet industries. I am giving an honest, consumer standpoint to this issue and trying to find out the truth. 

This article by thinkprogress.org is titled "How the Food Industry is enabling the United States' Obesity Epidemic". It discusses the argument that people have their own free will to eat what they want and that they are responsible for their personal health. This idea is shattered in the article because it explains how people are pushed to make healthy choices, but given no healthy options. The foods today that we often think are healthy can be filled with more sugar than we realize, and a lot more than we need. This article comes from think progress.org, which pushes for independent research and positive change. The author of this article, Danielle Moodie-Mills, is the director of "Environmental Education at the National Wildlife Federation". She is credible on this topic and provides a list of sources where her data came from. I think that Danielle is looking at this from an organic standpoint which may hold some biased, however she personally does not stand to gain anything from writing a biased article. I think that she wrote an unbiased opinion as a concerned American being effected by this issue.

This lengthy article from the "Harvard School of Public Health" points out the fact that we have created a "toxic" food environment in this country. It illustrates how susceptible we are to eating unhealthy foods depending on where we live, go to school and work. Unhealthy eating options are being constantly marketed to us in our day to day lives, and it can be more difficult to eat healthy than we ever could have imagined. The "Harvard School of Public Health" researches and studies the health and well being of our countries citizens. They stand to see the health and wellbeing of our nations people grow and prosper. While the individual author is not named, this was published by one of the most highly regarded and respected Universities in the world. Their opinion does not hold any bias because they are researching for the truth with nothing to gain from lying to the public.

My third source was a CBS News article published back in 2006 by Bootie Cosgrove-Mather. I found this article very interesting because of how fooled many people were back in 2006. This article claims that we could not place a lot of blame on the food industry for the growing obesity in America because we did not have the science to prove it. This article claimed that many food companies were making foods "low fat" and other processed variations to make them "healthier". This article is biased because it backs up many of the claims made by the food industry that we have now proven to be lies. I would use this article comparatively with my other to try to prove the deceit and lies that the food industry tries to shovel down our throats. I think that this shows the bias of the author and makes me look more closely in searching for credible information.

This research question is one that I find extremely important to ask for the sake of every one living and eating in this country. It is arguable because there is a lot of evidence supporting my side, however the food industry still finds ways to deny claims and skew statistics. Among my sources, all of them believed that the food industry is using obscene amounts of corn and sugar in our food products which is leading to obesity. The different perspectives of these sources are helping to channel my own. I am looking at what an author has to gain from writing their article and where they found their information. When I can not find a reason for an author to be biased in their writing, I often believe what they are writing is more genuine. In the future I might need to revise my research question to better answer the "how" and "why" questions, which I was struggling with. 

