MID test Argumentative by Zulfa Suhaila

Name: Zulfa Suhaila

Nim: 1988203049

Class: 4.2

Subject: Mid Test Argumentative Writing

Lecturer : Dr.Herlinawati, M.Ed

Good Low-Fat Diet

  Dieting has become an urgent problem of nowadays for many people. Obesity, high cholesterol level, killing heart diseases, and diabetes are haunting people making them look for a way to prevent or cure them. Dieting is often a solution they seek. For more than thirty years a low-fat diet has been considered a panacea.

 The idea of limiting the amount of fat intake to avoid cholesterol level increase and resultant heart diseases was first introduced as early as in the mid-1979s by Marshal Matz and Alan Stone, members of Senator McGovern’s Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs (Taubes 2538). At the moment they had no proofs the diet would work and they would get the wanted results.

 The American Heart Assoiation, the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office, and the National Institute of Health used to advise Americans to restrict their daily fat intake as it was the only “most unwholesome component of the American diet” (Taubes 2536). 

However this propaganda of low-fat diet has had its effect. The fat consumption by Americans has declined from 40 % to 34 %. It even resulted in the decline in overall cholesterol level. But there are no facts that the overall health of Americans has improved. The fact that the theory does not work is that there are still a shocking number of Americans suffering atherosclerosis and dying from heart attacks. The recent statistical data show that Americans are still afflicted with those serious diseases they were promised to forget if they followed the low-fat diet recommendations. There is evidence that 37 % of American population suffer from cardiovalcular diseases, 34 % - from hypertension, and 27 % - from diabetes. Researchers also say that “one out of every two women and one in four men ages 50 years and older will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime while almost one in two men and women—approximately 41 percent of the population—will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime” (Dietary Guidelines for Americans 3). The obesity rates have increased, too. There are 10 % of children and 34 % of adults suffering from it now (Dietary Guidelines for Americans 10) compared to 5 % (children) and 15 % (adults) of the 1970s. These facts indicate that the tendency to lower the amount of fats in the diet has not led to positive results. There are still many people suffering from the same diseases.

At the same time the efforts of low-fat diet proponents to promote the idea among common Americans have been quite successful. Many people now believe that fat is the root of all evil. 

   So, the conclusion to be made is unhealthy fats should be avoided; however, limiting your consumption of saturated and trans fats you should compensate the absence of fats in your body by adding healthy fats in your diet. Then your body will not feel deprived of something essential but will function properly thanks to the elements that cooperate with the body instead of ruining it.