From Joie Chan’s post, while I don’t believe that businesses are the reason for obesity amongst university students, I do agree “we as consumers hold the power to decide what we eat”. Freshmen-15 is something that I still worry about in my first year here at UBC. Looking back at my background, I was an overweight boy for most of my life and losing that excess weight was definitely a challenge. However I managed to do it, and I believe it is a person’s own responsibility to look after their own physical well-being.

It’s not the business’s fault if one of their customers becomes overweight or obese. Even though one can argue that the business does have a responsibility to its customers, I believe that businesses are still corporate socially responsible since they provide nutritional information, and Coca-Cola even provides zero-calorie options. Therefore it’s the consumer’s own choice to over consume these “unhealthy foods”. Businesses also make sure that their products are approved by the FDA, and that they will not cause excessive weight gain if consumed moderately. Therefore the choice to gain or not to gain is dependent on the consumer and not businesses.

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Joie’s Blog Post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/joiechansh/2013/09/12/to-gain-or-not-to-gain/