Fast Food Chains Have Brainwashed Children and Parents

“They convinced our mothers that if a food item came in a bottle -- or a can or a box or a cellophane bag -- then it was somehow better for you than when it came to you free of charge via Mother Nature....An entire generation of us were introduced in our very first week to the concept that phony was better than real, that something manufactured was better than something that was right there in the room.” -- Michael Moore, Here Comes Trouble --

So cheap, so convenient, and so comforting – qualities so alluring, it is easy to disregard

the life threatening nature of fast food. Children and teens are especially vulnerable to such

tempting qualities of junk food, since fast food chains have developed a marketing omnipresence

on television and in schools. In fact, as Michael Pollan, a prominent food journalist reveals, “one

in three of [American children] eat fast food every single day!” (109). Evidently, the fast food

industry has successfully permeated daily life, making processed food so commonplace and

desirable that youth have become brainwashed to alter their lifestyle and diet, preferring high

sodium and cholesterol packed foods in place of home cooked meals and nutritious produce.

Moreover, fast food menus deceive children and parents, advertising low prices and images of

happy eaters, blinding customers to the ingredients that comprise their food.

It is also significant to consider federal food policy, which accounts for why junk food is

so accessible and affordable in comparison to wholesome fresh food; for the U.S. government

subsidizes junk food additives instead of fruits and vegetables. Despite such an overwhelming

presence of fast foo...

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saying goes, you are what you eat. So, if you want to help end the obesity epidemic, alongside

youth, parents, and teachers, you ought to fight with your fork and knife against the ubiquity of

the fast food empire and demand that the U.S. government subsidize vegetables, not cheap sugar

products, and also provide funding for gardening projects.

Works Cited

Imhoff, Daniel. “National Security: Food on the Front Lines.” The Meaning of Food Course

Reader. Spring 2013. 15-19.

O’ Hagan, Maureen. “Kids Battle the Lure of Junk Food.” The Meaning of Food Course Reader.

Spring 2013. 11-14.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York:

Penguin Press, 2006. Print.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Mariner

Books/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print.