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Health consequences of fast food
Fast food and obesity
Fast food and obesity
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Eric Salgado Mr. Gutierrez English 101 10 May. 2014 Research Essay Fast Food Have you ever looked yourself in the mirror and wondered why you don’t look the way you want to look? Have you ever been so stressed out on life that you felt like giving up? There is a huge problem that is controlling our life, and it is known as fast food. Consuming fast food very rarely won’t kill you, but an ongoing habit can lead to many other problems. Although is seems easy to quit, it is actually a habit that is hard to break. Similar to other junk foods, fast food is unhealthy, and causes obesity and weight gain. Fast food plays a major role in the obesity epidemic. Researchers at Harvard University predict that obesity rate in the United States is going to increase by 42 percent in the year 2050 (Healthy Eating). A factor that contributes to the increase in obesity is all of the children being fed fast food. They start at a young age, and then form it as a habit or addiction. According to the article, children who eat fast food every day are consuming too many extra calories than re...
Fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. Everywhere you turn you can see a fast food restaurant. An industry that modestly began with very few hot dog and hamburger vendors now has become a multi-international industry selling its products to paying customers. Fast food can be found anywhere imaginable. Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-through, at stadiums, airports, schools all over the nation. Surprisingly fast food can even be found at hospital cafeterias. In the past, people in the United States used to eat healthier and prepared food with their families. Today, many young people prefer to eat fast food such as high fat hamburgers, French-fries, fried chicken, or pizza in fast
Obesity can be caused by a combination of fast food and the environment people live in today. Fast food contains foods that are high in fats, sugars, and starches. These ingredients have rarely any nutritional value to the human body. Most of the foods available at fast food restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC contain concentrated salt and preservatives to enhance the flavor in them. Obesity has become the defining aspect of our nation by surrounding the people with fast food products. The freedom to choose what one wants, gives the fast food companies the right to give one unhealthy food. The consumption of fast food products regularly greatly increases one’s chance of having health disparities such as Coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers, stroke, Hypertension, and Osteoarthritis. These negative effects are present with the daily eating of fast foods.
However, when creating fast food restaurants, the industries were not thinking about the negative effects such as obesity. Other than obesity, other harmful effects exist as well. Fast food restaurants serve unhealthy products such as greasy foods and artificial meat that lead to dietary health issues in many adults and children. A recent study showed that “Young children who are fed processed, nutrient-poor foods are likely to become unhealthy teenagers, and eventually unhealthy adults. Now twenty-three percent of teens in the U.S. are pre-diabetic or diabetic, 22% have high or borderline high LDL cholesterol levels, and 14% have hypertension or prehypertension”
Greasy pizza. Fried chicken. High sugar drinks. These all aspects of the American diet. American citizens and the American government are well known for a certain disregard for healthy eating. Severe health problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other weight related medical issues are steadily increasing. “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” by The New York Times, “Attacking the Obesity Epidemic by first Figuring Out Its Cause” by The New York Times, “Give (Frozen) Peas a Chance-and Carrots Too” by TIME, and “Edible Schoolyard” by Alice Waters are four articles that discuss the complications Americans face when it comes to the fast food epidemic. Farming, government policy, and schools as well as homes should be making bigger strides
Eating habits have become a cause of obesity because most people in America decide to take the fast route. Fast food has become so prevalent in the day to day lives of so many families and individuals. The cost and convenience of fast food has led to an increase in consumption, which does not help our cause. According to Carey Polis’ article in The Huffington Post, fast food is about $550 cheaper per year than choosing the healthy option. That means people are more likely to choose a cheeseburger from McDonald’s over fresh fruit and vegetables from the produce section at the grocery store. Along with how cheap it is to get our hands on fast food, the convenience makes it even more difficult to resist. With a fast food restaurant on every corner of every block in town, it makes it much easier for someone to pick up on a meal on their daily commute rather than actually trying to cook something healthy. Choosing fast food is not the most nutritious way to go either. Fast food is filled with sugar, fats, salts, and calories. It is usually low in nutrition and high in what are considered to be “empty” calories. By definition obesity is caused by the excess in...
44 percent of Americans eat fast food at least once per week (“Fast food statistics”, 2014) and kids between the ages of 6 and 14 eat fast food 157 million times every month (Ransohoff Julia, 2013). Just in the past 3 decades the obesity rates in children have more than tripled (Kalaidis Jen, 2013). Needless to say, whether once a year or 3 times a week, fast food is a definitely part of most Americans nutrition. Acco...
Obesity is a very serious matter in the world today and there needs to be a regulation to help with this issue. With children becoming less active and eating more, their risk of obesity is much higher. Kids do not need to be rewarded with fast food every time they want it or every time they do something right. Parents and young children around the world need to understand the importance of healthy food so they can make better choices. If they make better choices with food, then the less likely they are going to have major health problems in the long run. My goal is for the U.S. Department of Agriculture is to raise the prices on meats and unhealthy foods that are made in fast food restaurants, and instead lower healthier food that you would buy in the grocery store. Fast food comes from the leftovers of the cow instead of the actual healthy stuff from them. That’s why fast food is so cheap and meat from the deli is so expensive. Fast food meat is not healthy in any way because it has no nutritional value in it. If prices increase at fast food restaurants, then the average American is more likely to stay away from there and just get their things from the store where they are a lot healthier. Yes these meats in the store may cost a little bit more but they get a lot more nutrients out of them along with a couple meals. If one person cooked a couple patties of hamburger or steak, then they would be able to eat it for a few days and change up the way they eat it as well. If one night they want to have hamburgers then they can, and then if they want spaghetti one night then all they have to do is cook the noodles and put the meat in the sauce.
The American diet has changed dramatically in the past couple centuries and so has the restaurant industry. The result of this change in Americans actions and diets is a rising obesity rate among children. In the 1970s, the childhood obesity rate was five percent of children (2-19 years old). The obesity rates doubled in the 1980s and by 2008 16.9% of children were obese (Grossklavs and Marvlesin). The percentage of obese children has more than tripled in the last 40 years. The growing epidemic is dangerous and alarming. There are many factors that contribute to the dramatic rise of obesity children. As obesity has grown, so has the fast food industry. “Between 1977 and 1995, the percentage of meals and snacks eaten at fast food restaurants doubled,” (...
One of the problems of living in our fast-paced society is that it affects the way that we eat. Millions of Americans with frantic work schedules always tend to consume in fast-food restaurants in order to save time and money from their own pockets. However, this unhealthy habit is increasing the risk of several health issues such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and other diseases. According to New York Times, “nearly 40 percent of Americans are obese,” stating that it’s not only affecting adults, but the young children
Obesity is a big social issue in America. Due to the popularity of fast food and other unhealthy foods, more and more Americans are developing health diseases and disorders. We should be getting the correct daily nutrition amount, but because of our fast paced lifestyles we sometimes do not have enough time. Fast food restaurants make it possible to grab a meal and go. We often do not pay attention to the nutrition amount, but are simply looking for a quick bite to eat that will fulfill our hunger. Fast food is assisting in the increase of obesity in America (“Phrase” par.2).
Food is a major part of everyone’s everyday life. It’s hard to imagine life without the chocolate cake on your fingers or a carne asada taco in your mouth. Enjoying delicious desserts and fast food seem extremely magnificent to eat and spend money buying them. Although, there have been many controversies in the United States on how it’s the largest country with the most obesity regarding children, which affects their health, many people are still going throughout their day snacking. Many people in America are having full course meals with thousands of calories in one sitting not knowing the short term or long term side effects that are going to take a huge toll on their lives. Food is delicious, but it comes with a secret behind the savoriness/sweetness.
Three in ten teens eat four to six meals a week, at fast food restaurants. Most parents don’t pay attention to how unhealthy this is for their children, which is why I am writing this essay. To explain the dangers of fast food and eating unhealthy, also talk about ways to prevent obesity, diabetes, and many other potential threats to your body. (Kolodziejski)
The overly high obesity numbers of people in America are to be blamed on our food industry and not the people ourselves. Much controversy is caused by this topic, but it is more obvious that it is the food industry’s fault the numbers are so high. In the society that we live in most of the food we buy at our local markets are all genetically modified, which is highly unhealthy. We grow up thinking that what we hear from television ads and people in general is what we need to eat. For this reason mainly it is the food industry’s fault because of the little amount of money we need in order to receive in exchange for big or decent amounts of fattening foods.
“We need to teach our children to eat real food. No fast foods. No junk foods. No processed foods. Just honest, nutritious, real food.” As the years go by many more people are becoming obese because they consume too much fast food. People need to get in habits to cook at home rather than eating out everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. People in this world are now always trying to look for the easy way out of things. Eating out at a fast food restaurant is not a healthy meal to eat. We the people need to avoid the fast food restaurants and stop being lazy and have home cooked meals everyday. Although fast food is convenient for everyone, it causes obesity and consuming too much fast food can lead to type 2 diabetes.
Junk food has been proven to be unhealthy long time ago. Junk food started to grow more and more recently and spread fast all over the world. Junk food reveals any food with high calories and low nutritional value. A big problem with junk foods is that satiation value of them is low, that means people need to eat a large amount of that unhealthy foods to feel full. So it is like eating a lot of poisons for a long time, what do you think the result will be on the health condition of the humans? Another problem of junk foods tend to replace other healthy foods; people who drink a lot of soda there is no room for healthy natural fruit juice in their stomach, people who are snacking on cookies, they’re not eating fruits and healthy vegetables (WebMD