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Fast food and its health effects
Fast food companies and obesity
Is the fast food industry accountable for obesity
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Society is like bamboo; it is constantly growing and expanding. With this change, society has an ever-constant worry of making the tedious tasks in life, such as getting food, as swift as it can possibly be. This drive for acquiring food quickly goes hand-in-hand with producing it as quickly and efficiently as possible. There are burgers that have been microwaved and served to people. Next, there are fries that have been preserved and then fried in oil so they can be acquired quickly. No one questions how the food is made, or what is put in it; it’s just inhaled by the population meals with a blissful ignorance. They don’t truly understand what they are putting into their bodies. Aside from the obvious drawbacks of fast food, there are many pitfalls that the public does not understand. Numerous harmful chemicals are added to fast food, such as nitrates and acrylamide; although it may seem inevitable, we need to try to eat less of these foods.
Fast food companies are adding many chemical preservatives into our foods, many of which are unknown. They do this because the food people eat isn’t produced in the store where we buy it, it’s made in a factory somewhere else, and then shipped to the given establishment. It makes the production of food a large-scale task. It is not as simple as serving food for a town of five hundred people; it’s serving five hundred towns of five thousand people. Then it continues to grow to even more towns with even more people. This forces companies to add more preservatives as the boundaries of their service is constantly expanding. Many of these chemicals, such as acrylamide, are completely foreign to the normal world.
French fries are one of the most preserved fast foods; they contain many chemicals, ...
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In the article, Every Nook and Cranny: The Dangerous Spread of Commercialized Culture by Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor (Ackley 361). Since the early 90s is when Commercialism has bombarded the society. Ruskin and Schor provide examples why advertising has an effect on people’s health. Marketing related diseases afflicting people in the United States, and especially children, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and smoking-related illnesses. “Each day, about 2,000 U.S. children begin to smoke, and about one-third of them will die from tobacco-related illnesses” (Ackley 366). Children are inundated with advertising for high calorie junk food and fast food, and, predictably, 15 percent of U.S. children aged 6 to 19 are now overweight (Ackley 366). Commercialism promotes future negative effects and consumers don’t realize it.
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
In the documentary Killer at Large, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona remarked that “Obesity is a terror within. It’s destroying our society from within and unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9/11 or any other terrorist event that you can point out…” Carmona is indeed right, with the rapid increase of obese children, America is on the fast track to producing a generation with a life expectancy shorter than their peers. One of the main factor is the media representation of obesity (Greenstreet 2008). In today’s society parents are not only worrying about televisions influence on their kid’s behavior but their weight and health, too. According to study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, that researched the role of media in childhood obesity, stated the obesity increased by 2% for every hours of television in adolescent’s ages 12 to 17. The advertisement of food and beverages present a very strong influence on the children. Most of the products being advert...
Americans are constantly facing obstacles to healthy eating. Obesity is something that is growing rapidly in the United States. Some Americans argue that fast-food restaurants play a major role in obesity. In “Preventing Obesity” Barbara Mantel states, “Four of the companies — Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Hershey and Mars — pledge not to advertise any food and beverage products on programming for children younger than 12, and the remaining firms pledge that 100 percent of their children's advertising would be for self-designated ‘better-for-you’ products ” (805-806). Whenever children see a junk-food or candy commercial they are instantly attracted to it, it might be because of how colorful they are or the usual toy they receive when they buy kids
Like the vast majority of Americans, I’ve eaten at a fast food restaurant before. Maybe the tables were sticky, or chicken was suspiciously white, but the fries tasted great, so I’d overlook the less enjoyable aspects of my experience. After reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, I understand that isn’t an option anymore. In ways both big and small, the fast food industry exerts a ridiculous amount of power over the American consumer, and it’s imperative that this be understood, should any impactful changes be made. As it stands now, the fast food industry is in dire need of reform, as it poses innumerable health and societal risks to the country and the world.
Kelly Brownell and Marion Nestle write that advertisements contribute to the increase of obesity in kids, since “each year kids see more than 10,000 foods ads on TV alone, almost all for items like soft drinks, fast foods and sugared cereals.” Brownell and Nestle fail to see that kids are under the authority of their parents and they decide what their kids eat, so in reality the advertisements target the parents. Kids are the reflection of their parents. Children walk down the same path as their parents, as the image in the article demonstrates. If parents walk towards the path of obesity, then their children will follow their example. Brownell and Nestle also explain, “Humans are hardwired… to like foods high in sugar, fat, and calories.” What Brownell and Nestle are saying is that it is a waste of time to try to eat healthy because it is against our nature. However, if that is the case, then no one would be healthy; everyone would be obese. There is no one to blame but ourselves for our
According to “Burger Battles” from the Weekly Reader, obesity is defined as a person whose weight is 20 percent higher than recommended for their height (Burger Battles 1). When this condition begins to affect children lives, it is then known as childhood obesity. Within the United States of America, around 15 percent of children are considered to be obese (Holguin 3). Increasing tremendously, this outbreak has actually tripled in the amount of obese teen and doubled in children up to the age of thirteen (Burger Battles 2). One of the factors that is usually overlooked in the cause for obesity is the role of television. Not only does it reduce the amount of physical activity, the advertisements and commercials are targeting innocent viewers. In a survey completed by Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, the average child watches nearly 19 hours and 40 minutes of television a week (Ruskin 2). With that amount of time spent watching television, advertisements for fast food will be entering the children’s minds.
In American society’s everyday busy life, fast food is a commonly consumed meal . You can drive down a single road and often find more than five fast food chains’ restaurants. In a society where people are always “on the go,” a cheeseburger meal with a large soda is very easy to grab, and inexpensive. Although people might think it’s just a hamburger and fries, do they really know what is in the food, and how it is going to affect their bodies. Fast food has become a dangerous billion dollar industry, and it is harmful for the consumers. Those who know the dangers need to inform the others that they are taking a risk by pulling into that drive through, and putting their health on the line. Fast food is harmful for an individual’s health
Children's T.V shows use cartoon characters and action figures as celebrity figures to entice the kids to watch the show. This happens with fast food aswell, big corporations use characters on happy meals and kids meals to entice them to tell the parents to get them some. In the article If You Pitch It, They Will Eat It, David Barboza shows this problem, disney has teamed up with McDonald's to try and boost profits. Disney and Kellogg's collaborate on a line of cereal as well(32). The corporations do this because most of the customers are young kids or young adults. If this did not change then it is the parent's responsibility to teach them otherwise. The young adults are responsible to fix the problem and change the obesity problem. There is more obesity now than there has ever been and if the young adults do not take action then it could spiral out of control and leave a lot of people in a state of despair. Eating unhealthy foods makes you depressed, fat, very unhealthy due to the preservatives, and leaves you wanting
Termini, Roseann B., Thomas A. Roberto, and Shelby G. Hostetter. "Food Advertising and Childhood Obesity: A Call to Action for Proactive Solutions." ERIC. N.p., 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
One way that fast food effects obesity is by advertising their products to children (Miller). In her article Food Advertising Contributes to Obesity, Patti Miller explains that the fast food companies are targeting kids and teenagers by advertising on television. The fast food advertisements are promoting unhealthy products as acceptable food which influences children to choose those meals. The American Psychological Association, an organization focused on improving the lives of individuals, expressed that with the exposure of different fast food commercials, children request to purchase these unhealthy products and cause the parents to be influenced by these requests. This concludes the idea that once children are encouraged by the commercials, they opt to consume the fast food advertised on television. Today, fast food companies are even advertising through schools by offering pizzas and burgers as school lunches, which consequently becomes a daily meal for children and teenagers to consume (Wadden, Brownell,
Beales III, J. Howard, and Robert Kulick. Does Advertising On Television Cause Childhood Obesity? A Longitudinal Analysis. Journal Of Public Policy & Marketing 32.2 (2013): 185-194. Business Source Complete. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
Fast food is popular in America. In fact, one of America’s nicknames is “fast food nation,” (“Healthy” par. 1). It is quick and only takes a short amount of time to get the food. There are so many fast food restaurants in the world. Every corner people turn, there is another McDonald’s or a popular fast food restaurant. What people do not know about this easy way of eating is how unhealthy fast food really is. Quick food does not mean nutritious food. However, many Americans debate whether fast food restaurants should be required to show the nutrition in their food.
Across America in homes, schools, and businesses, sits advertisers' mass marketing tool, the television, usurping freedoms from children and their parents and changing American culture. Virtually an entire nation has surrendered itself wholesale to a medium for selling. Advertisers, within the constraints of the law, use their thirty-second commercials to target America's youth to be the decision-makers, convincing their parents to buy the advertised toys, foods, drinks, clothes, and other products. Inherent in this targeting, especially of the very young, are the advertisers; fostering the youth's loyalty to brands, creating among the children a loss of individuality and self-sufficiency, denying them the ability to explore and create but instead often encouraging poor health habits. The children demanding advertiser's products are influencing economic hardships in many families today. These children, targeted by advertisers, are so vulnerable to trickery, are so mentally and emotionally unable to understand reality because they lack the cognitive reasoning skills needed to be skeptical of advertisements. Children spend thousands of hours captivated by various advertising tactics and do not understand their subtleties.
Children between four and eight don’t recognize that ads are paid commercials intended to convince them into buying something. Children see about 6,000 advertis...