The American family has certainly transformed over the past 20 years. Whether someone lives with two parents or one parent they are probably working full time jobs to provide for the family. In addition to their outside jobs they have the responsibility of raising the children, helping with homework, cleaning the house, and provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Due to the events of the day, temptation wins and the family gorges on Big Macs, french fries, and a sugary soft drink. Great, the family is fed, but what are the long term affects of the fast food when ingested several times a month. Planning nutritious meals in advance would promote a healthier lifestyle for the American family. Many Americans are defined as obese. Perhaps the convenient Big Mac contributes to Americans over weight population. The most convenient and easiest food may not be the best or healthiest choice for a person’s body. McDonald's has become a regular "dinner out" for young children and may possibly have lasting negative affects during their adulthood. McDonald’s has been around for a lengthy time and had smaller portions years ago. Now a meal can be super sized for an extra dollar or less. Hence sizes are increasing with a minimal charge, making it affordable for the working class. McDonald’s are located all over the world and are easily accessible throughout the city. Hunger can be quickly satisfied by locating the nearest McDonalds. Do not worry about leaving the car because a drive-thru adds to the convenience of satisfying that hunger. Being a multi-million dollar corporation McDonald’s spends many advertising dollars to demonstrate the ease and popularity of feeding a family. The corporation fails to provide information regardi... ... middle of paper ... ...trying to start serving more salads by offering a wider variety. People need to educate themselves so that everyone can start working towards a healthier America. Works Cited Bretton, Peter. "Adult Obesity Facts." N.p., 12 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. . Martin, Kathy. Our Story. N.p., 3 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. . Olfman, Sharna. Childhood Lost: How American Culture Is failing Our Kids. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005. Print. Oliver, J. Eric. Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print. Pool, Robert. Fat: Fighting the Obesity Epidemic. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. Varmus, Harold. "Obesity and Risks." Obesity and Risks. N.p., 3 Jan. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. .
As the rising epidemic of obesity has attracted considerable media attention, so has the promotion for maintaining healthy wellbeing. Tom Naughton’s documentary, Fat Head, is a stellar model of this media attention. It examines the exact cause of weight gain, and the reliability of the Government’s nutritional guidelines. The contention of Fat Head is that the U.S Government and Morgan Spurlock (the creator of Super Size Me) present misleading information. However, Naughton’s bias becomes apparent through the careful selection of film techniques, and the silencing of certain characters, who may express opposing viewpoints. The ideal audience of this documentary, parents and concerned parties such as medical professionals, are invited to agree that the U.S Government and Spurlock are deceptive.
Balko’s use of informative statistics makes the reader think about government’s role with obesity, and how much they should to do with it being solved. For example, President Bush put $200 million into his budget for anti-obesity measures, and some Senators, including Joe Lieberman, made the call for a “fat-tax” on high calorie foods. Although it appears these politicians and government officials are all trying to help society and this growing problem in America, many would agree they are just hurting the cause. I remember when I
American health, specifically our obesity epidemic, has grown into a trending media topic. A quick Google search will bring up thousands of results containing a multitude of opinions and suggested solutions to our nation’s weight gain, authored by anyone ranging from expert food scientists to common, concerned citizens. Amongst the sea of public opinion on obesity, you can find two articles: Escape from the Western Diet by Michael Pollan and The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food by Michael Moss. Each article presents a different view on where the blame lies in this public health crisis and what we should do to amend the issue. Pollan’s attempt to provide an explanation pales in comparison to Moss’s reasonable discussion and viable
The documentary, titled Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat, is a documentary shedding some light on the growing trend of America and its expanding waistlines. The documentary is geared to unmask the epidemic of obesity in our country. The film sheds some light on how our society is fixated with living and unhealthy lifestyle. The film goes on to inform you on how bad the situation really is, where two-thirds of the American population qualifies as obese or overweight. The documentary tries to uncover the root and causes of how this epidemic came to be and how it can be reversed.
“Fat Land”, a book by Greg Cristler, a health journalist who was formerly considered overweight, explains how America became the fattest people in the world. Before writing this book, Cristler was told that he needed to lose forty pounds and so to do so he enlisted a competent doctor, the prescription weight-loss medication Meridia, jogs in a congenial neighborhood park, a wife who cooked him healthy food, and access to plenty of information. Cristler is quick to add that those weren’t the only factors that led to his weight loss, but money and time were a big part of it. Cristler lost the weight, but he states “the more I contemplated my success, the more I came to see it not as a triumph of the will, but as a triumph of my economic and social
...Disease Control and Prevention. Overweight and Obesity Health Consequences. Downloaded from: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/consequences.htm Accessed: Feb. 2005
When researching McDonald’s through online sources, it is clear that nutrition is a major concern of the public visiting the fast-food chain. Secondary research conducted shows that there are several case studies and other secondary source searches around the same topic. McDonald’s has often been the center of nutritional attention within the fast-food industry. Secondary research shows that the restaurant has recently made changes to the American Happy Meal to reduce the amount of French fries offered and replace the portion with fruit (Strom, 2011). In a study conducted by McDonald’s a secondary source reports the meal cuts calories by 20% for the children’s meal (Strom, 2011). This is a critical move by the organization on children’s obesity is currently a hot topic within food chains and attention is driven by the Obama administration. Secondary research also shows that although the public has major health concerns with the food chain, profits are increasing during a high point of an economic recession (Dahan & Gittens, 2008). Acco...
Over the years McDonalds has had a reputation of being one of the largest fast food chains in the world. According to an investigation journalist, Eric Schlosser, they are known for something more negative. In the article, Fast Food Nation, Schlosser informs the audience of McDonald’s use of the tactics of illusion and a sense of care towards their consumers to reel them in. The thing with Schlosser’s claims now is that his article was over ten years ago, which means McDonald’s has made improvements since then, and a reason why I disagree with Schlosser, because his claims of attack against McDonald’s are expired and failed to realized that McDonald’s is successful globally because of their actions of trying to make a positive difference by
The world we live in today revolves around our convenience. The average lifestyle involves juggling school, work, sports, and family but where does food fit into the equation? We need to feed ourselves to survive so we have no choice, but to fit it into our busy schedules. Most people don’t have time to sit down and have the traditional home cooked meal anymore. Instead they have to eat on the go to keep up with their fast pace schedule. The food that can be provided fast and through a drive through is not necessarily the healthiest for our bodies and this is why I believe the majority of society is becoming overweight. An online source stated, “Partly due to the fast food culture, about 60% of Americans are overweight or obese.” The busy American lifestyle requires us to eat processed foods that cannot provide our bodies with the needed nutrients to stay at a healthy weight.
First, my personal reaction to this is documentary is an eye opener. I knew McDonalds was more harmful to than other fast food places, but I never knew about the lawsuit between McDonalds and it consumers. I never saw McDonalds as having big impact on my life; this is probably because the McDonald’s in my hometown never had a super-size option. In the video, Spurlock conducted interviews to gain ...
Not only for adults, most American kids also eat fast food in every single day. McNugget or Coke both is indispensable choices. For example, supersize food for the Americans is also a huge challenge. They have no way of refusing to choose a supersize that looks more affordable. In order to test fast food really has negative impact for people, Morgan Spurlock only eats the food at McDonald 's in a continuous month in the documentary “Super Size Me”. The result of the experiment is that he gains 25 pounds, and the doctor gives him a warning about his physical condition. If he continues to live according to this way of life, coronary heart disease, cirrhosis and other diseases will continue to emerge. These facts prove that fast food can bring convenience, but also bring people the excess fat and a series of
Ask a teenager what their favorite fast food restaurant is and most of them will probably say McDonalds. "McDonalds operates approx. 30,000 restaurants on 6 continents, and feeds about 46 million people in a single day! In the U.S. alone, McDonalds accounts for 43% of the fast food market." Manhattan alone contains 82 restaurants packed into the island (Super Size Me). McDonalds has been criticized by the media and other people for offering too many unhealthy choices on their menu, therefore leading to obesity in America. Eating too much McDonalds, or any other fatty food, will give you many long term health problems.
McDonalds was established about sixty years ago and has dramatically changed. The fast food industries’ lack of concern when dealing with the quality of food, and ethically wrong business practices cannot go ignored. With demand for fast food constantly increasing, solutions should be made accordingly to meet these demands without practicing business ethics that are morally wrong. The time has come for McDonalds to realize the consequences of selling unhealthy food and using morally wrong business practices. Spending more time concentrating on the consumer’s health and well-being, rather than concentrating only on profit margins is the kind of change the fast food industry needs.
Imagine working out of town, driving down a highway, bright yellow arches on the horizon, hungry but need to hurry home. One goes into the store than in and out eating in the car. Fifteen minutes later the quarter pounder and fries with soda are all gone. McDonalds is famous for its American style burger and fries. Again imagine it, only most people don’t need to because McDonalds gets thousands of customers like this everyday. McDonalds is using many different factors to pull Americans into their stores and as a result, encourage unhealthy eating habits.
According to some of my friends, their parents buy more unprocessed and local foods rather than the usual processed foods (Mei, Murray). There could also be children, or teens, whose parents simply don’t allow them to eat at a fast-food restaurant quite often. Unfortunately, according to the table below McDonald’s seems to be the fast-food chain restaurant that is targeting the youth the most (see table 1). Nowadays, many parents tend to take their kids to a fast-food restaurant simply because it’s easier and faster to order food then it is to cook an entire meal (Murray). Not only is eating out, or at least take out, efficient, but it’s also less stressful on the parents. Children can tend to be very picky eaters, well most of them at least. My younger cousin for one refuses to eat anything green, unless it’s a cucumber. As we progress more and more into our culture of industrialized eating, we need to consider what we are risking in the long run. There’s actually many different things that not only college students but the entire population could do to help reduce our risks in the long run. For one, it would be to stop eating so frequently at these fast-food restaurants. I know many of my peers, who I went to high school with, would often go to McDonald’s for breakfast before school started. Fortunately, at Denison, it’s not that common for us to go to McDonald’s for breakfast; probably because the closest one is in the next town