Everywhere you
look across the U.S.A. I guarantee you will find a growing number of fat
people. I've eaten fast food avidly all my life and thankfully I've stayed fit.
Someday this indulgence in unhealthy, cheap, and factory-processed food may
catch up to me. However for many Americans this glutinous lust has not only
caught up to them, but also won the race. According to the Surgeon General, 1
and 8 American deaths are caused by obesity related illness. These startling
figures lead me to the question; why are Americans getting fat and dying like
never before? I believe the food industry plays a crucial role in the United
State's obesity epidemic.
The United States
average Body Mass Index has been increasing steadily since the early 1900’s
just as the average lifespan has increased. Throughout history the wealthy have
generally been plump due to their lavish living standards. But in today’s
culture "skinny" is in, so the growing number of obese Americans
should seem odd. A major problem throughout history has been people dieing of
being malnourished, in modern America the tables have turned; now we die from
too much food! American society has progressed in such a way that citizens can
live lavish high calorie lifestyles similar to the diets of ancient wealthy and
plump noblemen, however this empty calorie lifestyle flourishes throughout the
modern general population.
This increase in
Body Mass Index is the result of an evolution of American society. We are
becoming bigger simply because our calorie intake is increasing. In her obesity
viewpoints article Laura K. Egendorf states that “on average, Americans are
eating about 200 calories more each day than they did in the 1970’s”. This
leads to the mystery of were these calories are coming from? According to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by
Individuals “Americans are not eating bigger breakfasts, lunches, or dinners-
but they are noshing and nibbling like never before”. We have become a snacking nation, adding countless empty
calories into our diets.
America’s relative
food costs have steadily decreased from the early 1920’s. The USDA’s Economic
Research Service states that “In 1929, families spent 23.5 percent of their
income on food. In 1961, they spent 17 percent. By 2010, American families
could spend just 10 percent of their income on food.” Americans can now
purchase more food for less money because the costs of production have
decreased. With food being mass produced and highly processed in factories,
production is larger and consequently cheaper than ever before, but this so
called “efficiency” is sacrificing the overall nutritional value and
healthiness that an unprocessed meal can provide. With the American lifestyle,
food has become a secondary thought. It has become so readily available for the
majority of the citizens that we have steadily increased the amount we consume
through snacking on the abundance of foods, healthy and unhealthy. Obviously
those who live a sedentary lifestyle with a copious amount of calories and food
choices are more than likely to become obese.
While the typical
American lifestyle may seem like it is setting people up to become obese, many
argue that fast food corporations are a major contributing factor in the
obesity epidemic. Multiple studies have been done in the attempt to fully link
fast food consumption to increasing obesity risk. One major linking factor is
the fact that people living in a close proximity to fast food restaurants are
at a higher risk for increased weight gain. A study by the National Bureau of
Economic Research surveyed ninth graders to find those “whose schools are
within a block of a fast-food outlet are more likely to be obese than students
whose schools are a quarter of a mile or more away.” This shows that when highly
convenient and readily available fast food consumption increases obesity risk.
Multiple other surveys and statistics have been compiled all linking living in
a close proximity to a fast food facility with higher obesity and weight gain
statistics. Through clever advertising campaigns fast food has successfully
been integrated and accepted into American culture and society. Most Americans
seem to ignore the fact that fast food consumption can significantly increase
the risk of becoming overweight or obese.
Fast Food
corporations are pulling off one big cover-up. Behind the enticing masks of
corporate branding and genius advertisement the fast food corporations have
successfully downplayed the harmful/unhealthy aspects of their products. Fast
Food corporations accomplish these diversions by advertising seemingly
healthier options like salads, toys/endorsements/corporate branding to attract
children, sex to entice adults, and multiple other methods to draw away from
the fact that fast food products are unhealthy. McDonald’s Happy Meals are
marketed towards kids, but do kids actually buy Happy Meals? The kids see the
newest corporate sponsored toy from a McDonald’s ad on their favorite TV show,
they urge their parents to get them this toy because they have seen it in
countless other product placement integrations. The parent decides that they
could get a meal for their child and it would come with a toy from their
child’s current favorite fad, saving a trip to the toy store, all for the great
bargain of under five dollars and you don’t even have to leave the car!
Throughout this whole scenario the adult making the purchasing decisions is
less concerned about what they are actually feeding their child and more
concerned with the money and time they are saving, all the while making their
kid happy and integrating and accustoming them into the “fast food nation”.
When will America
wake up? When will we realize we're being duped? When will we realize that fast
and poorly made food makes us fat?
The fact of the
matter is that Americans are becoming fatter. With an increase in calorie
intake, abundance of unhealthy and processed food, and increasing amount of
people living sedentary lifestyles the epidemic is growing. 30.6 percent of the
general American populous is considered obese and over 50 percent of America is
over the healthy weight limit (AKA overweight). While there are multiple
factors that can possibly contribute to obesity risk, one thing is certain.
America is facing a growing epidemic of unhealthiness.
Fast Food
businesses have been highly successful at marketing towards the American masses
of every race, generation, and social status. They have advertised their
products as cheap, good tasting, and associate it with fun. However, the
nutritional facts of their generally unhealthy products are understated and
“healthier choice” items are overstated to make fast food in general seem
healthier/less harmful. Fast food is in fact unhealthy, confirmed in a US
Department of Agriculture survey USDA- Let's Eat Out. With increased workweek
hours and the ever-increasing number of fast food restaurants, multiple
different types of Americans are finding it more and more convenient to spend
less time pursuing healthy options and take the fast track of the drive-thru.
Through clever advertising campaigns fast food has successfully been integrated
and accepted into American culture and society, despite the fact that fast food
consumption can significantly increase the risk of becoming overweight or
obese.
Since Junior High,
when I first saw Morgan Spurlock’s biographical documentary Super Size Me, I’ve
been becoming more aware of the atrocities committed by food industry. In other
words, now I’ve come to the vast realization that most of the things I’ve been
eating are gross, over-processed, and factory-farmed. Growing up in the
Eco-conscious (while others say hippy) community of Santa Cruz; I’ve constantly
been tormented for not only enjoying but also eating fast food regularly. I was
always attracted to fast food as a kid, and I thought of it as a treat or a
reward with my Happy Meal and toy. When I outgrew the Happy Meal, I still
strangely craved the salty, greasy taste. The catchy advertising and marketing
stuck with me from when I was a small child and continue today to bombard me
with thoughts of fast food constantly. So I continue to eat it.
Presently, I’m
more attracted to the cheap and fast convenience of it all. Even now that I’ve
learned what is inside a factory farmed hamburger patty, inside a chicken
nugget, I still crave this food deep down and reluctantly return to these
establishments to get my fix. I think through years of exposure to
advertisement and marketing I’ve been subliminally hooked on fast food and the
nostalgic sense it brings me back to my childhood. Hopefully one day, perhaps
through education, I may be truly grossed out enough to break my addiction to
fast food.
Jonathan Safran
Foer's non-fiction autobiographical and factually informative book Eating
Animals is a testament to the evils of factory farming. Many critiques have
been made, both positive and negative, interpreting Foer's overall message and
presentation on the complicated issues of food production. When reading Eating
Animals I found Foer's general thesis best to be summed up by one of his
harshest critics. In her critical article writer Jennifer Reese elegantly
states, "It is absolutely true that the ancient ties between people and
animals have been grotesquely perverted by industrial agriculture, as the
strongest portions of Foer's book make horrifically clear. But, unlike Foer, I
believe that fixing the relationship is both possible and worthwhile. To
declare that humanity should opt out of this relationship altogether strikes me
as less heinous but every bit as arrogant and unnatural as the factory
farm." Foer is against all unnatural and believes everybody in America
should convert their factory meat eating ways. It is hard to argue against most of
Foer's researched content because his writing provides personal insight and compiled
factual evidence that truly reveals the grotesque nature of factory farming.
This information had me rethinking what I was mindlessly eating prior to
reading Eating Animals.
Another critic of Foer's book, Jim Raynor writer
for The Observer states in his critical article "The reality is that the
raising of animals for food is an ugly business, however unintensive the
methods used. That's a truth we must confront. There is no doubt that we have
become too divorced from our food production system. We need to know how it
works. We need to know what eating meat means." I prefer for food
production to be out of sight and out of mind for the sole reason it is
unsettling. However with these new edible revelations the possibility for me to
enjoy the "potentially gross but good tasting" is far less, to the
point now where I'm cutting foods I've once ate out of my diet completely.
While these food
products should be highly investigated and probably illegal for their content
alone, they will exist until major industrial and societal change can be made
throughout America. Americans must become conscience of what they are eating.
We should all question what we are putting into our mouths? What is it really
made of? Where did it come from? We have to start becoming a health conscience
nation. We must start supporting organic farming on a grand scale and consider
all the alternatives to factory-farmed products. As Americans, we must create a
change in food culture, for the sake of our society's overall health.
Works Cited
Egendorf, Laura K. “Fast Food Should Not Be Blamed for
Obesity.”
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
February 2005. February 2012
Decision News Media “Fast food consumption increases obesity
risk.”
Foodnavigator.com May 2004. February 2012
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating Animals. New York: Little, Brown and, 2009. Print
Rabin, Roni Caryn. “Proximity to Fast Food a Factor in
Student Obesity” NY Times
March 2009. February 2012
