You have been at the office all day long, slaving over a telephone and a computer terminal. It's lunch time and you've got an hour to eat. No problem, there's a McDonald's a mere five minutes from the office. You could go there--it's hot, it's fast, and it's convenient. Besides, they have supposedly healthy foods like chicken and fish on the menu. Approximately 45.8 million people are served at fast food restaurants every day in America, and why not? Fast foods are pre-prepared meals that are served quickly at several restaurants strategically located throughout nearly every American city. But there is a downside to the convenience they provide, they simply are not good for us.
Americans are far more prone to heart disease, arteriosclerosis, and colon cancer than people in any other country in the world (Brown 35). This is due to high levels of fat and cholesterol found in many fatty foods, such as fast foods--and with approximately one-fifth of the American population dining on fast foods on a daily basis, we are definitely a fast food nation. With the rapid increase in fast food restaurants spreading throughout the country, many Americans are sacrificing their health, establishing a habit-forming tradition, and risking addiction to fat in exchange for the convenience of fast food.
Fast food restaurants are breeding a generation of unhealthy Americans. According to the article "U.S. Can't be Too Rich or Too Fat," the author states that "America is the fattest country in the world . . . the number of obese people over age 17 jumped to 28 percent in 1985" (Kushner 13A). Especially worrisome is the fact that obesity can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and possibly even cancer. Many people carry the genes for obesity. This fact paired with factors such as poor eating habits, such as those found at fast food restaurants, and lack of exercise is causing Americans to become unhealthy. In fact, poor eating habits and lack of exercise is the leading cause of obesity today (Kushner 13A). As Brown argues,
Some fast food restaurants have sixty-seven grams of fat
in just one meal; you start with the burgers, which have
fat as they are, then cheese is put on, adding still more fat. Then you get double burgers and double cheeseburgers along with sauces, which are sometimes made of fat--one-sixth the maximum recommended daily intake. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other agencies, Americans should eat 25 percent less fat. With the average person consuming
about 89 grams of fat per day, that would mean a decrease to about 67 grams. (33)
With fast food restaurants creating bigger burgers every year, Americans are taking in more fat in one burger than they should for an entire day's worth of meals, for example, a Big Mac at McDonald's contains 34 grams of fat, a double Whopper with cheese at Burger King has about 61 grams of fat, and at Wendy's their triple cheeseburger (now being phased out) has a huge 68 grams. This year, McDonald's plans to release the biggest burger ever, the Mega Mac, which consists of two quarter-pound beef patties and "special sauce" which is a mayonnaise-based product (Engle 93).
Many fast food restaurants place certain foods that have a reputation for being good for you on the menu to make you believe that they are offering a nutritional alternative to the greasy, fried foods normally found on the menu. This "alternative," however, is no better than many of the fried beef products offered on the menu. In fact, Burger King's Chicken Sandwich contains 42 grams of fat--equivalent to the fat in a pint and a half of Sealtest ice cream. McDonald's Filet-o-Fish contains 25.7 grams of fat and of the 20 to 30 percent of beneficial fish oils that should be found in white fish, tests showed that only 1.6 percent could be found in either McDonald's or Burger King's fish.
As a result of the investigation by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), over one hundred scientists and deans of medical and public health schools signed a petition to stop frying foods in heavily saturated fats, to offer a greater selection of low-fat baked or broiled items, and to start labeling their product's ingredients. According to Brown, "the favorable fatty-acid content of chicken and fish is overwhelmed by cooking them in beef tallow . . . More often than not, the fast food places take basically good food and turn it into bad" (32). Many fast food restaurants use beef tallow as their main ingredient in frying food. Beef tallow is fat trimmed from meat cuts and rendered into shortening. Beef tallow is not just fat, but it is the worst kind of fat; it is highly saturated, which means it incites the body to produce cholesterol and decreases the body's ability to break down and excrete unused cholesterol (Brown 32). In fact, beef tallow is even more saturated than lard. Daniel Levy, as quoted by Brown, claims, "It's a poor choice. We could draw the simple conclusion that if [the fast food industry] would change their means of preparing food to a more health-conscious one, we could save thousands if not tens of thousands of lives every year . . . for many, fast foods are a way of life--and a way of death" (33).
Many representative in the fast food industry claim that only the highest quality of beef and vegetable shortening are used and the reason they use beef tallow and preservatives and fillers is that they produce the "highest quality finished product and the best-tasting one" (Harris 186). As Terri Capatosto, spokesperson for Pizza Hut claims, "People don't care about how the food tastes. The pizza doesn't have to be outstanding, but the service does" (Harris 186).
According to Tazewell Banks, director of the Heart Station at D.C. General Hospital in Washington, "Forty-six percent of all men at age twenty-two already have the beginnings of coronary heart disease. Every little bit of saturated fat you get adds, potentially, to the death rate" (Kushner 13A).
By dining out in fast food restaurants, many Americans are also risking the possibility of establishing a habit-forming tradition. Studies indicate that approximately one-fifth of the population, or 45.8 million people, consume fast foods on a daily basis. It is estimated that in 1986 alone, the fast food industry grossed about $51.2 billion--and that is a nine percent increase over the year before.
According to David Hill, author of "Why We're Constantly out to Munch," some of the reasons for America's dependency on fast foods are "laziness, lack of time, habit, and taste preference" (31). The main reason was laziness because Americans today are so busy, and the fast food industry recognizes this fact and focuses their advertisements towards this idea. Charles Cocotas, Boston Chicken president, was quoted by Hill as stating, "Everybody's too tired to make dinner and when they do want to eat at home, they now have the alternative of ordering out and having the restaurant deliver right to their door" (31). As a result, many people see fast foods as a means of saving time in their busy lives (31). For some people, eating fast foods is merely a habit. Many families dine out at fast food restaurants once a week because that means one night they don't have to cook or to "treat" themselves to a meal.
Yet another reason Americans should not eat fast food is that they are risking addiction to fat itself as a result of consuming fast foods with too such fat. According to Marano, the body may actually become addicted to fats due to two neurotransmitting chemicals found in the brain. These two chemicals, neuropeptide Y and galanin, actually "tell us to eat fat" (31). The more galanin that is produced, the heavier the person will tend to be. Neuropeptide Y also sparks a craving for carbohydrates. "A little bit could prime you neurochemically to consume much more later on" (33). Ever wonder why fast food restaurants also have a dessert menu? Many fast food places will offer cookies, ice cream sundaes, fried pies, and brownies for dessert because a lot of people get a "sweet tooth" after a fat-laden meal like the one typically served at fast food restaurants. (Marano 33). Galanin, however, does more than just turn on the taste for fat: it actually affects the hormones ". . . in such a way as to ensure that the fat that is consumed is turned into stored fat" (Morano 32).
High levels of both neurotransmitters occur in cycles, peaking with the heaviest meal and late afternoon. Many people crave snacks in the afternoon when levels of Neuropeptide Y and galanin are at their peak (Marano 32). Because of the high levels of fat found in fast food meals, they increase the levels of Neuropeptide Y and galanin found in the system to make you crave not only more fatty foods, but also more fat at every meal. Your body literally becomes addicted to fat. What makes the situation so bad is the fact that America is supposedly a health-conscious country; we avoid cholesterol and fat and focus on cutting down on sodium and red meat, but we don't even realize just how much harm we are doing to ourselves by consuming fast food. Fast food is literally killing our nation.
Because of today's fast-paced American society, millions of Americans rely on fast food restaurants as a means of a quick, pre-prepared meal; however, what they are actually doing is ruining their health by exposing themselves to such health problems as health disease, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, and colon cancer, establishing an unhealthy habitual routine of dining out and risking a possible addiction to the fats found in many fast foods due to neurotransmitters found in the brain. The convenience of fast food is just not worth the risks.
Works Cited
Brown, Michael. "The Trouble with Fast Foods." Science Digest 33 (1986): 30-37.
Engle, M. "What's in the Beef?" Glamour Oct. 1986: 90+.
Harris, J. "I Don't Want Good, I Want Fast." Forbes 1 Oct. 1990: 186.
Hill, D. "Why We're Constantly out to Munch." Current Health 36 (1988): 30-31.
Kushner, M. "America Can't be too Rich or too Fat. Augusta Chronicle 15 May 1993: 13A.
Marano, H. "Chemistry and Craving." Psychology Today 26 (1993): 30-34+.