Argumentative Essay On Fast Food

America is known as the fattest country in the world. Is fast food the culprit? According to the article, "F as in Fat 2005," America's obesity rate in 2005 was a whopping 60%. Many people believe that this is due to the increasing popularity in fast food. It is much easier to go through a drive through and pick up a meal than making the food yourself. When eating out, people are more likely to eat more than when they cook. Meals at fast food and restaurants have become popular, in America the size of each meal is significantly bigger than any other country. According to Christina Sarlch, author of “Guess How Many Calories Are In A Typical Fast Food Meal” the amount of calories in a fast food meal is a gouging 1100 calories with a drink .The average number of calories needed for a person is 2000-2500 calories . Split between 3 meals that averages out to 666.67-833.33 calories a meal. Of course not many people follow that suggested calorie intake.

Having high cholesterol and high blood pressure because of fast food can make someone more susceptible to atherosclerosis or even heart disease. The blocked arteries and leading to the heart, will continue to get worse if someone has diabetes, obesity, and lives a sedentary lifestyle.This disease is the number one killer and causes half of all mortalities in the U.S and developed countries. All in all, fast food is a definite cause to Coronary Artery Disease.

“Although many health authorities insist that there is no such thing as junk food, consumers find it a useful term for distinguishing nourishing food from products whose chief appeal is fun, convenience, and addictive taste; ‘bet you can't eat just one’ ”(Junk Food). Americans are spending about $4.6 billion a year on potato chips, and 23.5 billion a year on candy and gum. 46 Percent of adult Americans eat out on a typical day, and one third of them choose fast food. That is because the fast food industry has slowly become one of the symbols of American culture and is spreading to other cultures as well: McDonalds has 26,000 locations in 119 countries, Pizza Hut has more than 10,000 in 86 countries, and Subway has 14,500 in 75 countries. Commercials, signs, and huge advertisements are pushing junk food at us every day; people cannot even go to the grocery store without candy bars being lined up right by the checkout. The junk food industry realizes how appealing it can be. When a person is in a rush, they can easily eat a large meal without having to make a lot of decisions, work, dress up, or get out of their car. The speed and convenience fit Americans’ pressured lifestyles. It does not fit, however, to our health and wellness. A fast food meal, such as a Burger King Double Whopper with cheese, contains 965 calories, more than double the amount of fat, and as much as 750 grams too much sodium

Beyond the above mentioned reasons, “A new hypotheses for obesity is food addiction, which is associated with both substance-related disorder and eating disorder” (Liu, von Deneen, Kobeissy, & Gold, 2010). It is well known that overeating is the leading cause of obesity. Overeating is considered an addiction that comes from a variety of psychological as well as physiological causes. (Gold, Graham, Cocores, & Nixon, 2009). Most significantly in terms of motivation and incentive, overeating and obesity can be compared to drug addiction due to an acquired

In this article, “The Extraordinary Science Of Addictive Junk Food”, written by Michael Moss there are several sources used to try and prove that the junk foods that we consume on a daily basis aren’t healthy for us and have become addictive. Moss tackles the argument in a way of using rhetorical devices and figurative language to get his audience, which would be the consumers, to understand that the big companies that we’re giving our money to don’t care about our health, just whether or not we’re still eating their products. Moss’ association when dealing with diet and nutrition is his prime topic. According to the New York Times, Moss is the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book Salt, Sugar, Fat and also a Pulitzer-Prize winner investigative reporter. When I read this article Moss really had me drawn in because of his credibility.

Junk foods have been identified as a major cause of heart diseases, including myocardial infraction, cardiac arrest and atherosclerosis.

We like everything in an instant. Individuals like fast cars, fast communication, and most of all we love fast food. Having things in life come in an instant seems great but there is a price to pay. Therefore, fast food may be convenient but it is costly. Although, fast food may save you time now, it will cost you years of your life later. Most foods that are quick and convenient are full of refined sugars, carbohydrates and other processed food. Sadly, these attributes of convenient food causes many of us to overeat. Dr. Lustig referred to individuals who eat a lot as “gourmands.” Sadly, there are a number of things that happen when we consume sugars, carbohydrate and fats. First, due to overeating an individual may have higher levels of leptin. Leptin is a protein produced by fatty tissue and believed to regulate fat storage in the body. According to Stephan Guyenet, when we become leptin resistance when our brain does not know when we are full therefore we overeat. Leptin resistance comes from a high consumption of sugar. Dr. Lustig suggest that sugar in the presence of insulin creates fat. I believe that obesity is direct effect of another underlying issue. Correspondingly, we all know the effects sugar has on our bodies, but yet we continue to consume it in high quantities. In my opinion, sugar is a drug and many people have an addiction to it. Sugars sends the same signals and high levels of dopamine to brain just as drugs. For example, I have an uncle who weighs about 900 pounds. He was not always this big, so what happened? As a child, he ate a lot of sugary foods and food that contains a lot of fat. Not only did my uncle eat unhealthy, but he was not very active. Therefore, there was a combination of factors that contributed to his massive weight gain. Obviously, his body started to become leptin resistant at some point. If you become leptin resistance and have an addiction to sugar then you

In the article, “How The Food Industry Manipulates Taste Buds With 'Salt Sugar Fat'” it talks about the frightening truth that has been going on in the past few years with obesity and diabetes. Americans tend to have a huge addiction when it comes to food made with sugar, fat, salt, and as well as

Instead of focusing on the food itself and what it contains, people should be more focused on their relationship with eating and how it’s causing obesity. Dr John Menzies, who is a research fellow in Edinburgh University's centre for integrative physiology said, “People try to find rational explanations for being overweight and it is easy to blame food,” which mean that Menzies uses research and expert testimony to prove his point. In the article, “Is Sugar the World’s Most Popular Drug?” by Gary Taubes, Taubes begins his article by talking about the experience of consuming sugar and sweets during childhood and uses it as an example to how sugar is like drugs, addictive.

The fast food industry provides quick, cheap, and easy access to foods that in the customers opinion, is very delicious, and affordable, however this food which millions of people around the world are constantly consuming, could actually cause major health problems, and weight gain in the long run. Major fast food companies throughout the world know what they are doing when it comes to marketing towards all types of people. Some people will find numerous different things to blame for the epidemic of fast food making individuals overweight. In recent research on, or discussions of the fast food industry having an effect on people's health, a controversial issue has been raised, and that is the fact that this problem affects not only

The increasing crisis of obesity and health related problems due to the amount of junk food one consumes is slowly, but surely becoming a problem in America. For decades, the food we consume has developed for the worse; food is not grown locally anymore and has many added preservatives and additives. One of the main reasons as to why there is an increase of obesity is related to the amount of sugar one will consume in a meal. Sarah Richards creates a well thought out article pulling out facts from the HOA about the effects sugar has on someone.

Hyper rewarding means when you get a taste of processed foods you want more of it and is you do that and eat the fatty foods then you become fat. Our body naturally wants to eat salty, fatty, and salty foods because they have the most energy for us. Companies spend way too much money on trying to make their food desirable to the brain. Many processed foods have been engineered to be so incredibly “rewarding” to the brain, that they overpower anything we might have come across in nature (Gunnars 2012). This is also known as the “food reward hypothesis of obesity. Processed foods are so incredibly rewarding to our brains that they affect our thoughts and behavior, making us eat more and more until eventually we become sick. Processed foods are bad for the human body because it has bad GMO’S, it is hyper rewarding, and people become addicted because of all the dopamine in the

This is not to say that the four studies did not provide insight into the relationship that the study participants had with food and that they did not exhibit signs of food addiction, however, the studies are limited in number, and unable to make a conclusive relationship between food addiction and children. There is evidence that food addiction, specifically with children warrants further study. This is in part due to the fact that this is still a theoretical concept (Merlo et al., 2009). Despite the fact that obesity, and more specifically childhood obesity, and metabolic disorders are a population health concern, the lack of information is alarming. This lack of information indicates that a different approach should be taken to when feeding our population. There is evidence of the harmful effects of specific additives used to create hyperpalatable foods yet there does not seem to be enough of an awareness of things like high fructose corn syrup that make up so much of the American diet. There is evidence available on how detrimental obesity is on health and society. Marketing food to children should be reevaluated. Future research on food addiction with children based on changes made from school nutrition programs, or with parental involvement should be considered. In the meantime, rodent models that are considered similar to the way in which humans adapt to drug addictions should be considered more seriously when evaluating the severity of the hyperpalatable food

All of these sorts of foods trigger a pleasure sensor in your brain, its like a drug once u have taste you want more; plus who doesn’t like feeling good. (? ) Since many Americans are full time workers living in this fast pace life there really is no option for what to cook, or even have exercise in between, even to tired to do so. What has been booming would be fast food interposes and food markets and groceries where you don’t know where these meats and processed foods came from, or if they are really meat, or whole grains (healthy at all). Just because a label says it is healthy, doesn’t mean it is. To much of this unhealthy foods could not be good for you such as the documentary Fork Over Knifes, Dough Lisle, Ph.D. said “ it isn’t because they are lazier then they ever been … people became more self indulgent … their mechanisms of satiation are being fooled.” This is so because our stomach has receptor “stretch” receptors and “density” receptors; that helps it tell how much food we have eaten. Fast food (unnaturally rich or processed foods) deceive these receptors into telling your brain that you are not full .Due to this out brain tells us we have to consume more food in order to be satisfied.

Have you ever went through a breakup or devastating event and went to resolve it by eating junk? Well, like you many other people resort to eating unhealthy food. However little do you guys know, every time you eat junk food it is killing you little by little. The food that you are eating is extremely unhealthy and bad because it is increasing all the risks to dietary diseases and obesity. Even tho it is so good and taste so delicious they are harming us each bite we take. The delicious body fattening food is extremely addictive in two ways, physically and mentally. The reason it is addictive is because every time you eat one of those snacks, your brain starts to crave it when you don’t eat it for a while, so soon after the brain will want it so bad and you will get addicted to it. When you are addicted and keep eating you will develop health risks and obesity. These risks are increasing stupendously because of the food being addictive, and because we are not realizing it. These two addictions can cause many health risks and lead to obesity. The addictions will soon turn into life styles and these life styles are what you see on television and YouTube and it is sickening to witness and see.