Fast Food And Obesity In The United States

Fast food has a harmful effect on society because it can cause obesity. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry believes obesity “Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise.” (parag. 1).The causing and treating of obesity is complex but it is the most recognizable disease. Consistently eating fast food and a poor can lead to obesity in anyone. The risks of obesity include an increased risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. According to the American Heart Association, fast food “Studies have shown that over the past four decades, consumption of food eaten away from home has also risen alarmingly” (parag. 8). This means that fast food is high in fat, sugar, salt, carbs, calories, saturated and trans fats. This type of eating leads to a higher body mass index or gained weight. Children and adolescents are at a

Childhood and teenage obesity has been an issue in America for more than twenty years now. The percentage of obese children has nearly doubled in this time, according to the article “Is Your Kid Failing Lunch?”. Today’s generation of kids is recorded as the fattest generation in history. One of the main causes of this is believed to be fast food kids are exposed to every day in school lunches. Schools are now starting to serve fast food in their lunches as more kids demand it, causing an increase in the schools profit. Outside of that, Americans are currently spending more than $100 billion a year on fast food. Each day one in four Americans will eat at a fast food chain (Beaver). This is easy to believe as the global fast food industry spent

Obesity is raging in the United States. America is the fattest country on this earth. It has become a major health concern. It is not only increasing at an alarming rate in adults, but also in children. The risk of obesity is serious; it can cause many problems in the body. In order to cut down on obesity, Americans need to be more aware of what they eat every day, make healthier choices, and get the proper amount of exercise and nutrition.

The main point of fast food is to be fats, easy and convenient, but sometimes we humans abuse of that option that was given to us. Yes, its true fast food are everywhere in every corner and in every place we turn to, but we cannot blame the food chains for our decisions. Obesity is like a monster and we are feeding it, we stop on every school or work break that we have to snack on some McDonalds, wing stop, and other fast restaurants that are in our path, the only issue with is that we consume it on a daily basis making it our routine and we end up putting our health in risk. A survey made by the college of agriculture, consumer and

“The remainder of diet was independently associated with overweight/ obesity (b: 5.9; 95% CI: 1.3, 10.5), whereas fast food consumption was not, and the remainder of diet had stronger associations with poor total intake than did fast food consumption” (Poti, Kiyah, and Popkin). They believe that the person is responsible for their own obesity, which is partially true. They do have choice in what they decide to put into their body, but when they are hungry their mind is set to fulfill the hunger. Although, they have an option to choose what they want to eat, people are highly influenced by the advertisements they see on television. When fast food restaurants promote cheap deals for a meal, people automatically want to go contribute. Not necessarily because they want to, but because it looks good and it is being sold for a good

America is one of the richest, most progressive countries in the world. Shouldn’t it be one of the healthiest too? Maybe it should, but the sad truth is that most Americans are some of the unhealthiest people in the world. With that being said, “Obesity poses one of the greatest threats to the future of our public health, with more than 400 million people worldwide estimated to be obese and 1.6 billion estimated to be overweight” (World Health Organization, 2006). With obesity rising at an alarming rate, is it the fastest growing epidemic among children and adults in America today. Obesity is a condition of excess body fat and can affect any person from young children to young adults such as Tyrone. Even more, according to Kolodziejczyk (2014),

It is important to realize that obesity is a major health problem in the United States, and excessive weight can result in many life threatening problems. Americans are affected by obesity everywhere they go, such as school, shopping, eating out, and even the movies. High fats, sugar, and sodium found in fast food is a cause of obesity. Fast food companies put unknown chemicals in their food products to make them taste good. These chemicals have the ability to make people crave more and more of the food, this is called binge eating. Binge eating is another reason why more people are becoming obese.

In the last decade, obesity has become an out of control epidemic. America has been ranked number one in a top ten list of the world 's most obese countries. Fast food restaurants are one of the main causes due to the unhealthy, addictive food it provides to its customers. Since fast food franchises have been expanding at such a rapid rate, it now makes it harder to live a healthy dietary lifestyle. Fast food has affected many societies in positive and negative ways. Its innovation prolonged these effects and may be worse to certain societies from a health and social standpoint. Due to the increase in popularity of the fast food norm, obesity percentages have risen, along with other health-related illness and overall activity in the daily

Fast food has without a doubt changed the way people eat in America, and is partly to blame for diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. According to Murray (40) more than 300, 000 every year are related to obesity. Individuals should know what they are consuming and how it is prepared or made; they should spend their hard earned money on restaurants that make healthy food. So why is fast food unhealthy? Fast food may look tasty and appealing, however, they contain a myriad of hidden health hazards that are dangerous if consumed in large quantities and are a primary cause of obesity, particularly in children. The effects of eating fast food on a person’s health are: increase in blood pressure, a delay in the metabolic rate, increase in the levels of bad cholesterol, destabilization of blood sugar levels, and weakening of the immune system. Furthermore, the effects of fast food include obesity, nutritional deficiencies, and cardiac problems among other health hazards. No one is forcing individuals to eat fast food, but the fact is that fast food restaurants will change when consumers demand changes. Even if three percent of Americans complained about fast food, it would make a substantial drop in

The United States has seen a rapid increase in the number of obese adults. More precisely, the late 1970’s marks a point in which the percentage of obese adults started to jump. Within a twenty year period, the percentage of obese adults had risen almost twenty percent. Today, we sit at sixty-eight percent of the population obese or overweight and the numbers only continue to rise. With a boom in the popularity of fast food restaurants in the mid 1900’s, society had easy access to food, fast. Still today, we rely on fast food to feed us, fast and cheap. However, most fast food is not only easy to access, contributing to over eating, but is also very unhealthy. I see this as a major contributor to the issue of obesity.

As the fast food world spread across the nation, obesity was shortly following in its footsteps. According to, “The History of the Fast Food Industry,” Since 1970 the amount of fast food restaurants have doubled, which equates to roughly 300,000 establishments in the United States. Ironically, 33.8% of the U.S. population is affected by obesity and 19% of children and young adults are also affected.

The children of this country are becoming super-sized. While the number of fast food restaurants across the country has increased, the number of obese children in the United States has dramatically risen, as well. Fast food has produced obesity in children through the concerted effort of companies to commercialize elementary and secondary schools, target their advertising towards kids, and decrease the nutritional value of their products.

Visualize the world somewhere a school-age child can step out of his school and walk into a McDonalds. Fast-food causes an array of problems in your body. The food is often high in sugar, fat, and calories while providing very few nutrients. The obesity epidemic Americans face today is a growing problem that affects more than half of the population with growing body sizes and serious medical problems associated with obesity. It is a problem that needs to be addressed and change. No one would argue that obesity in children is a problem, however, the cause of childhood obesity is seriously debated. Many people claim that fast food restaurants are not to blame. On the other hand, fast- foods companies have used marketing strategies, the location of their vending sites, pricing system and convenience to manipulate children.

Several studies have shown that the increase in fast food restaurants over the past few decades has resulted in a negative impact on the already outrageous obesity rate.According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number of fast food restaurants over the past thirty years has tripled, which equates to about three hundred thousand establishments in the United States alone. During this time the number of children, ages six to nineteen classified as obese, has risen from five percent to seventeen percent. The percentage of adults classified as obese has risen from half to two-thirds the population. Although fast food restaurants may be a contributing factor to the increasing obesity rate in the United States, people are

The fast food industry promotes childhood obesity by manipulating the young mind, putting them at risk for health complications such as hypertension and diabetes. The super-sizing of America is been a frequently talked about subject lately. Especially since it is seem to have negative effects on the health of children and adults alike through massive consumption of fast food. Health providers and other authority figures are now concerned about children’s obesity rates shown during the past 3-4 decades. They have now drawn a close connection between fast food and obesity and identified a childhood obesity epidemic with increased negative health factors. According to the American journal of public health, 2005 September issue, fast food