Fast Food And Obesity

In America almost two thirds of the nation is overweight. That is about 79.6 million people who are obese. Fast food is without a doubt the problem why these statistics are so high. According to Shannon Brownlee, a journalist for the Sacramento Bee “ It’s Portion Distortion That Makes America Fat” she mentions how fast food corporations are luring buyers into their offers . In another article by David Weintraub “The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home” he focus more on self responsibility rather than fast food restaurants being convenient everywhere you go. In America, the obesity epidemic is caused by the lack of parent not taking full responsibility for their childrens health, as well as fast food industries distorting portion sizes in order to make more

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.

Obesity within adults is a prevalent problem in the United States, with over 51% of all adults suffering from obesity by the year 2030 (Joyner et al. 217). Obesity, or the state of being excessively overweight, is sometimes a result from what is known as food addiction. Much like an addiction to a substance, to be addicted to food is to constantly crave a certain food item (Joyner et al. 217). Obesity and food addiction tend to coincide with each other. That coexistence is shown primarily in the documentary Super Size Me, in which director Morgan Spurlock focuses on the way fast food and food addiction affect the human body.

In America today one in three adults are considered to be obese. Over the years the rate of obesity keeps climbing up and up. Some people blame fast-food or the environment Americans live in. After all,someone can purchase a chocolate bar at a bookstore nowadays. But, most people are looking at the incorrect factor to blame. Although the food industry is a huge contribution to obesity in America, people are ultimately responsible for their own health.

When discussing the issue of obesity in America, it seems to be that there is plenty of blame to go around and most of that blame falls on fast food companies. When searching for a concrete answer to the question used as my title, you will find none because there isn’t one. When asked this simple question, it is easy to blame the obesity problem on fast food considering 8 out of 10 Americans consume fast food according to a report done by the Huffington Post. But after doing more research you will notice that this isn’t necessarily the case. American obesity can be blamed on a variety of things; lifestyle, accessibility of fast food, and what we are taught about food growing up. However, when the only options you are provided with by the food industry are all unhealthy, obesity cannot be avoided.

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

In addition to the many different causes of obesity, fast food receives much of the blame.

In the United States, there are many people who believe that if it wasn’t for fast food restaurants, they would be eating healthier and wouldn’t be overweight. People have even tried to sue fast food restaurants for their own self esteem issues. It’s ironic that people actually blame fast food restaurants, such as McDonald’s, for being obese. While fast food may be one of the contributors to the obesity outbreak, it certainly doesn’t stand alone. There are loads of reasons why people living in the United States are overweight. Some of these reasons involve dilemmas within the school arrangements, peer pressure, family genetics, educational issues, and even where a person lives. The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health

The best way to tell for sure if fast food was the direct cause for obesity would be to do statistical research on two groups of people where everything was equal such as wealth, age, time period, and location. The only difference would have to be the amount of fast food the two groups eat. This would be very difficult to perform, especially for any reasonably large groups of people. However, a group of people at the National Bureau of Economic Research were able to do the next best thing. They did a study on the obesity rates of 3 million students and their proximity to fast food restaurants over an 8 year time period. They compared 9th graders that went to school within a tenth of mile of a fast food restaurant and 9th graders who didn't. They went through great measures to make sure that everything else besides their proximity to fast food restaurants was equal. The results of the data are quite astonishing as econometric statistical

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.

country alone, 17% of all children and adolescents are now obese, triple the rate from

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

I was once fat and unhealthy then later on find i have “ diabetes” . At first it was hard but will i got older it got easier , to” test for my blood sugar ”. but it really teaches you to take care of your body and organs .to exercise /to workout your body to eat healthy foods and only limit on unhealthy foods.And that 's the reason i want to be a chef a.k.a a “ cook “ all kinds of great foods on earth .

My mother is obese, and recently, she was diagnosed with type II diabetes. When I was a