The Influence Of Adult Family Members On Children 's Fast Food Consumption

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

Fast food advertisements can be found around the world, on newspapers, television, and even online. Children, teenagers, and parents have seen marketing focused on fast food. While adults may think little about such blatant advertising tactics that are solely designed to attract new customers, how are kids affected? People across the United States worry about the ever increasing obesity rates amongst children in recent years. A common explanation is the spike in popularity of fast food. Most kids and teenagers have eaten fast food at least once in their lifetime. But why has fast food gotten increasingly popular recently? Fast food has always been known to be very unhealthy, but kids still consume it anyway. The culprit: fast food advertising. In modern times, the majority of kids living in the United States have access to the internet or television, where they are easy targets for advertising. To prevent the nation from growing up obese, fast food companies should end all ad campaigns targeted towards children and focus advertising strictly on adults. These advertisements cause kids to consume fast food more often, to eat an unhealthy diet, and to grow up in a culture dependent on fast food.

Kids like junk food; despite all the negative consequence it can brings. Places like Wendy’s, Burger King and McDonalds are very appealing to them. According to CBS News the fast industry knows how important is to advertise their product is all different way, and consequently they spend $4.2 billion on advertising in 2009. Meaning that they are spending billions of dollars just adverting food and as result children nowadays are seeing more fast food ads than ever before, disregarding the health problem this food is associated to. The fast food industries work very to strategically persuade the eyes, mind and stomach of children. They make sure the product is widely visible to them; in children cartoon while they are watching TV, in the street with multiples poster that have their favorites superheroes,

Because of parents using food as a reward, many children learn that being good means eating unhealthy. Combined with the advertising techniques used by the fast food industry, children begin to make a correlation between fast food and a reward. Ellen Gustafson further confirms that fast food contains “more refined grains, fats and oils and sugars than the 1980’s.” All of these components of fast food make it appealing to children. Furthermore, many parents do not have time to make healthy meals for their children because of our fast-paced society. As David Zinczenko relates in Don’t Blame the Eater, “lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. Then, as now, these were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal.” This is not a rare situation. Many parents work long hours and therefore encourage their kids to eat fast food instead of taking the time to teach healthy habits. This has the ripple effect of overeating and lack of exercise. Without exercise, many kids gain weight, become obese or are at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and asthma. (Childhood Obesity) Today, type 2 diabetes exists in 30% of childhood obesity. (Zinczenko 154) Gustafson further states in her presentation “1/3 of American children are overweight and obese.” When a child has obesity, their ability to participate in everyday activities like sports and play is inhibited, which means

This article shows that fast food today is convenient because people have a lot of work to do in a very short time, so so thinking about driving through the fast food restaurant is easier and better than cooking. Therefore, one thing parents don't know is that fats, sugars, and salts are engaging their children primordial tastes. The most widely recognized disease that impacts children is obesity. Studies show that 15-20% of children aged 12-18 are overweight. In addition, obese children can affect emotional and

Fast-food industries may try to “target children in their ads”, but it ultimately comes down to the adults-the parents- choosing to dine at these places and pork up their kids on the high-sugar sodas, salty French fries, and greasy burgers. If they would just take the time to look out the window, they would see the healthy alternatives to fast-food, and how the alternatives are literally right in front of

“As Americans add pounds, critics are increasingly blaming the fast-food industry. Teenagers have filed lawsuits against McDonald’s, saying that the fast-food chain caused their weight gain and loss of health. A public health group in California has asked the governor to declare childhood obesity a state of emergency. But parents—not the fast food companies, not the government—are in the best position to fight the epidemic of overweight children.”. They are the consumer who chooses to get the quick, and easy fix. They do not realize they are compromising their own health, and their children’s health.

America’s obesity problem is increasing and every one is blaming big fast food corporations. Daniel Weintrub in the article “The battle against fast food begins in the home” agrees that parents are to blame for their children being overweight, but fast food companies aren’t the problem. Weintrub supports his argument by explaining the data and reason used to show that most studies focused on “The increasing in consumed position of fast food and soft drink, larger portion sizes and restaurants. Daniel Weintrub’s person is to raise awareness and inform readers that parent’s need to take responsibility so that children could stop blaming others for something they have. Weintrub write’s in a informal tone for adults with children at home.

Parental neglect of offering healthy food for their kids led to compound the crisis. Recently, the consumption of fast food has dramatically risen in the U.S. The huge relevance of fast food restaurants, such as McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell and others, could be a contributor in changing the Americans style of food, and increasing their intake of these unhealthy foods. According to a research conducted about fast food consumption in the U SS, 22% of parents said that their kids consume fast food meals at least once a week, which might easily drive to obesity. As known, the main aim of fast food companies is raising their profitability, and therefore, their plan is to sell food as much as they could despite their knowledge that it is unhealthy. So, they focused on attracting kids to buy from them by enticing advertisements. They know how to draw kids’ attention, especially when they describe the taste of their meals and show their toys that come with them. There is no doubt that TV programs and advertisements have a strong impact on children. Many studies have confirmed that watching TV for a long time during a day is able to influence kids in their attitudes and habits. The problem of eating fast food is that it has a lack of fiber and dairy, contains a high density of energy, and has big amounts of protein, fat and sugar, which makes it the unhealthy

Within the United States, nearly one in three children are affected by the health complications of obesity (Moore 824). This is caused by poor nutritional choices and the plethora of fast-food advertisements. With the aid of McDonald’s new toy advertisements or newest fatty burger and Burger King’s new whopper deal, advertisements have controlled children's decision and choices. Through fast-food restaurants’ advertisements for cheaper meals for families, it becomes easier and easier for families to stop by their nearest fast-food eatery to pick up breakfast, lunch or dinner in the drive-thru. Internally, humans desire for quick and easy solutions to problems and have an internal desire for everything to be fast-paced. With jobs, extracurricular activities, and kids, there is very minimal time in the day for parents to plan healthy options. Hence, dinner or even other meals becomes a trip through a drive-thru. Thus, fast-food restaurants have created a business on human’s impatiencenes and lack of time. Though it is certainly convenient, it is not healthy to create a habit of consuming fast-food. An addition to saving time, fast-food restaurants save money, which appeals to parents. As children watch television and spend countless hours on cell phones, advertisements take up a huge amount of that time. Thus, advertisements are very influential within these children. As

Fast food restaurants are the only option for many teenagers today because their parents often work during the day. The problem is that fast food companies are easy to eat and has a fast service. If people were truly thinking about their meal, it might influence consumers to look for healthier options. At home, parents are the ones who feed their children. If they continue to feed their children hamburgers and french-fries, their children will continuously want more and more. It is set out their healthy pattern as opposed to obesity. David Zinczenko states “Before 1994, diabetes in children was generally caused by a genetic disorder -- only about 5 percent of childhood cases were obesity related, or Type 2, diabetes. Today, according to the National Institute of Health, Type 2 diabetes account for at least 30 percent of all new childhood cases of diabetes in this country”(463). There are so many other meal options, but the parents are not taking that extra steps. When children grow up, they are going to be unhappy with their weight because it is not their fault to be served with the fast food from their teenage years. Even with other options, the parents are the ones who buy their kids the meal. A little kids can’t drive through a fast food restaurant and order foods, the parents are the ones who give it to them. All parents want their children to be healthy, and fast food is making them

Have you ever wondered what makes a Big Mac so delicious in such a short amount of time? McDonald’s can make your meal in the time it takes you to swerve around the corner of the drive-thru. This is why millions of Americans have stopped taking the time to make a home cooked meal when there is a fast food chain up the block that has dinner in five minutes for half the cost. With Americans so invested in technology, work, and school, many turn to these unhealthy choices to save time. This fast food epidemic has led to child obesity, adult obesity, and much more cases of diabetes. Now, children and even adults don’t know the normal food portions to eat or the correct diet to follow. This paper will go over three major fast food chains, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell, the statistics of child obesity, and the effect of unknown ingredients.

According to the American Heart Association, 1 in about 3 American kids and teens are overweight or obese. The amount of overweight children has more than tripled from 1971 to 2011. With a good reason, childhood obesity is now the number one health concern among parents in the United States, topping drug abuse and smoking. “Marketing to kids gets more savvy with technology”, says that this generation is expected to live a life expectancy less than their parents. This is because knowledgeable marketers, such as McDonalds, Burger King, and Arby's are advertising their products to a vast majority of children worldwide.Marketers advertising fast food encourage kids to eat fast food. However, too much fast food can cause obesity, heart disease,

About a third of children in the U.S. are considered overweight or obese, and researchers believe television advertising is a significant contributing factor (4). Exposure to television advertising is basically universal and the ads present foods as desirable and attractive. Children have been shown to be far more receptive to television advertising messages than classroom lessons (3). It leaves a harder lasting impression on them because the food products are presented in a cool, fun way that attracts children. Most of the time, children would pick foods that they may not even like, simply because they think it’s the cool thing to eat and once a kid gets his mind set on what they want, it is very hard to steer them away from wanting it. Television ads for foods geared toward children are usually fun, and bright with animations and lots of cool characters that the children can relate to. This directly influences the child’s food preference and unfortunately most of these ads are for processed, unhealthy food products like cereals, snacks, fast food, and soft drinks. In the U.S., there are few restrictions on food ads, but that's not the case in the U.K., where junk food can't be marketed on children's television (4).

The commercials feature animated characters selling fast food kid meals. Children relate with the cartoon characters and want to eat the foods that are being promoted. Children receive the message that fast food is good for them, and do not understand that eating too much fast food can be unhealthy for them. Unfortunately the message from this type of advertising is geared toward the child thinking I need to have the fast food. This is a bad message to leave in children?s minds, because it can also cause problems with their health. The obesity rate in young children has risen drastically over the last twenty years. Health reports have attributed this to the continuing increase in the amount of fast food children are consuming. Television commercials for fast food are on every channel, and the number of channels has risen over the last twenty years. Children who watch television are exposed to a non-stop borage of commercials. This continual exposure promotes a cycle of the child always wanting to go to the fast food restaurants. Parents also are affected by the commercials. Their children want to eat fast food, and the fast food is very convenient for busy families. It is much easier to go through a drive-thru and order the food, then to cook the meal at home. This can be a harmful pattern for the family to establish. Convenience over a more healthy home cooked meal adds to the childhood obesity