Why Do Fast Food Companies Use Unhealthy Food To Obese Children?

Even though fast food is inexpensive and quick, parents could still find other food options that are also quick and inexpensive. "Most of all, I am concerned about its impact on the nation's children. Fast food is heavily marketed to children and prepared by people who are barely older than children." (Schlosser, 9) More and more children are consuming fast food which is not good for them and it can even start to cause many problems. Many people in U.S consume McDonald's very frequently. "Every month more than 90 percent of the children in the United States eat at McDonald's." (Schlosser, 262) It is not healthy that this many children in the U.S. are eating at McDonalds because it is not good for them and may even lead to more people becoming

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

In David Zinczenko’s article “Don’t Blame the Eater” he focuses on the fast food industry and their role in the increasing health and obesity issues of our nation’s children, as well as these issues potentially becoming a serious problem that we will all have to deal with if we collectively don’t do something about it now. When it comes to the topic of fast food, most of us can agree that it is not the best source of nutrition. It is unhealthy and can be the cause of many serious health issues with our children such as obesity related Type 2 diabetes, stomach ulcers and even heart disease, high cholesterol, sleep apnea or even cancer. We can even agree that fast-food diets are a major contributing factor to

One of the main effects marketing take effects on youth is they're health. According to the documentary The Myth of Choice: How Junk Food Marketers Target Our Kids. 1 in 3 kids each day eat fast food, causing cancer, obesity, and diabetes type 2. This shows that if advertisers don't care about kids health or they're oblivious to the affects. And it's most likely not going to change. Also from the documentary, The Myth of Choice: How Junk Food Marketers Target Our Kids. It states “engineered to target parts of your brain that want fat and sugar”. Junk food companies hire scientists to like it said, target the parts of the brain that want your body to have that type of stuff. So is basically addicts you to the food so you'll always want to have

An argument for fast food companies may be that in recent years they have started offering healthier options. Some menus now offer milk as a beverage and apples as a food. While these are healthier choices, there is still very few of these options as opposed to the unhealthy ones. Not to mention in advertisements the apples are always shown with a sugar filled dipping sauce. The fact that these companies still have mostly unhealthy choices, they should not target children in their advertisement. It is obvious that many factors play into the epidemic of childhood obesity. Factors that play into childhood obesity are things such as family income levels and restaurants that are in close proximity. Let me pose this question, what food places are the cheapest and have locations on almost every street corner? Yes, that is correct, fast food. When they already have those factors in their favor, these advertisements just seal the deal for them.

The government may not be the only responsible party for what is going on in America, Fast Food corporations have grown into a part of everyday life. Relentless advertising focused on children with the use cartoon characters and larger portions or extra sizes to entice people. Yves Engler, author of Obesity: Much of the Responsibility Lies with Corporations, points out it’s not only fast food restaurants where unhealthy products are being consumed, but also soft drink companies with high calorie soda pop who are giving money to cash-strapped schools to advertise their product on school televisions. Meanwhile targeting young children who get their parents to buy their products. Engler proposes a solution regarding the increase in childhood obesity by first stating that vending machines should be removed from schools and the

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

Children are hit hard with all of the advertisement of fast food places and although the results are positive for the companies, the health of these children ends up in a negative.

Having an unhealthy eating diet such as fast food, chips, soda, and baked goods all can have an impact on a child’s weight gain. Chains of fast food restaurants such Mcdonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, and Wendy’s, target young people. For example, there is a young child watching television and a commercial comes on, these commercials corrupt the child’s mind and portrays that it is healthy to it eat when it's not. In addition, parents will buy their kids this junk food because it is cheaper than buying

Fast food companies are the one to blame for America’s obesity and obesity in children now days. Back in time we would never see children with diabetes or with heart disease, and now that’s all that we see in the streets, news, etc. It’s all about marketing and their target is children, which is wrong! Food enter by the eyes as the saying says, and children’s are the one who goes more by that saying. If only fast food would control the amount of calories you in take things would be so much better in the terms of obesity in children, but no one does anything for the cause. It’s not bad to eat once in a while at a fast food restaurant. I mean we all do that and it’s not bad. Is just the amount of fast food (Junk Food) that we eat and how often

While the fast food is really harmful after an excessive amount, fast food chains and their advertisements are often blamed too harshly. Advertising is not the main cause and blame for childhood obesity. Ads simply promote one brand name over another. They do not persuade people to do things they are not already doing (Moerdyk, 2008). They already drink cold drinks, eat food, drive cars, and buy groceries. The advertising tries to get people who already drink cold drinks to try theirs, drive their cars, and buy at their store. “The reason we have so many fat, unhealthy kids who get involved in drugs and all sorts of other bad habits has got little to do with advertising and a lot to do with parents who don't give a darn what programs their kids watch on TV or what movies they go to” (Moerdyk, 2008).

When a child eats a Happy Meal at McDonalds they’re eating 520 calories per meal with a cheeseburger clocking in at 700 calories. Fast foods are convenient, easy and affordable; so fewer families are preparing meals at home. Fast foods are lacking nutritional balance and there is not any control on how it’s cooked, which is usually with a lot of oil and butter. Fast foods tend to lack fresh fruits and vegetables. Children need to know the consequences in eating foods high in calories, fats, sugar and chemicals. Children should avoid cholesterol, saturated fat, high sodium which is harmful to the immune system and can lead to Type II diabetes.

Fast food tastes best when they are fresh out of the restaurant. No matter how big the portion is, fast food can be hardly eaten as leftovers. So children have gradually trained their stomachs-adults likewise-to hold fattier, oily, sugary foods that come in super sizes. The initial issue seemed to be just being overweight and obese, as these children who consume more fatty foods than necessary grew up to be a fat generation of adults. But now, the fast food monster has grown bigger and wilder that it brings children critical health issues at much younger ages.

A study of The Annals of Internal Medicine indicates that more than 70% of men and more than 60% of women have extra pounds because of the consumption of fast food in large amounts. In kids the problem gets more extreme. If kids consume too much fast food they could have high cholesterol and obesity, then they would have higher risks of cardiovascular issues, diabetes and heart diseases. Parents should prevent those kinds of health issues in their kids because it will be reflected in them as adults.

“Research shows that this brand loyalty begins in children as young as two years old.” (mediaawareness) The reason this can be dangerous is because of the types of food our children eat. Foods like packaged cookies, salty soups, candy, and soda. The list runs much longer than this, but the reality is that these foods have things like added sugar, added salt, and trans fats that make the food taste “better”. Another really important fact to point out is that childhood obesity can be directly related to over consumption of fast foods. The average fast food cheeseburger contains about 500 calories. If you add an order of french fries then that is another 500 calories. Most active 5 year old children for example, should obtain about 1600 calories per day. So one meal from a fast food restaurant would equate to over half of the calories they should. (NCBI)