Fast Food Essay free essay sample

Thinking back on this week, what are the meals that you have eaten? Were these meals home cooked or were they from a fast food restaurant? There are around 160,000 fast food restaurants in the United States (Pew Research Center), but do these restaurants control how you think or how you feel? No, they do not. Obesity in America should not be blamed on these fast food restaurants. I believe that it is solely America’s fault for being obese. Many say advertising has a play in what people eat, but I disagree. I see car advertisements and clothing advertisements, but do I go out and buy a new car and blame the car company for my being broke? No. That is why I agree with Mary Maxfield’s: Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating. I understand that America today is a fast paced society and sometimes people may not have time to cook a full on five star meal. We will write a custom essay sample on Fast Food Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The least people can do is run by their local grocery store, pick up a few ingredients and make a quick homemade recipe. Don’t spoil yourself and your family with the toxins and chemicals fast food companies put in their food. Pick up a carrot! Mary Maxwell starts off with talking about people in France and what they eat. (â€Å"How do French people eat so unhealthily-famously indulging in cheese, cream, and wine-but stay on average, healthier than Americans? †) The problem here in America is that people here do not eat in moderation. People want to eat whatever they want whenever they want and expect to stay â€Å"thin†. Well, according to David Zinczenko’s: Don’t Blame the Eater, a salad at one of theses fast food restaurants contains chicken that is 150 calories; excluding almonds and other things already in the salad. The salad’s final calorie count totals out to be 620. That sounds a like a pretty unhealthy salad. If people want to eat junk, then they should expect to look like junk. Also, people’s view of â€Å"thin† or what is considered to be healthy or look good varies. Most people go by a BMI, which is the medical world’s opinion (Resisting the Moralization of Eating). I don’t think it is wrong to eat fast food nor should people stop eating it; I just think that if you eat it and you still want to look â€Å"thin† or be â€Å"healthy†, take responsibly for your  actions and exercise, or like I said earlier; eat in moderation. Fast food IS like the new tobacco here. People are addicted to this garbage and it’s saddening. It does nothing good for you. In fact, fast food can mess up your metabolism, cause gastritis, an ulcer, etc. It’s more of a health issue than it is anything else. The buns on a McDonald’ hamburger contain BHT (Cook). BHT is a neurotoxin that is toxic to the brain and to the eyes (Cook). What many people do not take into consideration, though are the healthy choices that some restaurants offer. People should take advantage of what the Internet can do and move some finger muscles and look up these fast food restaurants’ menus! McDonald’s of course does not offer any healthy alternatives being that their salad comes out to a total of 620 calories, but, Subway offers nutritious breakfast, lunch and dinner options. At subway a breakfast can contain to around twelve grams of fat, but, at McDonald’s, you could be eating thirty-five grams of fat! The information is right there and is available to everyone. If someone does not own a computer, all they have to do is walk into the restaurant and request a nutrition menu. People walk around with the mindset â€Å"ignorance is bliss†, but they don’t want to have to deal with the consequences that come along with that mindset. One of the best things that I read in these essays came out of Mary Maxfield’s essay; â€Å"In essence, we can eat as we always have-which includes eating for emotional or social reasons-and still survive or even thrive. I think what Mary is saying is that everyone can eat what they want, but people should eat in moderation and should not be oblivious to the facts and to what they are actually eating. According the essay Don’t Blame the Eater, kids are suing McDonald’s for their obesity. In my opinion, that is just plain nonsense. As I stated earlier, it should not be blamed on the fast food companies and it should not be blamed on the kids either in this situation. The parents should be the ones to blame. Being a parental figure, a child is going to look up to you. What you eat, they are going to want to eat. What choices you make, will likely be their choices in the future. In the advertisement that I watched, it was a mother with a drug needle and she was going to inject her son, but the son was really eating a burger from a fast food restaurant. The ad said â€Å"You wouldn’t inject your children with junk, so why are you feeding it to them? † I agree with this ad one hundred percent. Most people know that fast food restaurants are not the healthiest choice for them and their children. So why do they keep going back to it? Why would someone want to lead his or her child into the life of obesity? In conclusion, I strongly disagree that the fast food companies should be held responsible. Americans should be held responsible for their choices. The fast food companies are not forcing them to eat their food four to five times a week. Also, if someone chooses to eat fast food frequently, they should educate themselves on what actually goes into their food. People eat this junk of their own free will. Although I am guilty of eating the garbage that these places call â€Å"food†, I will not sit here and blame the companies for my choices. Fast Food Essay free essay sample Why People Eat Fast Food Many people in United States eat fast food daily. Is not a mistery that processed food is bad for health, but, if everyone knows that why is fast food so popular? In the textbook Fast Food Nation written by Eric Schlosser he shows that franchising is a good kind of business for the companies, they make money only because of their name. The fast food market is growing in United Staes year by year, and people do not realize that they are giving money to lose health. Today, places like Del Taco, Carls Jr. nd Jack-In-The-Box are opening franchises every month and, as a matter of fact, they are making tons of money by doing that. Everytime and everywhere there is people hungry who do not care about their health. There are many reasons why people should stop eating junk food, but they keep eating because of avaliability, lack of time, taste and sometimes price. We will write a custom essay sample on Fast Food Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Almost every city in United States has a fast food place opened nowadays. The bad food is always avaliable and it is hard to not eat because those places sell really tasty food. Another fact that makes people eat in fast food places everyday is lack of time. Many people have to work full time, and when they get home they still have to deal with kids, wife or husband, work issues or they just do not have energy to cook and clean the dishes. Fast food turns the best option since they only have to eat. First of all, United States became a place that has fast food restaurants in every corner. An example of this is our college area. Getting out of RCC, if you turn right in Magnolia Avenue there is a Carls jr. If you decide have to go left, around two miles away there is another Carls Jr. But this time in the company of Little Ceasers and Subway. On 14th street, parallel from RCC, there is a Jack-In-The-Box and Del Taco. So, when people are hungry they will for sure see those restaurants and sometimes it is hard not to eat since their food is really tasty. In the Livestrong website, the author Martin Green states Fast food outlets are everywhere in America. There are now more than 85,000 of them. In 1970, Americans spent $6 billion on fast food. By 2000, this had shot up to $110 billion. The New York Times says junk food is as American as apple pie. The fast food market expanded due to business reasons and today is really famous because of the advertisement. Nowadays is impossible to watch a tv show without see any fast food advertisement. Second, lack of time makes people eat fast food. Most of americans work full time and the work they have to do not stop when they get home. Our English 1A professor, James Dail, used himself as an example. In class he described one day that he arrived home tonight and still had to grade our essays and do a bunch of things. The best option for him and most americans is to eat in a fast food restaurant, by doing this they will be saving time to cook and wash the dishes. Also, eat in fast food restaurants at lunch is almost a tradition for workers. Most of them have only 40 minutes to have lunch. So, the only option is to order something fast to eat. The Im too busy to cook line was more popular among people with college degrees than people with less education. (Hitti 1) Which means that people who has a career and a job are more likely to eat fast food. Third, who does not enjoy a hamburguer? Who does not want to pay only five bucks for a large and delicious pizza? To go to a restaurant with friends to talk and enjoy the moment became a cultural thing in United States. Always when I go to fast food restaurants I see groups of friends eating together and laughing. I do it at least once in a week. People seem happy in those places. To go eat with friends already became a thing to do in America. Another point that makes people addicted to those places is the taste of the food. Ok, they are not healthy. On the other hand they are really tasty. The desire to eat tasty food is a human nature and nobody can stay away from this. Even the most worried about health person eat sometimes or already ate in fast food restaurants. The fast food market will always be good, since they sell tasty food. There is no doubt that fast food has been a part of our lives. As for me, even though i know its not good to us, I also like it especially McDonalds I think its delicious what I can do now is just to control myself. (Anne 1) It is hard not to agree with Tina Anne, the author of Why is the Fast Food so Popular? Even though fast food is bad for health, people will eat. I consider myself as a person with healthy habits. I play tennis, workout and try to eat healthy food. But sometimes is just impossible not to eat a hamburguer or a pizza. Also, junk food is cheap. As an example of this, Del Taco sells tacos for less than one dollar on tuesdays and thursdays. To sum up, to eat fast food is definitely not a healthy habit. The reasons why their market still growing are avaliability, time to eat, taste and price. As the days are passing people is spending more money in fast food because more and more they will see franchises opened in every corner, selling tasty food. To open a fast food franchise is almost always a good way to invest money. The reason why almost all restaurants are sussessful is because food is something that everyone needs all the time, and most americans do not care about their health. So, they eat in the most convenient place. So, what’s the point of all of this. The point is that convenience is often the driving factor for people when they make spending choices. They will spend more money and sacrifice other factors such as healthiness in order to maximize convenience. Claims Trent, the author of Fast Food, Convenience and Money. By eating in those restaurants people will have more free time, sometimes spend les s money and will never have to learn how to cook or wash the dishes. Unfortunately, a lot of people today think like this in United States. Which is a very bad way to think. Works cited: Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Mariner /Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print. Green, Martin. Reasons Why People Eat Junk Food Over Healthy Food. LIVESTRONG. COM. N. p. , 27 Feb. 2011. Web. 07 May 2013. . Hitti, Miranda. Top 11 Reasons for Fast Foods Popularity. WebMD. WebMD, 02 Dec. 2008. Web. 07 May 2013. . Anne, Tina. Why Is The Fast Food So Popular? Articlesbase. com. Articlesbase. com, 02 Feb. 2010. Web. 07 May 2013. . Trent. Fast Food, Convenience, and Money. The Simple Dollar Fast Food Convenience and Money Comments. N. p. , 13 Dec. 2011. Web. 07