Imagine if you would a young child who sees a commercial for a happy meal with a toy on TV and beseeches his mother for a chance to unwrap that delicious happy meal and play with that plastic wonder. The mom, wanting to make her child happy, obliges and buys a happy meal for her son and buys a rather large portion for the rest of the family; more food than they needed or perhaps wanted. Then they all dig into the calories and fats contained in the grease and carbs that make up most of a fast food restaurant’s menu. This average family just became the victims of the American fast food industry, an industry which is willing to compromise American health for its own purposes. These tyrants of business have put profit in front of morals by targeting our impressionable youth, increasing portion size to maximize profits, and most significantly by putting out food that only contributes to the greatest threat in modern American society, all of which contribute to our unhealthy lifestyle.
Where does this cycle of obesity begin with you may ask? Well for fast food companies, an effective way to secure customers both in the short term and in the long term is to target children. Children cannot fully understand the consequences that come with deciding where to eat and how much to eat of course; they are dependent upon their parents. But when given such incentives as a toy and a “yummy” meal, who wouldn’t prefer that than a less appealing healthier meal with no toy. Now I’m not insinuating that children dictate their parent’s meal selection of course, but for parents the option of a quick easy fast-food meal that pleases their child there is now more appealing than ever. According to Dr. Kelly Brownell, author of “Fast Food and Obesity in Children” approximately 20% of children eat some meal or snack at a fast food restaurant daily. This alarming statistic is the basis of why Americans have gotten so heavy: these kids become exposed when they’re young and continue this attraction for fast food into their adult lives. After one has tasted the delicious McDonalds cheeseburger, who wouldn’t go back to eat more when they are able to feed themselves. It’s only natural for this to occur, but now the fast food companies have effectively reeled in many lifelong patrons by preying on the impressionable minds of the youth. But it’s not only their fault for we must share some of the blame as well. We have allowed these companies to advertise and appeal to our children and even given our children fast food as a treat thinking: “what could happen?” Now we can no longer remain ignorant and must recognize that the lifestyle choices we make for our children in their early years, are extremely likely to carry over into adulthood. The offenses by fast food companies do not simply stop at children however, they have been abusing you and I nearly since their outset.
Fast food companies have basically one goal in mind: to maximize profit, and that is exactly what they accomplished by increasing their portion sizes at our poor expense. Hopefully, you all have read the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma and while it may be unorthodox to cite a summer reading assignment, there was one passage that specifically spoke to me. The author Michael Pollan describes how a board member of McDonalds Mr. David Wallerstein discovered that the way to increase profits was to increase the portion sizes because people are more likely to pay a little more for a little more than just to walk away entirely. Thus the supersized portions at McDonalds were born and other companies followed suit. Now America is eating in far greater portions than it should be all for the sake of profit; the definition of exploitation. Were these companies more responsible, they may recognize that while they are not the entire cause of the American obesity crisis, their outlandish and fattening portion sizes do play a large role in it. Instead they take that extra thirty five cents from the customer and put out a large forty four ounce large soda instead of a large 32 ounce soda, while the consumer is allowed to add to his unhealthy lifestyle. Some could it’s still the customer’s fault because he chose the large instead of the small. This is true enough, but who wouldn’t spend just a little more to get a lot more? As Pollan stipulates it’s Americans “being thrifty” and it has unkowningly backfired upon them and skyrocketed the profits of the fast food industry. Then there is the greatest matter to deal with: the unhealthy food that these companies put out.
Finally there is the matter of the quality of food that these companies put out for the American public and how it contributes to our unhealthy lifestyles. Morgan Spurlock describes as such in his documentary “Supersize Me” when he decided to eat three meals a day from McDonalds despite the pleadings from his doctor. After the experiment Spurlock gained 24 pounds, began having heart palpitations, was generally depressed, threw up on occasion, encountered a loss of sexual drive, and ran the risk of having major disease or a heart attack. All from simply eating fast food for a month. This is probably one of the most startling testaments to the poor nutrition found in these meals, but it should be recognized how this experiment can help us. If this poor man suffered through an entire month and almost became another victim of the obesity crisis because of this food, shouldn’t we be more reluctant to eat it, and when we do eat sparingly. Critics say that this is an extreme experiment because no one would actually attempt this, but what if we did? The stuff these companies put out is food isn’t it? Food by definition should be eaten to help us survive. But when you think about the experiment’s results and how bad of shape Spurlock was in you have to wonder: would he have survived much longer? So why don’t these companies make food that people can live off of and maybe even help contribute to this American crisis? Well, it would cost tons of money to reinvent their system and their profits may not be as promising as now so why would take the moral high ground when you can take the bag of money.
When it boils down, these companies aren’t all just focused one hundred percent on money, money, money; in fact there have been improvements the last couple of years with health standards and a gradual increase in nutrition content. We must recognize however that these companies are not always looking out for us and will try their best to squeeze all the profit they can out of us at our expense. After all they are businesses. When we realize this we can make better choices: we can order the small instead to the supersized, we can not expose our kids on a weekly basis to these meals, and we can take our money to a more nutritionally healthy environment like a “Subway”. Better yet we can take our money to a place where it truly is needed: the kitchen table. Studies show that families are eating together at their own dinner table less than at any point in history according to Time Magazine’s Richard Zoglin. The kitchen table is a far better place to grow as a family than in the drive-through of a “Wendy’s.” By doing these simple things we can become a more healthy nation and eventually a more prosperous people.
No comments:
Post a Comment