Fast Food Nation
The American Fast Food Industry, Its History, Influence and Effects.
Fast food has become a major phenomenon here in America. According to Eric Schlosser, he writes in the New York Times, on average $301,369,863 is spent a day on fast food. As Schlosser shows, American people are abusing fast food. In accordance with fast food binging, obesity has become a widespread epidemic.
According to Joseph Mercola M.D., on a personal website states obesity is, “A chronic condition that develops as a result of an interaction between a person's genetic makeup and their environment.” Here Dr. Mercola expresses how obesity is directly related to an individual’s environment. Today it is not uncommon to find major fast food chains with in a short distance from residential areas. With so many choices for fast food, Americans turn to the fast food as an alternative to the healthy home cooked meal.
The reason for so many Americans eating out is simply because they are in a hurry or unable to cook and just want something fast and easy. A majority of these people get into the habit of constantly eating at these fast food chains. According to Morgan Spurlock, in his documentary Super Size Me, he quotes Elliot Bloom, a young marketing wiz for Taco Bell, “The fast food chains were sustained by a large group of diners who ate out more than twenty times a month. A big chunk of this group, about 30% of customers, were considered to be “heavy users” and accountable for bringing in a whopping 70% of total revenue.” These numbers show how important fast food has become to Americans daily eating habits, and further demonstrates the connection between fast food eating and the increases in obesity.
Accordingly, excessive amounts of fast food can be very damaging to ones body, and there is proof to back up this claim. Director Morgan Spurlock, set out to document a strictly fast food diet, “I am trying to prove, fast food makes someone fat.” Spurlock closely documented his thirty-day...
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