Is American fast food exploiting our desire to be healthy? (Article)

American Fast Food: Exploiting Our Desire To Be Healthy

Over the last several years, there has been a lot of talk about the effects of fast food on the health of the American people. Dozens, possibly even hundreds of authors, television personalities and filmmakers have spoken on the unhealthy consequences of making bad choices in our eating habits when dining out, which has led to more diet friendly items being introduced to almost every restaurant menu across America. From salads and fresh fruit to yogurt and bottled water, it seems that every major brand in the fast food industry is cashing in on our desire to live healthier lifestyles by giving us an array of choices to satisfy even the most nutritious minded consumer.

But are these companies seriously intent on helping us fight the battle of the bulge, or are they merely exploiting us and our need to be thin to expand their profits? It seems that in order to trim the fat from our diets, we are also being forced to trim the fat from our wallets. With all these diet friendly entrees also comes the fact that you are ultimately paying more yet getting less, and in todays economy, that healthier, yet more expensive choice is a hard one for many consumers to make.

I’m sure that we would all like to work in a place that allows two hour lunch breaks and is located next door to a salad bar, but the fact is that most Americans are given 30-45 minutes to grab a meal, check in with the babysitter, pick up dry cleaning and perform many other tedious tasks that can’t wait until 5 pm. Whatever each individual does on their lunch break I cannot possibly know, but my point is that we as a society are busy, trying to be prosperous business people, good employees, tentative wives and husbands, loving sons and daughters and parents, and live out our own individual American Dream. We have a million things to do and far less than a million minutes to do them, and it is because of this that fast food has simply become a part of the American way of life.

Imagine this: There you are, finally in line at your office’s favorite lunch time dive, in a hurry as always but determined to make today the day to take that step towards a healthier diet and order responsibly. You smile, proud of yourself and your decision and you begin to browse the menu. ‘ #1. Double McFatty Burger Combo, with fries and a drink only $3.99. #2. Premium Chicken Salad, $11.99 drink sold separately and the price difference causes a completely different menu to appear in your mind: ‘ #1. Mortgage Payment, $1400.00 biggie size for only .49! #2. Car Payment, $500.00 #3. Utility Bills, $400.00 your choice of crispy or grilled! #5.Little League Uniforms, $90.00 with Bacon add $1.00 #6. Insurance Premium, $230.00 – BBQ, Spicy or Mild ‘… The list goes on and on. Then when it’s your turn to order, you look at the cashier, grimace and say ” I guess give me the McFatty”…

This may seem a little exaggerated to some people, but for most Americans, it is a sad but very true fact that those few seemingly insignificant dollars, can have a very significant impact on your budget and your decisions. With all the job losses in the recession, people are being forced to look at the things we buy a lot differently.

Now, let’s take a look back at those first two menu Items ‘ #1. Double McFatty Burger Combo, with fries and a drink only $3.99. #2. Premium Chicken Salad, $11.99 drink sold separately. I want you to take note of the price difference (I have changed the specific names of the menu Items, but these are factual prices from a fast food restaurant I visited frequently) and then think back to your very last trip to your local market. If you were to buy the ingredients to make both of these entrees at home, which do you think would cost more? Well I am not going to quote market prices here as prices are different depending on location and season, but let’s look at ingredients for a second.

According to the restaurant’s (that will remain nameless) website, the ingredients for these products are as follows:

#1. Double McFatty Combo: Burger- 1 large bun, 2 1/4lb. beef patties, 2 slices of cheese, 2 tbsp. mayo, 1 tbsp. ketchup, two pickle slices, 1 tomato slice and 2-3 onion ring slices. Fries, approx. 55-70 french fries, or 1 large potato. Drink – 32 oz. of soda or iced tea. = 10 Items.

#2. Premium Chicken Salad: Salad- Approx. 6 oz lettuce, 5 cucumber slices, 5 cherry tomatoes, 0.5 oz carrot strings, 1 oz. shredded cheese and 2 chicken strips or 4.5 oz. = 6 Items.

And this is only one example, out of possibly thousands given the number of chains that appear to be following suit with this pattern. Now after viewing this, it is apparent that it takes more time and money for the company to make the items in the number 1 combo than it does to make the salad, so why is the salad priced 3 times higher than the combo?

It’s because of the rising obesity rate in America, as well as the growing FEAR of obesity that these companies are able to overcharge for these items. According to the most recent NCHS report, “More than one-third of adults, or over 72 million people, were obese in 2005-2006.” With these shocking numbers still rising, the general public is in a hysterical frame of mind regarding health and weight management, as well we should be. But there remains a question of morality and ethics here. These companies are taking advantage of their customers not through trends and entertainment hoopla which has been the norm in the past, but of our basic concern for our well being; our natural instinct for survival and prosperity is being used for profit, and we are allowing it to happen. Why?

Maybe no one wants to admit that there is a problem here, and so many people brush it off as simply a matter of a few lousy bucks, “no big deal, right?’ WRONG! Those few lousy bucks over time from mass consumers becomes a few BILLION bucks, and add to it all the fact that we were struggling to obtain and maintain those “few lousy bucks” to begin with, and I believe that is a very big deal. As most of our nations fast food chains are American based Corporations, I personally feel that they have an obligation to the American consumer to help us get our health back in order. After all, it has been argued many times that the rising rate of overweight people in America can be directly traced to the fast food industry. These corporations made us the most overweight country in the world, and now they overcharge us for the things we need to make us better. Am I the only one who is absolutely disgusted by this?

I am reminded of the TRUTH campaign against the major U.S. tobacco companies, to hold them accountable for the injuries and deaths of the people who used their products. In response, many of the tobacco companies began marketing “healthy” products to help people quit smoking, to try to put forth an image that they care about our health, but are still mass producing and marketing the harmful products that injured and killed the people in the first place. Add to that the fact that the “healthy”, anti smoking products are priced significantly higher than the tobacco products, and doesn’t that sound just like the fast food industry?

In addition to the above mentioned similarities between tobacco and fast food, studies show that like tobacco, foods can also be addictive, because the site, smell and taste of foods that we enjoy and identify as favorites, ie. the foods that the fast food industry has been selling us for 50 years, can produce dopamine and endorphins, the things that trigger the “happy” feeling in your brain. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have found that “the mere display of food where food-deprived subjects are allowed to smell and taste their favorite foods without actually eating them, causes a significant elevation in brain dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of pleasure and reward. This activation of the brain’s dopamine motivation circuits is distinct from the role the brain chemical plays when people actually eat, and may be similar to what addicts experience when craving drugs.”

In taking this into consideration, isn’t it safe to say that this could quite possibly be the reason that so many Americans have trouble maintaining their weight and making responsible dietary choices? Has the fast food industry turned us all into “food junkies”, incapable of saying no to the temptation? Between our brain’s proven natural reaction to the smell and the site of the unhealthy food, and the fact that the healthy food that we should be getting is so outrageously overpriced, is it any wonder that more than a third of our population is obese? Is there really any difference between fast food chains and a drug dealer on the street, making the very things that are going to take our lives so readily available?

I believe that these fast food corporations are nothing more than moral criminals, cholesterol pushers; we are allowing them to poison us, and then break our banks trying to buy the cure. This cycle is no doubt going to run our nations health straight into the ground, along with the corpses of our friends and neighbors. Let’s not do it to ourselves, and let’s not allow it to happen to the people that we love.

References:

http://www.mypyramid.gov/

http://www.reuters.com/article /domesticNews/idUSTRE50863H200 90109

http://www.eng.umu.se/E3ht03/m anchester/Lisa/fastfood.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F ast_food

http://www.protectthetruth.org /truthcampaign.htm

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/puba f/pr/2002/bnlpr052002.htm

http://journals.lww.com/journa laddictionmedicine/Abstract/20 09/03000/Food_Addiction__An_Ex amination_of_the_Diagnostic.1. aspx