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Fast food companies and obesity
With obesity rates this high, America is facing a huge crisis that could become even greater in the future
Fast food companies and obesity
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Jasmine Nguyen A10074232 Extra Credit Response Paper: Food Inc. The documentary Food, Inc. goes inside today’s highly enigmatic industrial food system in the United States. Throughout the documentary, it talks about the many environmental and health consequences that arise from cheap and fast food. This documentary also goes into the topic of food access and how it leads to obesity in many Americans. It went into detail about how food in American is grown and processed, which really caught me by surprise in many ways. While watching this documentary, I have learned that the food industry does not want you to know the actuality about all the food they sell; because of course no one would really eat it. The way that the groceries we buy in the store are manipulated by food science shows the evolution of today’s food. Some examples from the film include, ripening of tomatoes with ethylene gas and the reengineering of produce to create a longer shelf life. With the large over production of corn, grocery stores are now stocked with corn-based, high-calorie processed food. Although these...
The American diet is becoming extremely harmful to the health of especially children. The new generation has different trends in regard to health compared to those of perhaps their parents. In the documentary Fed Up, Soechtig uses data and statistics, as well as narratives of emotional events to highlight the long run issues with American’s poor diet and also to criticize the food industry. By doing this, the director hopes to spark a change in diet.
“Hungry for Change” is an eye opening documentary made to explore the role that food plays in peoples’ lives. The experts, ranging from authors to medical doctors, address a variety of claims through testimonials, experiments, and statistical evidence. They not only state the flaws in this generation’s diet but also logically explain the reasons behind the downfall in peoples’ diet and offer better ways to approach our health.
In addition, Michael Pollan, also a journalist, believes that the vast array of choices which appear in everyday supermarkets is nothing but an “illusion of diversity”. The advancement of technology and how consumers react to products has been further developed and continues to be in this generation. Food scientists are now genetically modifying and engineering products to satisfy and manipulate consumers to desire more of these unhealthy product choices. The biggest advance in recent years has been high fructose corn syrup, which currently exists in about 90% of items on a grocery store shelf.
Food Inc. was a documentary produced by Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein that was about the dark sides of corporate farming and revealed how most of our food is produced. The film uses pathos, ethos, and logos to strongly get the points across throughout the film. The main point was that there is something wrong with our food and agricultural systems.
Imagine everything you ate looked like corn. Your burgers are corn, your cereal is corn, your ice cream is corn, even your steak is corn. This is what America’s food industry is shaping up to be, everything being made from corn. Over 10,000 pounds of corn can make 57,348 cans of soda, 3,894 burgers from meat that is corn fed, 2,301 pounds of bacon, or 6,726 boxes of cereal. Corn has become the ‘King’ of all crops, because of its widespread use in food. There is a major lack of variety nowadays since corn is a major ingredient in everything. Corn is changing the food industry for the worst, and we should cut down our use of corn in everything for more variety and a major decrease in the obesity rate.
Another issue that is addressed in the film is obesity among the Americans. It might seems to be weird to talk about obesity when you focusing on the problems of hunger, however obesity and hunger have a lot in common. Some people just don’t have enough money to purchase the food that will help them to stay fit and healthy, so they look for the cheapest processed foods which are not always good. According to the static provided in the film, price of fresh food and vegetables went up by forty percent since 1980, and that is when the epidemic of obesity began in the United States. At the same time price of processed foods has declined by forty percent since then. Therefore people with low-income spend money on the cheapest calories they can get.
As obesity and medical problems due to diet become a larger issue within society, it is imperative to educate humans on the importance of maintaining a healthy diet. This is exactly what Hungry for Change does. One of the key points made in the documentary is that humans no longer eat a natural diet like their ancestors did; when humans first began to inhabit the Earth they lived off a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats. During these periods famine and disease was rampant, so humans adapted to store nutrition more productively. Now that humans live in a more developed society, they have a (practically) unlimited supply of food. However, much of this food is processed and manipulated to have a better flavour and a longer shelf life, and though this sounds like a positive situation, it has become a huge problem. According to best-selling women’s health author Dr. Christine Northrup, “We’ve lived on Earth for a millennium where there was a food shortage. You’re programmed to put on fat whenever there is food available. Now there’s a lot of food available, but it’s the wrong kind.” (Northrup, as cited in Colquhoun et al., 2012). This is a logical and widely accepted theory as to why humans continue to overindulge on foods despi...
The reading “In Praise of Fast Food” is an argument using personal opinions alongside researched history and facts written by Rachel Laudan. Her views are depicted on the widely known theories that “fast food” is unhealthy, based on the way she was raised and the food she was raised eating. Laudan does an exceptionally good job demonstrating why processed foods are an essential part of our culture and why she thinks food always being natural and fresh has become an “article of faith” for many people in today’s society (Laudan 302). It is clear that she wants people to realize that factories helping with properly preserving and preparing meals is not a completely unhealthy or horrifying lifestyle choice like it is
In their recent work, Radley Balko and David Zinczenko have offered harsh critiques about today’s food industry. Many people who frequently eat out at restaurants assume that it is the food industries fault for making America an obese Nation, including Zinczenko, however, Balko has a slightly different opinion.
Food is an essential part of everyday life without it one could not survive. Every day we make choices on what we put in to our bodies. There are countless varieties of food to choose from to meet the diverse tastes of the increasing population. Almost all food requires a label explaining the ingredients and the nutritional value allowing consumers to make informed decisions on what they are consuming. However, many may not be considering where that food is coming from or how it has been produced. Unfortunately, there is more to food than meets the eye. Since 1992, “ the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled, based on woefully limited data, that genetically modified foods were ‘substantially equivalent’ to their non-GM counterparts” (Why to Support Labeling). GM food advocates have promised to create more nutritious food that will be able to grow in harsh climate conditions and eventually put an end to world hunger in anticipation of the growing population. There is very little evidence to support these claims and study after study has proven just the opposite. GM crops are not only unsafe to consume, but their growing practices are harmful to the environment, and multinational corporations are putting farmers out of business.
The United States of America has long been considered a “big nation”, whether is has the biggest cities, houses, and on a negative note, biggest people. In 2003, Morgan Spurlock, a healthy-bodied film director, set on a quest to show America the detrimental effects of the fast food industry and raise awareness on the controversial issue. He produced the documentary “Supersize Me”, where McDonald’s meals were consumed for every meal of the day for thirty days. His film was released to movie theatres so that people could understand the devastating effects of McDonald’s on his body in a very short time span. At the end of his experiment, Morgan gained twenty-five pounds, developed a thirteen percent body mass increase, cholesterol skyrocketed immensely, and fat accumulation in his liver rose to. He became depressed and he only felt happy and in no pain when he was eating the fast food. By using ethos, logos, and pathos, “Supersize Me” became one of the most watched documentaries in the United States. Without these appeals, this documentary would not have developed the effect that it did.
The way that our society has been able to produce food has changed in the last fifty years that the several thousand years beforehand. Robert Kenner addresses problems of our society’s food system and how there is only a handful of large corporations that have basically taken over the food system in the United States in the film Food, Inc. Large businesses have been able to significantly produce vast amounts of food and set low prices for consumers, usually because of government subsidies, which results in enormous profit and greater control of the food supply sources. This leads to negative health, safety, and economic consequences. This documentary examines the exercises of the few large food corporations from the start of production
Food has been a common source of necessity in our everyday lives as humans. It helps gives us nutrition and energy to live throughout our life. Over several decades, the development of making foods has evolved. They have changed from natural to processed foods in recent years. Nowadays natural ingredients are barely used in the making of foods like bread, cheese, or yogurt. The food industry today has replaced natural food making with inorganic ingredients. The cause of this switch is due to processed foods being easier, cheaper and faster to make. Artificial nutrition and processed foods have been proven to last longer in market shelves then natural foods. Also, due to artificial additives in processed foods they help satisfy consumers taste more than natural ingredients. The method of producing processed foods is common in today's food industry and helps make money faster and efficiently for companies. Examples of this can be found in all markets that distribute food. Even though processed foods may be easier and faster to make, they are nowhere near as healthy for consumers compared to natural foods. Natural foods are healthier, wholesome, and beneficial to the human body and planet then processed foods.
I fully support this documentary and everything it shows; it can lead to a healthier future and Americans should use this opportunity to make a healthier tomorrow. Super-Size Me gives a detailed look behind the scenes at the biggest fast food chain in the world, and gives the audience a cautionary look at the future. Works Cited Super Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock.
This book is a life changing book. It was inspirational, informative and gave you insight about the things we do not know about the food we eat. The documentary was graphic and detailed, informing you of the process from the farm or the fields, to the manufactures, to the labeling and packaging companies. It informed me, about the school lunches, how some of the meals at school are made, to the politics behind it. This book is also a collectible.