Unhealthy Fast Food

The population of America is becoming more aware of the importance of good nutrition. Ironically the people are becoming increasingly less healthy. In the 1960's the nation ate healthier but knew less about nutrition. The foods that the teenagers consume today contributes to the increasing weight and decreasing health of the nation. Many outside factors determine the eating habits of teenagers today.

When the baby boomer generation grew up a majority of the homes had mothers who worked in the home. The mother usually made sure that the meal prepared for dinner was balanced and healthy. Today many teens live in homes where both parents work. This means that after school and most likely past dinner time they are alone. When these young people come home from school, instead of opting for the healthy snack that a parent might have chosen, they choose a junk food snack. There are many pre-packaged foods such as, Little Debbie's, hostess, and a myriad of potato chip brands that are convenient and easy to get. When their parents grew up a limited variety of junk food existed so the tendency to eat junk food was not as high. Because so many convenience foods exist today teens opt for these instead of preparing a healthy snack themselves. These teens might have to make supper for themselves also. Most do not know how to prepare a healthy supper, so they have the convenient television dinners. These are usually very high in fat and cholesterol. Even though they are unhealthy the convenience is a much bigger asset to the teens. The high cholesterol foods in the pre-packaged meals contribute to the high blood pressure and frequency of heart attacks in the parents of these teens as well as the increasing weight of t...

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...en induce vomiting to purge the food from their bodies.

Teenagers today have been introduced to convenience foods. Everybody will look for an easy way out once in a while, but these teens are taking that route too often with their diets. The increasing popularity of fast food restaurants makes the consumption of high fat and high cholesterol foods very enticing. Teens today have very unhealthy eating habits and this is causing increasing weight and an increase in eating disorders. The parents of these teens are influential on these habits. The average middle age person is twenty pounds over weight. The children of these people follow in their footsteps as the youth of America becomes increasingly obese. In thirty years the eating habits of young people have changed drastically for the worse. This gives a very grim outlook on the future of our country.