Persuasive Essay On Fast Food

Throughout this semester, our class has discussed many important topics about the food we eat in America. We’ve discussed what’s in our meat, various food additives, diseases caused by our diet and the way the average American eats. Unfortunately, the food that can be found in America is not the always the best and often contains chemicals, that in large enough amounts, can be very toxic to our bodies. If the government and the food industry were to ban, replace or eliminate certain foods or substances, our society would become much healthier just by slightly changing our diet. If I was allowed to choose one thing to prohibit or eliminate, I would choose fast food based on how the food is made, what is contains and how it affects the human

Fast food businesses advertise as being a company that serves freshly prepared cuisine, when in reality, nothing fast food restaurants serve is fresh. All their food comes prepackaged from factories half-way across the country. Most restaurants even throw their food in the microwave to save, “the time and money it would take to teach the cooks how to prepare the food properly” (Gallam). Fast food joints, such as McDonalds, used to operate like other restaurants did, having cooks to prepare each meal. Once the McDonald’s brothers figured out that their restaurant could use some improvement, they, “closed the restaurant and redesigned its food-preparation area to work less like a restaurant and more like an automobile assembly line” (Wilson). The company also developed a system of preparation, “called the Speedee Service System” (Wilson). The system allowed them to hire many unskilled workers, each with a specific job in the food preparation process instead of hiring highly skilled short-order cooks. Today, this system still stands in nearly every fast food restaurant in the world. These restaurants thrive on the mass-production of food, so they will make any changes to allow for a higher production of food, even if that means compromising the overall quality and nutrition of the

As Michael Pollan said in his book, In Defense of Food, “Our food system has long devoted its energies to increasing the yields and selling food as cheaply as possible. It wouldn’t be too much to hope those goals could be achieved without sacrificing at least some of the nutritional quality of our food” (118). Most products contain preservatives and chemicals that are often found in non-edible products such as pesticides, fertilizers and industrial oils. Companies, such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC, are guilty of serving food containing a variety of different ingredients that are, “absolutely terrifying” (Neal). These restaurants are responsible for using sodium nitrate, MSG’s, caramel coloring and dimetylpolisiloxane. Sodium nitrate is typically found in cured meats to add flavor and act as a preservative, while it is also found in pharmaceuticals, dyes and pesticides. Monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG, is also used to add flavor, however the substance can cause headaches, nausea, weakness and chest pain for some people. While caramel coloring may sound and look like caramel, it is far from food. The substance is, “synthetically made by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites” (Neal) which result in two chemicals “linked to thyroid, liver, and lung cancer, as well as leukemia” (Neal). Dimetylpolisiloxane is “used in deep fryers to keep the oil from