The Primary Causes And Effects Of Fast Food Restaurants

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In our society today at least two-thirds of adults are either obese or overweight and a third of all children are either obese or overweight (“Overweight Stats”). These are outrageous number considering that in the 1960s the obesity percentage was less than half of what it is now. The primary cause of this increase is the fact that individuals now days are relying on fast food franchises for their meals, since they are fast, easy, and convenient. Instead of having nice home cooked meals that are healthy they turn to places such as McDonalds that have double the calories and no nutritional value. With the laziness that has been created we have seen a rise in both obesity rates and the number of fast food franchises in this country alone. The …show more content…

It is not until 1960s that there are a hundred fast food restaurants nationwide and as people started to go to them more regularly they multiplied in to more than 160,000 restaurants (“How fast food has changed our nation”). As a society we have become dependent on fast food for the majority of our meals and to feed our families. Most individuals would not know how to survive without KFC or McDonalds which are quick an easy cheap meals for most Americans. These restaurants have more fat and sugar in them compared to a home cooked meal, and since so many Americans eat out on a daily basis we have seen a large increase of people suffering from obesity. For example, if you were to get a Big Mac, medium fries, and a large sweet tea from McDonalds you would consume about 1,200 calories and 48 grams of fat. That is about 60% of the recommended calories for a day in just one meal (Muntel). Since we have significantly larger portion sizes that have grown over time an average adult is about 24 pounds heavier than someone in the 1960s (“Obesity Rates & Trends …show more content…

The primary reason is because Americans have become lazier, we use cars to get place to place, rarely cook our own meals and try to find the cheapest way to do everything. Many people no longer know how to cook and rely on fast food to feed their family which have no good nutritional value. This has led to the major problem our country is facing, obesity. The United States is one of the fattest countries in the world, because of how we eat. Portion sizes keep getting bigger and so do the waistlines as a result. Portion sizes have nearly quadrupled since the 1960s, what use to be a large is now the small or kid size

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