Obesity and Fast Food

In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser writes about the fast food industry. Schlosser tells the story of J.R. Simplot, the man behind McDonald’s source for potatoes. He started his own business right out of the eighth grade, after dropping out. He started out small but eventually became one of the riches men in America. He owned then 160 acres of land to start off this business. He sold his potatoes to companies at first all natural. But he soon discovered that if you dry out the food it will keep for longer, more companies then bought from him. Then in the 1950's he found out about freezing them, and the method of frozen food. McDonald’s started buying and selling Simplot fries. The customers seemed to like it, they didn't mind the change or even realize it. As a result though from freezing the potatoes, they lost a lot of the natural flavors. Companies began cooking their food in a high percentage of animal fat to capture that flavor, but soon they switched. They traded beef fat for more chemicals. The fries flavor all depends on the chemicals, it is all fake, and there is even more saturated fat from their fries than in their burgers.

The fries people eat today are so unnatural that each fast food place has a different taste. "Their distinctive taste does not stem from the type of potatoes, that McDonald’s buys, the technology that processes them, or the restaurant equipment that fries them"(Schlosser 119). McDonald’s and other companies use fries now with distinguished taste, one that is different than its competitor. They also put chemicals in other things like their milk shakes and burgers. Almost everything there is chemically enhanced.

They also rely on scent of their product, Schlosser says, the a...

... middle of paper ...

...Even if the public did know about all the chemicals which make up all the flavor, still, again they would eat it. Americans just love fast food. We, as Americans eat a ton of fast food. We even give more money towards fast food than education. Children’s obesity is also very high, and it is still raising. People here just eat a lot of fast food, with no exercise. Americans are just becoming unhealthy in general, and its happening very quickly.

We need to make people aware of the many side effects of eating fast food. They need to know what they are doing to their bodies. And if America still wants fast food, we need to have people exercise more, a lot of Americans out there eat a lot of fast food and then just don’t exercise. A lot don’t exercise at all. America is becoming obese.

Work Cited

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Perennial, 2002.