Karla Pena-Argumentative essay (Fast Food is a Mistake #1)

Name: Karla pena

Date:4/1/22

Fast Food Is a Mistake

What do you get if you play McDonald’s Monopoly 30 Days Straight? A Heart Attack!! (Jokesforus.com). Get it? Some of you might be looking at the title and already disagree with me about what I am about to say. But if we honestly think about it, Fast food has been one of the most contradictory meals, in the past centuries due to its delicious taste but disastrous health consequences. There are millions of people out there that can’t live without their favorite fast food restaurant or even go a single day without eating it, while others don’t even bother trying it. However, we need to think about how much those ingredients in the meals bought will damage us with an illness that could affect our entire lives. Some might say that fast food has improved on its menu’s ingredients and doesn’t do any harm to our bodies. It saves you a lot of time if you need to eat in a hurry, but at what cost? You still put your life at risk by eating all those salty foods and calories. Fast food is a mistake. It’s time for people to quit consuming it. We don’t need harmful eating habits that can lead to obesity and dangerous health risks; instead, we need healthier nutrition that can help us live longer and healthier lives.

  It is interesting to see how Americans are the most common population to eat at fast food places like McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, etc. According to the article “CQR: Obesity crisis” by Susan Straight “Americans also eat too much high-calorie fast food, medical experts say. Between 2013 and 2016, about 37 percent of U.S. adults consumed fast food on any given day, according to the most recent CDC surveys” (Straight,17). Due to this fact, we can notice how much Americans like to eat fast food meals on any given day. But I wonder what it is that makes it so attractive or addictive to eat fast food? Well, Straight claims “Low-income neighborhoods and many rural areas often have fewer grocery stores and tend to be dominated by fast-food restaurants. Researchers say obesity rates are generally higher in such “food deserts”(19). This just demonstrates how low-income communities with a shortage of grocery stores tend to influence our community. As a result, the risks of a health problem like obesity are increased. Therefore if junk food is such a problem to our society why not prohibit its consumption, it will only cause more problems for one’s health. Another fact Straight states are “Predictions that America’s fat problem will only get worse — obesity rates in all 50 states could exceed 44 percent by 2030 — have spurred some health experts to call for government action to curb demand for sugary drinks and junk food”(37). This once again is showing us how fast food will be the unsolved problem to guide us into obesity. If the government doesn’t act fast on making restrictions on it. But if there is no change there will be more health-related problems in the U.S just because of a meal made of sugar, artificial sweeteners, salt, coloring substances, and other compounds that may cause sickness. 

That being said, others believe fast food has begun to have changes in its menu and ingredients list. To lower those changes of unhealthy risks on the body. According to the article “CQR Fast-food Shakeout” by Micheline Maynard “We understand that now more than ever, people care about their food — where it comes from, what goes into it and how it is prepared — and we are committed to making changes to our menu our guests feel good about,” said Linda VanGosen, McDonald’s vice president of menu innovation”(12). We can see how fast food establishments know that their ingredients are not the healthiest and that customers are becoming concerned about what they are eating as a result of this. Another example that Maynard shows us is “Fast-food menus increasingly include cage-free eggs, free-range chicken, and other health-focused options. In September, Dunkin’ Donuts announced it would drop Donuts from its name to de-emphasize the less healthy aspects of its menu”(10). Once again we realize how fast food restaurants are aware that they do not serve the healthiest food, but they are working to improve their offerings. Even though fast-food restaurants are trying to improve their menus and ingredient lists, Maynard tells us about a film back in 2004 that consisted of “Super Size Me, in which director Morgan Spurlock subsisted on McDonald’s meals every day — an average of 5,000 calories — for a month. Spurlock said he gained 25 pounds, his blood cholesterol level rose 60 points and he began to show signs of addiction to the food. The documentary helped raise awareness of the size of many fast-food portions”(85). This film shows how people grow addicted to fast food until they realize how many negative health problems they have formed as a result of those meals. It also highlights that no matter how big or little of a quantity you have consumed, it will have an impact on your health.

This can be argued by how even if fast-food restaurants decide to add “healthy ingredients” to their menu as they want, it still doesn’t change the fact that most of it is frozen and comes packed dry. According to the book “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal” by Eric Schlosser claims “Aside from the salad greens and tomatoes, most fast food is delivered to the restaurant already frozen, canned, dehydrated, or freeze-dried”(Schloss,10). In this example, we can see how no matter how natural fast-food restaurants might want to improve on their ingredients it doesn’t change the fact that it comes frozen, which means it is high in sodium and saturated fat. With this in mind, we need to think about better ways to change those habits of having an attraction to fast food meals. A Time article called “Changing your diet can make you live longer” by Alice Park shows us how “adding in any amount of healthy foods may help lower the risk of early death. Improving diet by just 20% was linked to an 8-17% lower risk of premature death. (Eating 20% more unhealthy foods, in contrast, contributed to a 6-12% increased risk of death)”(Park). By these calculations we can notice the benefits that eating a healthy meal instead of unhealthy food like the ones in fast-food restaurants, can provide longer life stability with lower risks of death.

To conclude, I have argued that fast food is a mistake since it’s one of the main causes of obesity and other related unhealthy diseases. Fast food businesses may start modifying their menus and ingredient lists in favor of healthier options. But, this is not a sufficient argument to conclude that their meals do not cause any harm to our health. We as a society should start to care more about what it is that we consume into our bodies, for our own good and stop going towards the easier options that bring unhealthy outcomes. 

                                                   CITED ARTICLES 

Maynard, M. (2019, February 15). Fast-food shakeout. CQ researcher, 29, 1-28. http://library.cqpress.com

Straight, S. (2018, November 30). Obesity crisis. CQ researcher, 28, 993-1016. http://library.cqpress.com

Hoffert, Barbara, et al. “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. (Best Books of 2001).” Library Journal, vol. 127, no. 1, Jan. 2002, p. 52. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A82479530/AONE?u=cuny_mancc&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=a756c547. Accessed 29 Mar. 2022.

Park, A. (2017, July 12). Changing your diet can make you live longer. Time. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://time.com/4855506/healthy-diet-live-longer/