ENC 1101
Professor Neuman
April 9, 2014
Fast food might look good, but is it good for you? America is one of the most obese countries in the world, and the reasons are quite obvious. Just take a look around you. Fast food chains on every block, also unhealthy foods are much less expensive than the healthy foods we should be eating. More and more technology to make our lives easier and high amounts of stress are all factors to weight gain in our country. Obesity is a medical disorder in which body fat has gathered to such an extent that it may have a negative effect on the overall health condition of a person. There are a great number of causes for obesity, but unbalanced and unhealthy diet is the major cause of obesity. What really is Obesity? Being obese means having so much body fat that your health is in danger. Having too much body fat can lead to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, sleep apnea, and stroke. Obesity is a major problem of United States which affects approximately 34% of adults; one of every five children in America is obese. People are supposed to be obese when their Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement is greater than 30 Kg / m2 (Obesity). The main cause of obesity is having an unbalanced and unhealthy diet. In addition, part of the problem, is that nutritional information about fast food is often either unavailable or hard to interpret. The sheer number of fast food restaurants is also part of the problem, since if you “[d]rive down any through thoroughfare in America, … you’ll see one of our country’s more than 13,000 McDonald’s restaurants. Now drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit” (Zinczenko 392). People are increasingly being warned against the ill effects of fast food and the potential damage they pose to the human health. The effects of fast food include nutritional deficiencies, obesity, increased cholesterol levels, cardiac problems and many other threatening health hazards. Many people nowadays prefer to buy a quick (and cheap) fast food meal than cook a healthy meal at home. Most of these quick and convenient meals contain high amount of sodium, which increases and aggravates the risks of Hypertension (high blood pressure). The average recommendation of sodium (which causes hypertension) is 1,200-1,500 milligrams each day, but about 1 teaspoon of salt is 2,300 milligrams of sodium (Obesity). While a quick, cheap meal might seem like a great idea when you're starving and on the run, the long-term consequences of consuming fast food can negatively affect your health. The amount of sugar, fat, sodium, and empty calories in fast foods can cause obesity and serious health problems in both adults and children. Again, America is one of the most obese countries in the world. As a little town of Manchester, Kentucky is one of the unhealthiest place of all. An estimated 52% of the 2,100 residents are considered obese, and that a majority of those are young children. Also, roughly 48% of children are suffering from this obesity epidemic (Haygood 407). These are not just numbers a person should just look over. These are our people. The cause of obesity in those residents is from having too many fast food restaurants without enough healthy alternatives; paired with the fact that there are not enough locations that promote activity or exercise. You are considered obese by the American Medical Association (A.M.A), if 30% of your body weight is fat. The A.M.A has officially recognized obesity as a disease, a move that could induce physicians to pay more attention to the condition and spur more insurers to pay for treatments (Pollack). Obesity occurs when a person has a greater calorie intake than he or she burns during that day. It has often been blamed by many that fast food is one of the major causes of increasing obesity in United States. Different studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between the fast food and the