Fast Food Nation- Book Sumary

The book I read by Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, was very interesting. The most interesting thing to me was when Schlosser talked about the diseases you can get from certain types of meat at fast food restaurants. It amazed me at how many people were killed just for eating fast food’s meat. “Every day in the United States, roughly 200,000 people are sickened by food borne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and fourteen die”(Schlosser 195). Most cases of fast food are never reported to authorities or properly diagnosed, because the fast food places lose business and money. Schlosser wrote about a man who experienced e-coli. Lee Harding, who was twenty two years old, ordered soft chicken tacos at a Mexican restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado. He thought they tasted nasty, but didn’t think much about it. About an hour later Harding was experiencing bad diarrhea and abdomen pains. The pains were so bad he thought he was dying. This lasted through the weekend, and on Monday Harding decided to go to the doctor. He was sent home, and on Tuesday afternoon got a letter saying he had e-coli avirulent and potentially lethal food borne pathogen. He called the public health department where he talked to a nurse. The nurse knew it was rare for chicken to have e-coli, so she asked Harding to think back on what he had eaten. Harden remembered eating a frozen hamburger, but had thought nothing of it because his wife and sister had eaten one too. A Pueblo health official went to Harding’s house and sent the remaining hamburgers to a USDA laboratory. Come to find out the hamburgers were two years old. This is just one of the interesting stories Schlosser tells in his book, Fast Food Nation.

By reading this book I realized how unhealthy fast food really is. It showed me the risks you take when eating fast food, and the diseases accumulated if eating too much of it. I was surprised that most outbreaks with fast food are not reported, just because it’ll make the restaurant lose money. In my opinion every time fast food infects someone with a food borne disease, it should be reported. We have the right to know if what were eating is going to kill us or not.

Schlosser writing this novel did cause for a big scene because obviously it gave people a scare. Some probably will never eat fast food again, which means many restaurants lost a ton of business and money. I know I can’t say ill never eat fast food again in my life, but at least I know what I’m getting myself into. Overall, this book is a good source for everyone to see the deep dark secrets behind fast food.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton, 2001.

Poor Nutrition For Children

A study conducted by Agricultural Research Service and Harvard University scientists showed a decrease in children's nutritional diet quality and an increase in calorie intake among U.S. children who ate fast food. The authors looked at 6,212 children and adolescent's diets from ages four to nineteen. When children in the United Staes who ate fast food were compared with those who did not, those children consumed more total calories, more calories per gram of food, more total and saturated fat, more total carbohydrate, more added sugars and more sugar-sweetened beverages. The study also showed that the children who consumed fast food had more food deficiencies and lack of the average nutrition needed. They also had less engergy then those who did not eat fast food. Between the late 1970's and mid- 1990's fast food restaurants have doubled to an estimated 250,000 nationwide. The findings are important because childhood obesity is increasing everyday. Not enoough intake of fruits and vegetables has been associated with obesity related problems. Fast food restaurants are not supplying children's nutritional needs. This may lead to problems in the future and higher obestiy rates.

I chose this article becasue I'm currently in psychology. We have learned a lot about nutritional needs for children, and how important it is for them to meet their nutritional value. How much nutrition you take in as a child can effect how your body acts later on with age. Examples would be: how your body will react to viruses, diseases, injuries, and etc. Eating fast food everyday as a child most likely will not have a good outcome. They will soon develop heart problems, or struggle with obesity. Children should eat healthy, consume their daily fruits and vegetables so they can be young healthy adults!

Bliss, Rosalie. "Poor Nutrition Among U.S Children." Agricultural Research Service. USDA, 5 Jan 2004. Web. 17 May 2010. .

SUPERsize Me Video Clip!

During the first five minutes and twenty six seconds of this video clip doctors discuss the extreme effects of fast food and the harm it has on your body. Morgan Spurlock talks about how eating nothing but McDonald's for thirty days made his liver turn to fat, cholesterol shoot up fifty five points, and caused his body fat percentage to go from eleven to eighteen percent. Overall he gained twenty four and a half pounds. Doctor's are stressing to Morgan the major consequences of becoming addicted to fast food. Although the doctor's state that fast food is fulfilling and cheap, they also point out the risk of heart disease and problems with blood flow. One doctor suggests he not eat fast food for one whole year, because so much damage has already been done. Morgan consumed thirty pounds of McDonald's sugar and took in twelve pounds of fat. Fast food organizations lack healthier choices, because they have no reason to change their routine of the greasy french fries and fatty hamburgers. Everyday companies make millions on the food their already offering. This leaves them with no reason to improve or change their menu. Eating fast food everyday means taking serious risks for your health, and even your life. Should McDonald's go first or should you?

This documentary made me realize how much fat and calories fast food carries. Fast food has no problem destroying your body and it will if you let it. This video is proof of someone who consumed fast food for thirty days, and watched his body slowly become ill. The weight he gained is enough to show how harmful it really is. The problem with fast food is it's convenient and easy. Another problem is people don't take the harmful effects of fast food serious enough. Some may think their eating a tasty hamburger when really they may be eating their way into a heart disease, or even heart failure. In my opinion, there should be a bill passed to set higher standards for fast food restaurants. It's America's health were talking about, and maybe we should set our standards higher.

Bad Food Means Bad Brain

On November 28, 2008 April MacIntyre, a food critic for Consumer Health News correlated fast food with Alzheimer's disease. In a study, scientists fed a group of mice fast food for nine months. After the nine months the scientists found that their brains showed signs of developing abnormal brain tangles. Susanne Akterin, a researcher who led the study stated that "We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's." She also focused on how certain foods alter one's mood by influencing the level of certain brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. The effect of food on our brains is very powerful. The connection between a person's mood and the food he or she eats has demonstrated that eating a certain food can influence a person's mood. Someone who eats a turkey sandwich with fruit on the side is more likely to have more energy verses someone who eats a fast food hamburger with french fries on the side.

MacIntyret, April . "Fast Food Found To Cause Brain Conditions." Mongsters and Critics. Consumer Health News, 28 Nov 2008. Web. 5 Apr 2010.

This article provided a surfeit amount of information that in all honesty kind of scared me. I didn't know fast food could be this harmful or effect someone's mood. In my opinion, some of the fast food rumors are apocryphal, but scientists actually experimenting with mice made the rumors more realistic. Im not one hundred percent positive that if you eat fast food everyday you'll take on the disease of alzheimer's, but it does make you think about the chances. When I eat fast food it makes me pretty happy, but reasearch shows healthy food is all in all better. It's suppose to boost your energy opposed to fast food, and prevent diseases. Im not completely agreeing with the article. Energywise, I never really focus on how I feel after eating fast food. This article did give me the idea to eat fast food for a day and focus on how I felt. Then do the opposite with healthy food, collect the data, and see the outcome.

Why People Eat Fast Food

Eating out at fast food restaurants has really become one of the most popular ways to buy food these days. It is convenient and the easiest way to buy food. Many fast food places have adopted the dollar menu. The idea of making it affordable to every ones cost. One of the reasons nutritious foods are more expensive than the greasy, high-calorie dollar menu items is because it takes more time and effort to prepare healthy items. Monica Williams traveled to these three restaurants: McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's. Customers and managers were asked about their selection of fast food items and why they chose to eat there. Of thirty customers interviewed at these fast food locations, twenty stated that they ate fast food because it was convenient and cheap; seven said it was because they had a craving for something on the menu items; and three said it was because they didn't feel like cooking at home. People eat fast food because of time, money, and satisfaction.

Williams, Monica. "Why do we eat fast food?." TEC. The East Carolinian, 24 Oct 09. Web. 1 Apr 2010.

Speaking for me, if I have a couple of dollars in my wallet I would most likely pull into a drive thru before walking in Publix and buying a nutritional meal. Fast food saves both money and time. Monica stated that the way our society is today people are obsessed with saving money "even if it means sacrificing our healthy eating habits in order to save five or six bucks in our wallets". Home cooked meals are obviously healthier, but sometimes fast food is just easy and quick. In my opinion, fast food is definitely linked with America's obesity problem. A lot more people are fat these days compared to early years. It's crazy how some of us won't eat the vegetables we watched our mom prepare, but we will eat food that we couldn't physically see being cooked; not knowing where it's been, or who cooked it. Fast food does save time, money, and it's very satisfying, but it never hurts to try and be healthier by eating at home more often.