The Fast Food Industry

The Fast Food Industry: Convenience or Cholesterol?

As your pulling up to McDonald's or Burger King on your lunch break do you ever stop to think about what nutritional value your fast food meal contains, or how it's affecting your body and mind? As convenient and delicious as it may seem at the time, you're actually doing your body more harm than good. The booming fast food industry is having devastating effects on its consumers and society at large.

The cuisine you would find at a traditional fast food restaurant lacks sustenance. By eating just that one Big Mac you are consuming 540 calories and 20 grams of fat, 10 of which are saturated. (McDonald's USA Nutrition Facts for Popular Items.) That's roughly one quarter of your recommended daily calorie intake. In The Fast Food Nation, a non-fiction book by Eric Schlosser, he explains that the flavors you taste in most fast food meals are actually added using complex chemicals designed to deliver flavors like "smoky chicken" or "strawberry." By ingesting these chemicals and fats you are depriving your body of the natural nutrients it needs, as well as putting yourself at greater risk of obtaining heart disease, diabetes, e coli 0157:H7, and obesity.

As the fast food industry continues to swell, so do its consumers. Obesity has become an alarming issue, considering that more than one third of North American adults, and 15% of children, are mildly obese. A study of 6212 children found that those who consume fast food have at least 187 more daily calories from fat than those that do not. That can add up to an additional six pounds per year. As little as six pounds might seem, obesity is a hazardous condition. A 2000 Journal of The American Medical Association article held that 111 909 excess deaths were caused by obesity among the 23.3% of Americans who are obese.

In addition to packing on the