by Laura Sullivanlyndall

Created on: June 14, 2009   Last Updated: July 08, 2009

Ways that Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me have impacted the fast food industry

The days of family's sitting down at the dinner table every night, with the exception of an occasional break from cooking for a night out to a restaurant are gone. While many family's still sit down and have family time over the dinner table, it is no longer the norm. With many single parent family's struggling to work sometimes two jobs to make ends meet, kids busy schedules of ball games and cheer leading, and intensive job schedules, the meal at the dinner table is becoming obsolete.

Parents, single folks and workaholics who don't care to cook, have changed the fast food industry almost as much as it has changed itself. Eating out use to be a treat for a family, but now it is the norm. The Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me have increased sales in the fast food industry more than any regular restaurant or food sales. While McDonald's serves up Coca Cola, they have surpassed the giant in number of sales.

The fast food industry over the past decade have aimed their marketing towards children. This has turned out to be quite profitable, after all many families with kids have two. Better yet, if mom and dad take you for a burger they are more likely to eat too. Now, while it may have been only one child begging to go eat at McDonalds to get a hold of that "Happy Meal" or play on the playground, there is potentially a family buying a meal for three or more. While, children don't understand the lack of nutritional value of many of these meals or how they are being targeted, this has put the U.S. in the lead for the fast food industry, dubbing it with the nickname "The Fast Food Nation".

To make matters worse, along came the super size me error, in the fast food industry. Fast food, being addictive as it is, many people often binge and crave more than they would normally eat when it comes to more nutritional healthy foods. As a result, American's haven't learned when enough is enough. So the fast food industry came up with the "Super Size". The super size is an option of making your beverage and fries larger for an additional fee. With the addition of these fatty foods, American's are all the more eager to get more bang for their buck and get the super size. While getting a larger drink and fries, they are also getting more fats, sugar, and sodium. This has put the fast food industry over the top and increased their sales. If American's weren't hooked before, they sure are now.

In 2003

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