by Laura Sullivanlyndall

Created on: June 15, 2009   Last Updated: June 16, 2009

The history of fast food in the United States

With all the news media focusing on the fast food industry of today and how it contributes to Obesity in American's and serious health issues, one often thinks is this real? When asking this question, many go exploring the answers. When you look into the facts, there is substantial evidence that fast food chains serve up some seriously fatty, hisg sodium and sugar packed foods. So one may wonder from time to time, did fast food restaurants always have these practices? Better yet, Where did fast food start in America?

When looking into the history of fast food in America, there are a few debates. However, most research indicated, that the first fast food restaurant in America was opened in New York City, on July 7, 1912 by Horn & Hardart. The restaurant was called "Automat" and was a cafeteria offering pre-prepared food behind small glass windows. This was their first advertised, patterned Automat. However, they had previously opened one in Philadelphia ten years earlier. So, we really could say fast food in America started in 1902 instead of 1912.

Before we say for sure, though that the history of fast food started in 1902 with Horn & Hardart's first cafeteria in Philadelphia, we need to look at the definition of fast food. The definition of fast food is "food that can be prepared and served quickly". The definition of the term fast food doesn't say in order to be fast food that it has to be in a restaurant or cafeteria. With this in mind we can actually say that perhaps the history of fast food actually dates back to 1867. In 1867, a German Butcher named Charles Feltman opened the first Coney Island hot dog stand in Brooklyn, New York City. Hot dogs are one of the fasted and easiest hot foods you can prepare.

Some people say maybe fast food started with the T.V. dinners. However, while you can now microwave a T.V. dinner in minutes and it is easy, it had to be made somewhere else first. Somewhere the T.V. dinner was cooked, then frozen before you bought it from the store. Chances are the full T.V. dinners in the stores weren't prepared quickly, they were just made in mass quantities. Knowing this, should by all means debunk T.V. dinners from being considered as the beginning of fast food.

Some may contribute the history of fast food leading back to 1872, when a man from Providence, Rhode Island, named Walter Scott, brought hot dinners to workers. Walter Scott set up a simple kitchen in a horse drawn lunch wagon

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