Fast food restaurants have received much of the blame for the obesity epidemic sweeping through America with Europe and Japan fast catching up. Can these restaurants be held responsible for this epidemic or are the people that over indulge simply looking for someone else to blame?
No one forces anyone to eat at a fast food restaurant. Shouldn't those that indulge share the responsibility? Some argue that the fast food chains simply offer good food at reasonable prices.
The evidence shows that wherever the fast food chains go, obesity follows. In spite of evidence to the contrary, fast food restaurants are still seen by many as a reasonable alternative to a home cooked meal.
Fast food restaurants spend billions of dollars each year marketing their foods to children and adults alike. While parents have the power to say no, many children have their own money and when fast food is an option at school, why not use it?
Obesity is spreading around the world like a plague. According to the World Health Organisation well over one billion people world-wide are overweight and over 400 million clinically obese adults at the time of writing. Obesity is a growing problem. The reasons that obesity levels are rising so dramatically are complex. Changing lifestyles are at the root of the problem. Fast Food restaurants may share the blame for rising levels of obesity but are not cannot be held solely responsible for the epidemic.
Obesity figures have trebled in parts of North America, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, Australasia and China since 1980. Worst hit is the United States where two out of every three adults is classified as overweight and one in three is defined as obese. Mexico and Britain are fast catching up.
Obesity is caused by a combination of diet and low physical activity. More people than ever are involved in sedentary work. This is coupled by a sedentary lifestyle at home. Increasing affluence gives rise to the opportunity to eat out more often and to take advantage of the multitude of fast food restaurants to be found in every mall and on every street corner. In many cases home cooking has been replaced with ready to cook convenience foods.
Countries such as France and Italy where fast food chains have had relatively little impact, have largely escaped the impact of the epidemic. These are countries where people traditionally live to eat. The countries that are most impacted are perhaps those where people eat to live. Where quality food is central to life, fast food has not managed to impact dramatically on the obesity levels of the population.
Foods that are high in saturated fats, cholesterol, fats and sugar have become popular. These are the types of foods are commonly served in fast food restaurants.
The changing culture and lifestyles of the modern era mean that there is a ready market for the fast food chains. The fast food industry has cashed in on the huge demand and is arguably doing little more than responding to the market.
But fast food restaurants do share responsibility for the obesity epidemic in a number of ways.
Fast food restaurants employ a range of marketing techniques with budgets reaching tens of billions of dollars each year. The commercials portray their products as real food. The food is portrayed as good and wholesome. Much of the marketing is child-centred. Children are being lured by marketing that offers many attractions. To these children, fast food is seen as far more attractive than the meal offerings at home. Burgers, fried chicken and pizzas are becoming the staple diet for many children.
There is growing evidence that fast food is addictive.
In spite of the appearance of Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me, most people still see these restaurants as a harmless alternative to a home cooked meal. Few realise that the food is hardly fit for human consumption.
Obesity is an increasing problem amongst children. Children are often provided with cash that is spent in fast food restaurants at shopping malls.
The fast food chains have managed to gain the lion's share of food markets placed in such places as college campuses replacing the traditional canteen food with various fast food options. Fast foods are increasingly making their presence felt in schools and children's hospitals.
There can be no doubt that people have the power to make their own decisions about what they eat. No-one forces you or your children to indulge in a Big Mac.
No-one forces your children to try heroin or crack cocaine when it is marketed by drug dealers at their schools. Yet when young children become addicted to these drugs, it is the drug dealers and criminal networks that take the blame. Is the marketing of dangerously unhealthy fast foods to young children really that different?
Fast food restaurants cannot be held solely responsible for the obesity epidemic sweeping the USA and many parts of the world. The cause is more closely related to the shifting lifestyles that have taken place over the last few decades.
The fast food chains share the responsibility by using a range of high fat and unhealthy ingredients. They are responsible for marketing products that are unfit for human consumptions as real food. In particular, they are responsible by targeting children to sell their wares.