Fast Food Should Be Banned: Analysis of Health Effects

Introduction

Foods are one of the most important factors in our lives. Everyone needs to eat to survive. Nowadays, everyone has a busier life than ever before. We do not have time to sit back, relax, and spend all day preparing food. But as our world develops, food industries are also developing. As we all know, we now have a new kind of food called “fast food”. Fast food is tasty, cheap, and convenient. They are everywhere, always open, and we can get it by using the drive-thru. Most people, especially in the United States, love fast food. However, despite all the benefits, everyone also knows that fast food is bad for our health, as it causes obesity along with other diseases, and is addictive. That’s why fast food shoud be banned. This essay will discuss how fast food is slowly killing everyone. Would it be acceptable to watch ourselves and our loved ones be killed by fast food?

Why should fast food be banned?

Fast food is undeniably unhealthy and causes obesity. We may consider fast food junk food because it contains high amounts of calories and gives high energy but lacks micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fiber. These foods do not contain the nutrients that your body needs to stay healthy. Even so, people still love fast food. People of all ages can quickly become overweight or obese by eating fast food regularly. Some fast-food does indeed have vegetables in it, for example, a burger would have a piece of lettuce, a slice of tomato, a few pieces of onion, and about two tiny pieces of a pickle. Those vegetables are good for health but the problem here is in the quantity. There are large amounts of carbohydrates and fats in fast food, but there are very little vegetables. It is not nearly enough to sustain our bodies throughout the day. Many may not know how to cook effectively but even simple foods like scrambled eggs, sandwiches, and salads are better than having fries and burgers.

As many of us already know, right now in the States, more than two-thirds of the population is obese. Obesity may affect you not only one’s health but your social status as well. Here in the United States, many people do not care about their appearance. We do not judge or stereotype other people when they are overweight, except for maybe in school, but not in daily life. Doing so may be considered an extremely rude action. However, in other countries, for example where I am from, Thailand, we do stereotype others a lot, mainly based on their appearance. Those who are obese would be looked down. In children, some may even get bullied both verbally and physically for being fat. That is why there are way less obese people in Thailand than in America. Everyone must keep themselves in shape to avoid getting stereotyped by the community.

Many researches have shown that fast food can cause many diseases. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, heart disease and cancer are the biggest causes of death in the United States. Many diseases here are directly associated with food and are preventable with good diet. Cardiovascular disease is usually defined as narrowed blood vessels to the heart by the buildup of plaques inside the arteries. These plaques could end up bursting into the artery and creating a blockage, potentially causing a heart attack (or stroke if it is the blood vessel to the brain). Since fast food contains high cholesterol and promotes obesity, it could cause heart diseases.

Fast food is addictive. “Because fast food and junk food do not contain adequate amounts of protein and good carbohydrates, the blood sugar levels suddenly drop after eating, resulting in grumpy, fatigued feeling and a craving for sugar”. Fast food usually comes with a soda that has a huge amount of sugar in it. Once we drink it, we could feel like having a burst of energy running through our bodies, but that lasts only for a short period of time. Once we get used to eating or drinking sweet, we only want more.

A chef from England, Jamie Oliver, was invited to talk on the show “TED” about food. Oliver claimed that “the adults of the last four generations, have blessed their children with the destiny of a shorter lifespan because of the landscape of food that we’ve built around them.” Children who were born in this generation will literally be growing up with fries, chicken nuggets, burgers, etc. Some of them may never even get try other kinds of food and possible even refuse to do so. When it comes to choosing between fast food and healthy food, all of them would prefer fast food. The question is, what will happen if these children grow up and raise a child of their own? Of course, they will raise their children with fast food as well. Soon, healthy food will be forgotten, and fast food will take over. According to statistics, the obesity rate of people both children and adults has been trending up and will continue this way unless we interrupt it. If we do not do something now, it is like we are killing our children, taking away a huge amount of their precious lifespan by letting them eat whatever their hearts content.

Oliver also gave some stories of people around him whose lives were negatively affected by fast food and obesity. One of them was a sixteen years old girl, Brittany. Brittany had only six years to live. Her live have not even started yet but now she already has a countdown timer of her remaining life. It is heart breaking to know that one live could come to an end so fast.

Another was Stacy, the Edwards family. All the food that Stacy and her family ate was fast food and junk food. Justin, her son, weigh 350 pounds and he is only twelve years old. He gets bullied for being fat. Katie, her daughter, was four years old. She’s obese even before she gets to primary school. Stacy was shocked and depressed after knowing that all fast food and junk food will kill her children early. Stacy said that she wanted her kids to succeed in life but this food is not going to get them there; I am killing them. “The thing is, obesity and diet-related disease doesn’t just hurt the people that have it; it’s all of their friends, families, brothers, sisters.” – Jamie Oliver.

Many people may argue that food is not the only factor for gaining weight. That statement is correct, but according to Matthew Pearce, although the causes of obesity are known to be multi-factorial, a significant amount of evidence suggests that increased energy intake — rather than decreased physical activity — is the main driving force behind the obesity epidemic, particularly amongst lower socioeconomic groups. As long as fast food exists, people will not be able to resist the urge to eat it. Research has shown that we could not out exercise a bad diet. Choice of food is more important than exercise, therefore people would still end up being overweight and unhealthy.

Fast food price is well known for being cheap. That is very true. As of 2019, one burger (only the sandwich) would cost only four to five dollars. But what if someone ended up with cardiovascular disease because of fast food? In that case, we may not be able to say that eating fast food is cheaper anymore. According to the article “The costs of surviving cardiovascular disease: It’s enough to give you a heart attack!”, the cost for up to 90 days of treatment after a stroke is $15,000. For 10 percent of patients, however, the cost during that period reaches $35,000. Some people may have a really good health insurance that covers most of the cost. However, majority of insurance companies will not cover all the cost of the treatment. Among diseases, cardiovascular had one of the highest out-of-pocket medical costs which is about $21,995 per year.

Conclusion

People may view fast food as a modern way of getting food nowadays. It is delicious. It is convenient to buy and to eat. It is cheaper than many other kinds of food. But, as seen from the essay, many researchers have found that fast food is also detrimental to health. Fast food is one of the major causes of obesity. Fast food not only affects the consumer, but also everyone around them. Many have lost their family members due to obesity, many went bankrupt to treat their medical condition related to bad diet. That is why I think we should put a ban on fast food. Fast food can make one happy, but at the same time it can also kill the one.

Works Cited

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