Frozen Food: The World’s Favorite Killer

Abstract

Frozen food items are an incredible convenience that almost everyone in the developed world uses on a daily basis. Most families even have a freezer in their house to keep such items fresh for a scrumptious meal later. Even though frozen food is so convenient, should it be the first option for a meal and should it be served in places like schools every day?

Increased rates of heart disease and diabetes can be partially attributed to the amount of unhealthy processed items that are so easily added to frozen and prepackaged food. From local grocery stores to fast food restaurants, the world is obsessed with larger portions and fattier food items, which stay fresh, sometimes for years, in a freezer. Big businesses help run America, so it’s no wonder that the world really does run for Dunkin’ Donuts and that the government hasn’t done much to try to reverse this spiraling obesity effect. Like the number of restaurant chains around the world, humans continue to grow in physical size and population. All over the world, adult and child weights are increasing at striking rates, and with no reason to believe that there will be any break in this trend in future years, extra large could be the only size humans come in.

Introduction

There is nothing better than sitting on the couch after a long day. Before that,though, one of the first thoughts running through a person’s head probably is, “I wonder what I should eat for supper?” After working for roughly eight hours or longer, no one wants to do is stand over a hot stove for an hour when he or she could be spending that time getting caught up on their favorite Netflix show. Instead of firing up the grill, she pushes a few buttons on a microwave, and voilà! A delicious plate of frozen food, be it pizza bites or a corndog, and cooked to perfection in seconds. Although this is what happens on a regular night in most households, it is a tradition that needs to be put to a stop before it is too late. It’s time for people to face the hard and unwelcome facts. Frozen food causes obesity, not just in American, but around the globe.

History of Frozen Foods

It is not common knowledge who came up with the modern way of freezing foods. Many individuals developed the quick-freeze method that is currently used by most frozen food companies, but Clarence Birdseye receives most of the credit. Birdseye wanted to create a way of freezing food to keep it fresh all year long for his family. On a trip to Alaska, he watched the local Inuits freeze the fish they caught in seawater. He tried some of the fish after it was later thawed out and cooked and noticed that it tasted the same as it would if it had not been frozen at all.

Birdseye worked on two different techniques, one in which the food was taken from negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit to negative 45 degrees with a solution of calcium chloride (Who Invented, 2017). The more popular method of the two was where the food was held under pressure between a pair of hollow plates and brought down to negative 25 degrees Fahrenheit by evaporating ammonia. Both of these freezing methods were much more popular than the version the United States was using during the time Birdseye was developing his process for frozen foods. The original way of freezing items took much longer and often damaged the food.

In 1923 Birdseye finally created a way to package fruits and have them stay fresh. His company, General Seafoods, started to use this process on poultry, beef, and vegetable products in 1927, the same year his quick-freeze process was also patented. Two years later in 1929, Postum Cereal Company bought Birdseye’s business and was rebranded as General Foods, incorporating a frozen food division called Birds Eye Frosted Food (Nix, 2016). The American public wouldn’t have much need for frozen foods until the 1940s during World War II when there were fewer canned goods because of a tin shortage, causing the America to turn to frozen foods as a last resort. 

Frozen Foods Increase in Popularity

Frozen foods aren’t anything new in areas where it’s cold enough to freeze meat in water as the Inuits did. The Chinese have been storing frozen food in ice cellars since 1000 B.C., but the ease of frozen food has become more popular with each passing year. During The Great Recession from 2008 to 2010, frozen food sales increased 3.1 percent even with all of the economic troubles engulfing the country and its citizens. Frozen food has become so popular that there are aisles in every grocery store in the world that are dedicated to frozen chicken. Thanks to effective marketing strategies, these icy food items are finding their way into most homes.

Swanson was the first company to advertise their food on a national scale back in 1950. After Thanksgiving that year, the heads of the organization weren’t sure what to do with the remaining turkey leftovers, when inspiration struck. They decided to market the leftover turkey as TV dinners, shipping them off all over the country. The turkey stayed well-preserved thanks to Birdseye's quick-freeze method (Ferdman, 2014). Swanson sold over 25 million frozen dinners that year and built an empire on unwanted turkey parts.

The reasons for why frozen meals are a fan favorite among all age groups is glaringly apparent. A pre-packaged meal requires little preparation; the hardest part is sticking it in the microwave while mouths water and stomachs growl during the wait for food. The meals are incredibly convenient for people living alone as they are already proportioned for a single person to eat (Schmidt, 2017). The pre-proportioned meals are essential because the number of single-occupant homes in America has risen from 5 percent in 1920 to 27 percent in 2013, making frozen meals the most straightforward way for one person to enjoy a meal without wasting any valuable time.

Another reason for the rise in frozen food sales is the packaging. Sarah Nassauer, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal states, “So [Dole] very intentionally said, ‘Let’s put it in these stand-up bags, put shiny graphics on it, suggest healthy recipes like smoothies on the back of the bag.’” Nassauer’s specialty is the food business (America Loves Smoothies, 2014). Tactics like this are only one example of how businesses change how their products look, but not what is actually in those pretty blue and pink bags with a celebrity on the front telling the customer that she must have this specific packet of blueberries.

Big industries want to keep the frozen food manufacturers happy, as seen in a headline on Industrytoday.com: “The Frozen food industry was founded on the principle of safely preserving healthy food. Today, Frozen food companies seek to remain true to that proud heritage” (Frozen Foods, 2010). This headline doesn’t stay back along the black text in the body of the paragraph. Instead, it blurts it out in bold block letters, daring the reader to think anything else. If that reader does dare to think differently, the words will likely beat them over the head with a club and ask them if they would like to rethink their stance on the matter. There is, however, another side that begs to differ on the healthiness of frozen foods and will risk taking a club to the head to voice their opinion.

America’s Diet and What it Costs

Frozen meals have also led the way for other processed meals to enter into the American diet. Dr. Carlos A. Manteiro, a Professor of nutrition and public health, was the senior author of a study that asked children and adults what they had eaten within a 24-hour period. The study showed that a large part of the average American diet included ultra-processed foods. In 2013 United Kingdom citizens purchased 443 pounds of ultra-processed foods, Canadians 507 lbs, and Americans coming in at number one, buying 677 pounds of the killing fiends (Kaplan, 2016).

Over 40 percent of adults in the U.S. say that they think frozen meals offer little to no nutritional value. They feel the same about processed dinners, too, but they continue to eat them anyway. Of their daily intake, almost 1000 calories, 61 percent, in American diets come from highly processed foods, according to a study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. A study with statistics from over 157,000 shoppers indicated that another 16 percent of calories were coming from moderately processed foods and drinks, giving the average American around only 20 percent of caloric consumption that has not had anything added to it or removed.

Another reason for choosing frozen and prepackaged foods is the price. Recently, Republicans in Congress tried to cut four billion dollars from the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition program, also known as SNAP, which used to go under the name of Food Stamps. The average SNAP meal is already at a low of only $1.50 per meal (Drewnowski, 2010). The funds available for meals make it apparent why frozen items are often the number one choice for low-income families, as they are usually significantly cheaper than fresh foods.

The USDA’s Economic Research Service released an article that stated that low-income households have an abundance of money through the SNAP program to buy healthy food. The minimum cost for one of these “healthy” foods, however, is $4.17. The price exceeds the maximum SNAP benefits for one day by 80 percent based off the needs of a four-person family. Most of the foods that are deemed as healthy do not reach the recommended goal for nutritional needs.

History of Fast-Food Restaurants

Frozen items are also popular in fast-food restaurants, as they can be shipped all over the world quickly and stay in the freezer until the customer orders them. While it is hard to say which restaurant is the first fast-food operator in America, the credit has to be is given to a hamburger joint that opened in Wichita, Kansas, back in 1916 called White Castle (History of Fast Food, 2018). These small square hamburgers can also be purchased outside White Castle restaurants. For example, customers can purchase them in Dillon’s and at the Twilight Theatre in Greensburg, Kansas, for 3 dollars per package.

White Castle’s success led to the creation of a series of other restaurants, including A&W Root Beer in 1920. A&W started curbside service few years later, long before Sonic did. Soon after, nationwide drive-through windows appeared (History of Fast Food, 2018). By the 1950s, fast food was everywhere and efficient. The Merriam-Webster dictionary added the new word, “fast food” in the yearly revamping of the dictionary in 1951.

The most well known fast-food joint, in and out of the U.S., is McDonald’s. The golden arches stand proudly in the air like a beacon, drawing in all customers with hungry stomachs their with hypnotic powers. The first McDonald’s outside of California opened in Des Plains, Illinois, on April 15, 1955 (McDonalald’s History, 2018). Over the course of time, however, Mickey D’s has risen to be the most recognizable restaurant chain in the world. As the restaurant gained in popularity, new offerings began to pop up on the menu. In 1968 the Big Mac was added to the national menu. In 1975 breakfast appeared on the list, and forty years later, was served all day, effectively making McDonald’s the number one place to go for any meal craving.

As McDonald’s grew, so did the size of their products. When the restaurant first opened in 1955, there was only one size of french fries. Those fries weighed 2.4 ounces. Today, a small order weighs 2.6 ounces and a large comes in at a whopping 5.9 ounces, over two times the original weight. Fries aren’t the only items that have changed since McDonald’s first opened. Sodas initially weighed only 7 ounces, but today the smallest size weighs 12 (Shah, 2015). Back in the day, there was only one size of hamburger available, and it weighed 3.7 ounces. Today, there are four different types of burgers available, ranging from 3.5 ounces to 9.2 ounces. McDonald’s is a convenient choice for travelers and busy parents, but this fast-food chain is one of the causes of America’s weight gain as all of their products are frozen while also stuffed with a number of unhealthy additives.

How Women’s Rights Changed Food

Before the rise of fast food restaurants, most Americans ate their meals in the company of their families at home. It is common knowledge that most women during that time were stay-at-home wives and had more time to prepare meals, whereas today every member of a family is running around with a different schedule and is lucky to eat at home with other family members more than twice a week. Women’s changing roles led to frozen and processed foods becoming popular.

Before frozen foods became a way of life, the Flapper had her debut. The women of the 1920s were much different from that of the Victorian era, which preceded it. Flappers were what was “in” during that time. Goodbye to the long skirts of the past and pinned up hair, hello to bobbed hair and shorter dresses. The stereotypical Flapper often drank, smoke, and performed a number of unladylike actions that would have shocked a Victorian-era woman.

During this time, women gained other freedoms, as well. They could finally vote in 1920 and were finally able to take white-collar jobs if they decided to work outside the home. Because of this, women could afford to live in the thriving economy of the 1920s. Inside the home vacuum cleaners and washing machines started to be used, giving women more time to do tasks other than household chores and preparing meals.

The Jazz Age was a time of dramatic political and social change. More Americans than ever before lived in cities than on farms. The economic growth helped to turn America into a “consumer society,” with people buying more than what they needed. All over the country, people listened to the same music, had the same dances, purchased the same goods, and even used some of the same slang terms. The 1920s saw the first real occurrence of mass culture in the U.S., which would help to push frozen and processed foods to the general population.

The beginning of the 20th century saw an increase in opportunity and public presence for women. The 1930s, however, were much more difficult as disaster struck the U.S. economy with the start of The Great Depression in October of 1929. Women lost some of the freedoms they had earned after the economic downturn occurred. Employers preferred giving jobs to men so that they could support their families.

When World War II began, even before the U.S. was directly involved with the war on the side of the Allied powers, women's roles began to change again, impacting the time available to slave over a stove. The military even created a few specialized divisions for women. They worked in factories, called to action by Rosie the Riveter. The number of women working outside the home increased from 25 to 36 percent during the war. More minorities, mothers, and married women found jobs than ever before, making frozen dishes the most time-efficient choice.

America’s Ever Growing Size

All of these events of the early twentieth century led to new norms for both food preparation and American body size. Back in 1912, before the invention of quick-freeze foods, the average male height for a twenty-one-year-old was around 5 feet, 6 inches. There was an increase by 2012, with the average male’s height becoming about 5 feet, 8 inches (Lazarus, 2012). The typical female was about 5 feet, 3 inches in 1912 and grew in 2012 to around 5 feet, 4 inches. This increase in height can account for some of the great weight gain found in the modern American population, but it doesn’t account for all of the increase.

In the 1950s, before the big fast food, supermarket, and frozen food craze was in full swing, American citizens’ weights were relatively healthy, and in some cases, a little small. In 1955 the high for women that were 5 feet was 118 pounds and 166 pounds for women 6 feet tall. In men 5 feet, 3 inches tall, 141 pounds was considered high, while for men who were 6 feet 3 inches, 195 pounds was overweight (FOOD, 1959).

Today the average American weighs much more than ideal. The average citizen has put on over 15 pounds since the early 1990s without getting taller. The average height has not increased since the late 1970s. Black women have added 22 pounds, and black men have gained 18 pounds while growing 1/5 of an inch. Girls at the age of 11 have gained 7 pounds, while boys have gained an inch as well as 13.5 pounds (Dotinga, 2016).

“We are not doing nearly enough to control and reverse the obesity epidemic and doing far too much to propagate it. This is another notice of that sad fact,” Dr. David Katz said about the results of the study. Dr. Katz directs the Yale University Prevention Research Center and is president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Anthony Comuzzie, an obesity researcher and genetic scientist at Texas Biomedical Research lab in San Antonio, stated that “The finding suggests there will likely be an associated increase in a chronic disease like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease in the coming years.” Unfortunately, he couldn’t be more correct, but the group of individuals these diseases are affecting is unexpected.

Diabetes Wreaking Havoc

Rates of newly diagnosed cases of Type 1 and 2 diabetes due to unhealthy eating abouts are increasing among youth in the U.S. In America, 29.1 million children suffer from a form of diabetes. Around 208,000 are younger than 20. Type 1 diabetes has increased 1.8 percent each year; Type 2 has gone up 4.8 percent. Diabetes shortens life expectancies and increases the cost of healthcare (Diagnosed cases of diabetes, 2017). 

Diabetes is caused by the lack of a hormone produced by the pancreas needed to regulate the amount of glucose in the blood. The reason for why Type 1 diabetes occurs in humans is unknown. Type 2 diabetes is frequent in children that are overweight, less active, and often, these children have a parent with diabetes (Hubbard, 2017). “In my career, Type 1 diabetes was a rare disease in children and Type 2 disease didn't exist. And I’m not that old,” said Dr. Robin S. Goland said, who has been in practice for almost 25 years and is the co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York (Saint Louis, 2014). Diabetes could be prevented in children for the most part but this is challenging to do when almost every frozen and pre-packaged food item is seriously unhealthy and goes against nutritional needs.

American Healthcare and Obesity Rates

Diabetes doesn’t only affect kids at staggering rates, it impacts their parents who must pay more for medical care. In 2017 alone U.S. citizens paid 3.4 trillion dollars in health care (Bloom, 2017). On average, each person spent 9,596 dollars in 2012, a significant increase from 7,700 dollars in 2007. U.S. citizens pay two times more per capita on average than other developed nations. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimate that in 2023 the national average for health care will increase to 14,944 dollars. In 1960, the average cost was 146 dollars, and after adjusting for inflation, the price is now nine times higher.

In 2015, 40 percent of American adults were obese, and 7.7 percent were severely obese. In 2007 only 33.7 percent were obese, and 5.7 percent were severely obese. Youth obesity rates in 2016 were 18.5 percent, up 1.5 percent from the recorded results of 2007. The governments of the world aren’t trying to curb this epidemic in any way. Trump’s NAFTA negotiations team proposed an idea which most major food companies favored that limited the ability of the Canada, Mexico, and the United States to require visible and prominent food labels on frozen and other packaged foods (Jacobs, 2018). These labels include warnings about health risks of foods high in fat and sugar. Frozen foods, as well as fast food, have already increased in sales without receiving any help from the government. Fast food was up 22.7 percent from 2012 to 2017. Frozen and packaged food increased a staggering 88 percent since 2012.

A World Catastrophe

The problems caused by unhealthy processed foods don’t belong to America alone, though. While not the most massive body weight in the world, America does come in third behind the Pacific island nations of Tonga and Micronesia (Ingraham, 2015). From 1980 to today, the number of obese adults has doubled in more than seventy-three countries. “In 2015 a total of 107.7 million children and 603.7 million adults were obese,” according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. “ In 2015 high BMI contributed to 4 million deaths, which represent 7.1 percent of the deaths from any cause.” In Egypt, 35 percent of adults reached a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 30 or higher. A BMI of 22 to 25 is considered healthy. 1990 to 2015 saw a 28.3 percent increase in death rates due to high BMI. Cardiovascular disease accounted for over 70 percent of deaths, and of those, nearly 60 percent were obese persons.

Frozen foods have helped to cause this global obesity epidemic. Originally not at fault, frozen food companies have found ways to sneak more sugar into every serving. Before too long people who can walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded or play in the yard with their child without having an asthma attack caused by exercise will be almost extinct - they will be a strange dream of the past. It is the job of everyone, including governments, to help reinforce healthy practices for fast food and packaging companies and to encourage healthy decisions in homes, or everyone in the future might have to watch their insulin levels. When Clarence Birdseye created the quick freeze method, he probably never thought of the almost global catastrophe it could cause, and who else could have? It’s hard to imagine that a frozen pizza in a freezer could be much harm to anyone, let alone be a stone cold killer.

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