fast food warning labels essay

Warning Labels On Fast Food

According to Fast Food Nutrition, having a burger, fries, and a soda would be about half of what the Medical News Today says your calorie intake should be. Would knowing this change your mind on your meal choice? For most Americans, the answer is no. What's the point of putting warning labels on something if it's going to be ignored? There shouldn’t be warning labels on fast food because warning labels are expensive, not informative, and are ignored. For instance, The reason there shouldn't be warning labels on fast food is that they are expensive, not informative, and are mostly ignored. According to An evaluation of the FDA's analysis of the costs and benefits of the graphic warning label regulation, the estimated cost for the first implementation

Response to "Don't Blame the Eater" Essay

Zinczencko complains that unlike many other hazardous items, fast food does not come with warnings on how terrible the food is for one’s health and its future effects. He emphasizes that even if the customers were able to obtain the nutritional facts, they are not palpable, but rather obscure. He points out that the fast-food companies make the nutrition labels vague and misleading; they calculate the calories for every separate part of the meal, and they make it so the consumer must pay attention to serving size as well. He observes that the fast-food industry can get away with confusing labels because there are not any Food and Drug Administration labeling requisites (Word Smart, p. 220) covering fast food. Zinczenko complains that there is not any sort of nutritional labeling on the menus at fast-food restaurants. Now, nine years later, there are some changes, but his point is still valid. McDonald’s menu now states the calories of each meal, but as Zinczenko points out, it is very difficult to

The Healthy-Hunger Free Kids Act

If someone would tell you otherwise, then it would be like cigarette companies telling their customers that cigarettes were actually healthy for you (Healio). Instead of simply banning fast food and companies who sell unhealthy foods, the government should do what they did with cigarettes and simply regulate the companies. One thing the United States government did that was so successful with the tobacco companies was tax the product to make them more difficult to purchase (Tobacco Free Kids). According to tobacco free kids.org, “Every 10 percent increase in cigarette prices reduces youth smoking by about seven percent and total cigarette consumption by about four percent”(tobacco free kids). If the government increased taxes on companies that sell unhealthy foods, it would certainly help lower the overall obesity rate (Bittman New York Times). Also this would help companies that sell healthier foods better compete with the large fast food corporations (Bittman New York Times). Although food labels are required to be on unhealthy foods nowadays, the labels still do not have the attention grabber that cigarette signs have on them. For example most cigarette warning signs will have a message that says something like “CAUTION: CIGARRETTE SMOKING MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH” (RJ Reynolds Tobacco). If there were to be a warning sign on unhealthy foods like this then it would certainly make more people concerned about what food they’re eating then just a food label, which is on all of the foods. If a person who sees a sign that indicates how badly unhealthy foods can be and they still eat it, then they are making a choice that Americans have the right to

Labels Of Soda Essay

Over 65% of people in the united states are considered obese. It’s not because they want to be, it’s because they don't care what is in what they eat. They like what they are drinking/eating so it doesn’t matter what's in it or what it will do to them, they will not stop if they like what they are consuming. Just because there is a label on an aluminum can a little bigger than before so it's “more visible” then i would like to see how much improvement it makes in these types of diseases. Just because a company puts the label on are people like you and i really going to pay any attention? These warning labels will do absolutely nothing. Every single soda has the warning labels, so does it really matters so much to

Warning Labels

Warning labels help people know what they’re eating. People need to know what they’re eating so they won’t get sick. According to www.debate.org “69% of people think that fast foods shouldnt have warning labels.” Basically some people think fast foods should have warning labels but others don’t see the point.

Should Fast Food Be Banned In Aberdeen?

People are unaware of what fast food has. For example, in the video number two of San Francisco happy meal toy ban, the article says that Happy Meals have too much fat, sugar, and salt. Also, a Whopper from Burger King as I said before, has 670 calories and 40g of fat. People just eat the product because it is delicious but don’t see what proteins or vitamins a burger has. Finally, people are unaware of what they eat. For instance, in video number 1 of L.A fast food ban, Alberto Diaz says that he just got out of the Doctor few days back and they told him that he might get diabetes because of fast foods. People have to be more

Explain Why Restaurants Should Label The Meals

I think restaurants should label the meal . Then they also tell us that food are good for our healthy.When they label the meals they should tell us what kind of things they put in meals and in foods.If people went to be healthy they should look at their food and how much calories they have is in that food. This is why restaurants should label the the meals.

Should Reading The Food Labels Be Necessary Before Buying And Consuming?

Should reading the food labels be necessary before buying and consuming? During this paper, there will be some differences on two authors and their point of view on labeling.The first paragraph explains why Gary Hirshberg agrees that there needs to be labels on food and the importance of doing it. The second paragraph will state why John Davis is against it, and explains labeling is a bad for the people and for the economy.

Pros Of Soda

Imagine going on a hike and there was no sign telling you there is a cliff ahead, or some kind of dangerous animal. You probably would run right off that cliff, or get stuck in the hands of a dangerous bear, what could have prevented that? A big sign saying DANGER AHEAD! Let's talk about something that you may not know could lead to serious problems like, obesity and diabetes. It is everywhere you go pretty much, there when you enter and there when you leave. It is a can of soda. I strongly agree that warning labels should be put on soda. My three reasons include, soda contains an enormous amount of sugar, the sugar in soda is addictive, and the fact that big corporations don't want the labels to be put on their soda.

Food Labeling Regulations

During the recent comment period the proposed revision to the food labeling regulations have received a significant number of positive comments. These comments have come from a variety of interest groups and individuals with unique motivations. The majority of the comments are written by community groups and medical organizations.

Label The Meals: A Case Study

Every year, more than 100,000 people die due to health problems such as diabetes, strokes, and/or heart disease caused by leftover calories that have been transmuted into fat. If people were aware of the number of calories that were in their food, I’m sure they would reconsider their options. I strongly recommend placing labels on serving meals at restaurants. Once in a while, my family and I would drive out to eat at a fancy restaurant; specifically Westin. It provided us with time to bond, laugh, and enjoy each other’s company. Over time, it became a Saturday thing for us. During this period, I started gaining weight dramatically, which was undesirable. This was very unjustifiable for an individual. Due to this event, I started to cut back on breakfast and unhealthy snacks. When that didn’t work, I stopped going to family dinners. It was only then, my weight began to diminish. If only I knew what exactly was in my T-Bone then, I would have eaten something much healthier. Calorie labeling on

Against Warning Labels Research Paper

In conclusion, I'm against warning labels because it doesn’t help people stop eating or drinking these things. Sugar is a killer. Warning labels are a waste of time. Sugar is everywhere. These reasons add up to why i have the right to be against warning labels. Warning labels do not help our society and the young ones.

The Crucial Role Of Obesity In Today's Society

It has been proven that amounts of fast food can be harmful and unhealthy; however, when paired with other healthier options, the results will not be as harsh. During the Food Fight special, it was discussed that “as a nation we accept personal responsibility as the default solution to things.” It is up to the people to be aware of the foods they are eating, and their nutritional values, but it is also up to the producers to put forth the effort to make discovering the nutritional information easy. For example, at Subway, nutritional facts are on their napkins and other paper products; this helps the customer know exactly what they are ingesting and how many fewer calories they are eating as opposed to other restaurants (McDonalds, etc). This is a great initiative because it educates the customer and creates a trust between the consumer and the producer. In Food Fight, it is mentioned over and over that America, and even the world, would have drastically lower obesity levels if more customers were educated about the unhealthy nature of fast food products. More and more restaurants and other chains are posting their nutritional facts on their websites and with many people getting smart phones, we are getting closer to the point where claiming ignorance over what one is eating will be an untenable

Clorie Labeling

With half of all U.S. food dollars spent on eating outside the home, the Food and Drug Administration has developed a new regulation. It requires calorie labeling at all restaurants with more than 20 locations. Some argue that the new law will not provide accurate information, will place a costly new burden on restaurants, or that customers just won’t use the information. The truth is that calorie labeling informs people about what they’re eating, thus helping them make better, more well-informed choices when eating out. In fact, it has already resulted in beneficial menu changes at many restaurant chains.

Food Labeling

There once was a time where words like "light" and "low-fat" on food packages that had no nutritional meaning. As a result, shoppers were often led to believe they were buying products that were more helpful than they really were. Nutrition panels on labels were also confusing and hard to read. But the Australia New Zealand Authority (ANZFA) changed all that. In March 2001 the ANZFA defined new standardized terms that appear on food labels such as "low-fat", "reduced" and "lean" to control how food manufacturers could put their facts that are relevant to most of our dietary needs. This meaning that food labeling helps consumers to make the best possible food choice.

Fast Food And Its Effect On Our Society

Tons of negative health effects come from eating fast food. First, obesity is a huge problem in America. The major cause of obesity comes from eating too much fast food. The obesity rates have skyrocketed over the years. Over seventy percent of Americans are overweight or obese. An author elaborated more by expressing their facts and arguing that, “Excess weight in children is a significant global public health issue: 10% of school aged children, and a further 22 million children over 5 years old estimated to be overweight or obese. Child obesity rate levels are rising across the globe”(Kelly 1). The concerns Kelly states specifically supports my point that obesity has gotten out of hand in the U.S. People

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Would graphic warnings on unhealthy food make you think again?

A new study shows that health warnings on packaged foods can help us make healthier choices – but it’s negative messaging that really drives the point home

By Andrew Trounson, University of Melbourne

Those lollies and chocolates invitingly on display at the supermarket checkout are entirely strategic.

Junk food has little to recommend it to the smarter parts of our brains, but to our impulsive side, taste is all that matters. We might strategically avoid the confectionary aisle, but we all have to pass through the checkout where our impulses can be overwhelmed by the lure of the sugar fix.

Decision psychology researcher Dr Stefan Bode says the checkout trick is just one of a multitude of “environmental cues” that food companies use to market their products, from packaging to lifestyle messages and popular culture.

But how alluring would that chocolate be if the packaging was slapped with a picture of decaying teeth or a diseased heart?

New research by the University of Melbourne and Cancer Council Victoria , published in both NeuroImage : Clinical , and Appetite , suggests that just like warnings on cigarette packaging, when it comes to junk food - the more graphic and negative the message the better. But they also found that positive imagery or negative text-only warnings can work too.

Nudging food choices

The research, conducted as part of a PhD project by Daniel Rosenblatt, reinforces arguments that mandatory health warnings on unhealthy food could be an effective element of a comprehensive approach to improve diets and combat rising rates of obesity-related chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

“The food industry uses all sort of positive cues to encourage you to eat, playing on taste, how it will make you feel good, making it look appetising, but when it comes to unhealthy foods - this is dangerous,” says co-researcher Dr Bode from the University of Melbourne’s School of Psychological Sciences.

“The idea of warning labels is to use the power of cues, but in the other direction, and use health-focused cues to nudge people towards healthier food.

“And what we’ve found in Daniel Rosenblatt’s experiments in the laboratory is that if you want to stop people choosing fatty and sugary packaged foods, health warnings actually work.”

Tackling rising obesity

Rates of obesity worldwide have almost tripled since 1975 .

Around 13 per cent of adults are now obese the world over, and 39 per cent are overweight. The epidemic is worse in richer countries (OECD) where nearly 20 per cent of adults are obese.

Beyond hypothetical surveys there isn’t enough research into what sort of food labelling would be the most effective. That prompted the researchers to develop a unique experiment in which hungry participants actually received a portion of food to eat that matched their choices before and after viewing different health warnings.

“Most of the research in this area is based on surveys in which researchers ask people whether they think various messages would change their behaviour, but we know there can be a massive mismatch between people’s intentions and their actual behaviour,” says Dr Bode.

“In our experiment we tried hard to approximate the real world and have our participants make a decision with immediate, real consequences.”

The team recruited 95 participants who hadn’t eaten for at least four hours and told them that at the end of the screen-based experiment they would each receive a snack food that matched their preference.

Comparing warnings

Each participant was then shown colour pictures of 50 different snack foods ranging from chips, chocolate bars and biscuits, to nuts, fruits and vegetables.

They were asked to rate on a scale how much they would like to eat each food at the end of the experiment.

Participants were then shown ten different health warnings from one out of five possible categories, text-only positive messages; text-only negative messages; positive text and graphic messages; negative text and graphic messages; and, lastly, messages that only showed scrambled images and unreadable text as a control.

They then had to rate a similar set of 50 snack foods that were closely matched on health and taste attributes to see if the health warning had influenced their preferences.

The research found that neither the control messages or the positive text-only messages had any impact.

However, negative text-only messages, and imagery combined with positive text were both effective in encouraging people to revise their initial choice for a healthier option.

Increased cancer risk from fizzy drinks - no matter what size you are

But the strongest effect was observed for negative text combined with imagery. It was twice as effective in making people change their minds as the other messages.

To try and better understand what was going on in the brain when people evaluate foods after seeing health messages, the researchers also monitored participants’ brain activity using non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG), in which electrodes are attached to the head.

Disrupting our impusles

The researchers wanted to know what kinds of thinking processes were influenced by the warning messages. The results suggest that warning labels prompted participants to exercise more self-control, rather than act on impulse. The brain signals allowed them to “see” how the warning messages were working.

“One of the aims of the project is to try to unravel what mechanisms are at work when we make choices on what to eat so that we can develop effective health messages,” says co-researcher Dr Helen Dixon, a behavioural scientist with the Cancer Council of Victoria and an honorary researcher at the University of Melbourne.

“Strong cues like anticipated taste, tend to work on us in a more unconscious way, and therefore health messages need to disrupt these more impulsive, hedonistic responses to foods and make people consciously consider the health implications of their choices.”

While many countries require products to display their sugar, salt and fat content on the back of packs, Dr Dixon says that the Chilean government has taken the bold step of introducing compulsory warning labels on unhealthy packaged foods.

All foods that exceed certain limits for calories, saturated fat, sugar or sodium must carry a black stop sign that reads “HIGH IN” followed by “CALORIES, SATURATED FAT, SUGAR or SODIUM, and are auhtorised by the “Ministry of Health”.

health star rating

Dr Dixon says one immediate step the Australian government could take is to enhance the Health Star Rating system on foods, including the method of calculating health stars, so that foods high in sugar, sodium or saturated fat can’t receive high health star ratings.

Once these changes are made then the scheme should be made mandatory.

Allergies, food labelling & saving lives

“So far only a minority of products have adopted the rating since its launch in 2014,” says Dr Dixon.

The front-of-pack labelling system rates the healthiness of products using a 5-star scale and aims to encourage consumers to make healthier food choices.

“Improving the Health Star Sating system, currently under review, and then making the system mandatory would be a big improvement on what we currently have,” says Dr Dixon.

“The Health Star Rating system has potential to be a powerful tool for informing consumers and motivating their purchasing behaviour towards healthier choices if certain changes are introduced.”

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Global Food Research: Will front-of-the-package warning labels change our eating habits?

The Global Food Research Program shares their perspective on targeting ultra-processed foods with front-of-the-package warning labels, which is the only impactful approach

In the past decade a major addition to our understanding of how the modern food supply is affecting adversely the risks of all Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs), including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, major cancers – all of which are nutrition-related as either diet or obesity or both are major determinants. At the same time countries have begun to work out sets of regulations and laws to attempt to shift our diets toward reduced intakes of these foods and toward healthier eating. The Global Food Research Program at the University of North Carolina is a leading institution working to provide research related to the design of Front-of-the-Package food labelling and working with collaborators globally to evaluate them.

The significant health impact of ultra-processed food

A large and growing body of research has highlighted the large, significant impact of excessive consumption of ultra-processed food on the risks of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. An important link was a random controlled trial with a crossover design (each person was his or her own control) that a highly respected team of researchers at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted in 2019.1 The researchers fed normal-weight adults a diet of real food for two weeks and a diet of ultra-processed food for another two weeks. While consuming the real food the adults lost 0.9 kilograms, but while consuming the ultra-processed food the same adults gained 0.9 kilograms. Biomarkers for diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, among others, increased equally significantly with the ultra-processed food diet. Each group started with one diet regimen and then shifted to the other.1

The 2019 NIH trial is important, as previously all the studies discussed below were observational and therefore focused on subsequent health risks according to the amount of ultra-processed food in people’s diets. Although these studies were controlled for a long list of potential confounders, such as physical activity and smoking, residual confounding never can be discarded. This 2019 NIH study put all subjects into a controlled food environment for a month.

The researchers provided each group foods with the same distributions of fiber, protein, carbohydrates, fats, and total energy. However, while ultra-processed beverages can lower energy density and total energy, all ultra-processed foods are higher in energy density than real foods. The members of the two groups were allowed to eat ad libitum or the amount they wanted. As a result, the same individuals consumed 500 kilocalories more when they were in the ultra-processed food group than when they were in the real food group, which is important. Whether the mechanism involved is hyper-palatability, energy density, or both requires further study.

This NIH work is supported by 19 wide-ranging cohort studies in Europe, the United States, Brazil, and elsewhere. These studies, mainly of adults but a few of children, link increased proportions of ultra-processed food in the diet with increased risks of obesity; many measures of cardiovascular disease (CVD), including diabetes, hypertension, overall CVD, and CVD mortality; cancer; and total mortality.2-18

The rapid growth in ultra-processed food consumption across the globe

Increasingly, pre-packaged foods and beverages are readily available in virtually every community across all parts of the globe, regardless of income level or population density.18-23 Combined with aggressive marketing of these products, this availability has dramatically affected the way people eat in many countries, resulting in less healthy diets.24-27

Many prepackaged foods are processed with high levels of added sugars, sodium, saturated fats, and refined carbohydrates.27-31 Research has connected these nutrients of concern to increased obesity and chronic nutrition-related diseases.24,32-36 The emerging evidence indicates that malnourished infants and preschoolers are fed these processed foods and beverages. Recent studies associate ultra-processed food with reduced length for age.37

The 2019 A. M. Pries et al. study is the only one that examines infant consumption of any ultra-processed food aside from infant formula, which fits into a different category but is also ultra-processed. We need longitudinal studies on cohorts with more recent full dietary intake data to reflect the increasing shift in ‘low- and middle-income countries’ infant diets toward ultra-processed food.28-30,37-39

Front-of-the-package warning labels empower informed choices:

Consumers need a clear and easy way to make healthier choices among the array of available products.

Shoppers prefer simple front-of-the-package (FOP) labels that are immediately visible and quickly evaluated.40,41 Labels that minimise effort allow customers to rapidly determine which products are healthier and thereby actually increase the intention to purchase a healthy product or, conversely, decrease the intention to purchase an unhealthy product.42-46

Among the several labelling approaches that have been devised, simple negative warning labels that identify unhealthy products are most effective in discouraging junk and ultra-processed food choices.47

Why not a healthfulness score or a traffic light?

When compared to other FOP labels, FOP nutrient warning labels may have different effects on consumer behaviours and ultimately on diet-related health outcomes. For example, some FOP labelling systems, such as Nutriscore or Australia’s Health Star Ratings, create summary indexes of multiple nutrients, including nutrients of concern, beneficial nutrients, or beneficial ingredients, to present a product’s overall nutritional profile on a continuum from least to most “healthy.” In these systems, the levels of nutrients of concern to the consumer are not clear, and often one nutrient can offset another in a way that impacts NCD concerns, for example, a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) fortified with vitamin C.

Other FOP label schemes, like the traffic light label, that colour-code multiple nutrients convey complex and sometimes contradictory information, such as a product high in one nutrient of concern but low in another, requiring consumers to evaluate all the information to come to an assessment of overall healthfulness. A consumer can become confused when a nutrient of concern, say sugar, is offset by another, say sodium. In contrast, nutrient warnings are binary, focused on nutrients of concern, and signal to consumers the presence or absence of high levels of these nutrients of concern.

These distinctions may have important implications for how labelling systems influence consumer behaviour. For example, FOP labelling systems that do not call attention to nutrients of concern or present potentially conflicting information may be more likely to encourage consumers to choose the “healthier” option among still unhealthy products rather than the proven healthy options.

Chilean studies evaluating the first year of required warning label implementation are emerging. The first study on focus groups of lower- and middle-income mothers suggests profound changes in food purchasing linked not only with the knowledge mothers gained from these labels but also with children telling their mothers not to purchase unhealthy products.48,49 We anticipate that future studies will show large changes in purchases of key unhealthy foods with warning labels.

Another Chilean evaluation of the impact of phase 1 of the implementation of the SSB warning label found that in the first year SSB purchases declined 23.7% in millilitre per capita per day.50 The phase 2 and 3 cutoffs will affect higher proportions of unhealthy foods and beverages. Chile was the world’s top country in per capita SSB consumption at the time the law went into effect.

What experiments have already been done?

Experiments in many countries with FOP warning labels on SSBs linked warning labels with decreased purchases of SSBs, decreased perceptions of their healthfulness,51,52 and decreased purchasing intent.51-53

A 2017 study comparing FOP warning labels to the industry-endorsed guidelines for daily allowance (GDA) and traffic light label systems found that warning labels were better able to help consumers correctly identify products high in unhealthy nutrients and that consumers perceived products bearing warning labels as less healthy than the same products featuring GDA or traffic light labels.54

Another 2017 study in Uruguay comparing children’s perceptions of food products with warning versus traffic light labels found that warning labels had greater relative impacts on children’s food choices compared to the traffic light system.55

Studies using eye-tracking technology to evaluate the influence of nutritional warnings alongside GDA labels have found that nutrient-based warning labels attract consumers’ attention and help them more quickly and easily identify whether a product is unhealthy.56,57

The only traffic light label study to show a positive impact combined financial incentives with the traffic light system.58 No study has shown that Nutriscore, GDA, or traffic light labels significantly impact food or beverage purchases.

A recent in-depth review of all FOP warning label systems highlights the critical value of warning labels in reaching consumers and impacting their behaviours.59 This scoping review found that many experimental studies of FOP nutrient warning labels focused on outcomes, such as comprehension and behavioural intention, but that considerable gaps in the evidence remain, particularly in the areas of negative affect and social interactions, precluding a clear understanding of the pathway through which nutrient-based FOP warnings change behaviour.

The studies found that nutrient-based FOP warnings visually attracted consumers, were easy to understand, helped consumers identify products high in nutrients of concern, and discouraged consumers from purchasing unhealthy products but do not contain as much information as other FOP labelling systems.

Please note: This is a commercial profile

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• Lawrence MA, Baker PI (2019) Ultra-processed food and adverse health outcomes. BMJ 365: l2289.
• Rico-Campà A, Martínez-González MA, Alvarez-Alvarez I, de Deus Mendonça R, de la Fuente-Arrillaga C, et al. (2019) Association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and all cause mortality: SUN prospective cohort study. bmj 365: l1949.
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• Adjibade M, Julia C, Allès B, Touvier M, Lemogne C, et al. (2019) Prospective association between ultra-processed food consumption and incident depressive symptoms in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort. BMC medicine 17: 78.
• Costa C, Rauber F, Leffa P, Sangalli C, Campagnolo P, et al. (2019) Ultra-processed food consumption and its effects on anthropometric and glucose profile: A longitudinal study during childhood. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases 29: 177-184.
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• Gómez-Donoso C, Sánchez-Villegas A, Martínez-González MA, Gea A, de Deus Mendonça R, et al. (2019) Ultra-processed food consumption and the incidence of depression in a Mediterranean cohort: The SUN Project. European journal of nutrition: 1-11.
• Kim H, Hu EA, Rebholz CM (2019) Ultra-processed food intake and mortality in the USA: Results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III, 1988–1994). Public health nutrition 22: 1777-1785.
• Mendonça RdD, Lopes ACS, Pimenta AM, Gea A, Martinez-Gonzalez MA, et al. (2017) Ultra-processed food consumption and the incidence of hypertension in a Mediterranean cohort: the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra Project. American journal of hypertension 30: 358-366.
• Rohatgi KW, Tinius RA, Cade WT, Steele EM, Cahill AG, et al. (2017) Relationships between consumption of ultra-processed foods, gestational weight gain and neonatal outcomes in a sample of US pregnant women. PeerJ 5: e4091.
• Rauber F, da Costa Louzada ML, Steele E, Millett C, Monteiro CA, et al. (2018) Ultra-processed food consumption and chronic non-communicable diseases-related dietary nutrient profile in the UK (2008–2014). Nutrients 10: 587.
• Sandoval-Insausti H, Blanco-Rojo R, Graciani A, López-García E, Moreno-Franco B, et al. (2019) Ultra-processed Food Consumption and Incident Frailty: A Prospective Cohort Study of Older Adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A.
• Schnabel L, Kesse-Guyot E, Allès B, Touvier M, Srour B, et al. (2019) Association between ultraprocessed food consumption and risk of mortality among middle-aged adults in France. JAMA internal medicine 179: 490-498.
• Vandevijvere S, Jaacks LM, Monteiro CA, Moubarac JC, Girling‐Butcher M, et al. (2019) Global trends in ultraprocessed food and drink product sales and their association with adult body mass index trajectories. Obesity Reviews.
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• World Cancer Research Fund International (2015) Curbing global sugar consumption: Effective food policy actions to help promote healthy diets and tackle obesity.
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, US Department of Agriculture (2015) Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Washington, DC.
• Report of a WHO Forum and Technical Meeting (2006) Reducing Salt Intake in Populations.
• WHO/FAO (2003) Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases: Report of a joint WHO/FAO expert consultation. Technical Report Series 916.
• Pries AM, Rehman AM, Filteau S, Sharma N, Upadhyay A, et al. (2019) Unhealthy Snack Food and Beverage Consumption Is Associated with Lower Dietary Adequacy and Length-for-Age z-Scores among 12–23-Month-Olds in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The Journal of Nutrition.
• Pries AM, Filteau S, Ferguson EL (2019) Snack food and beverage consumption and young child nutrition in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. Maternal & Child Nutrition 15: e12729.
• Vitta BS, Benjamin M, Pries AM, Champeny M, Zehner E, et al. (2016) Infant and young child feeding practices among children under 2 years of age and maternal exposure to infant and young child feeding messages and promotions in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Maternal & Child Nutrition 12: 77-90.
• Mandle J, Tugendhaft A, Michalow J, Hofman K (2015) Nutrition labelling: a review of research on consumer and industry response in the global South. Global Health Action 8: 10.3402/gha.v3408.25912.
• Vyth EL, Steenhuis IH, Vlot JA, Wulp A, Hogenes MG, et al. (2010) Actual use of a front-of-pack nutrition logo in the supermarket: consumers’ motives in food choice. Public Health Nutr 13: 1882-1889.
• Roodenburg A, Popkin B, Seidell J (2011) Development of international criteria for a front of package food labelling system: the International Choices Programme. Eur J Clin Nutr 65: 1190.
• Wartella EA, Lichtenstein AH, Boon CS, Editors, editors (2010) Examination of Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase 1 Report. Washington DC: National Academy Press. 140 p.
• Feunekes GIJ, Gortemaker IA, Willems AA, Lion R, van den Kommer M (2008) Front-of-pack nutrition labelling: Testing effectiveness of different nutrition labelling formats front-of-pack in four European countries. Appetite 50: 57-70.
• Hamlin RP, McNeill LS, Moore V (2014) The impact of front-of-pack nutrition labels on consumer product evaluation and choice: an experimental study. Public health nutrition: 1-9.
• Ares G, Varela F, Machin L, Antúnez L, Giménez A, et al. (2018) Comparative performance of three interpretative front-of-pack nutrition labelling schemes: Insights for policy making. Food Quality and Preference.
• Corvalan C, Reyes M, Garmendia ML, Uauy R (2013) Structural responses to the obesity and non-communicable diseases epidemic: the Chilean Law of Food Labeling and Advertising. Obesity Reviews 14: 79-87.
• Corvalán C, Reyes M, Garmendia ML, Uauy R (2019) Structural responses to the obesity and non-communicable diseases epidemic: Update on the Chilean law of food labelling and advertising. Obesity Reviews 20: 367-374.
• Correa T, Fierro C, Reyes M, Dillman Carpentier FR, Taillie LS, et al. (2019) Responses to the Chilean law of food labeling and advertising: exploring knowledge, perceptions and behaviors of mothers of young children. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 16: 21.
• Taillie LS, C. A., Reyes M, Popkin BM, Corvalan C. (2020). “Evaluating the impact of Chile’s front-of-package warning label, marketing, and school food policies on sugar-sweetened beverage purchases: an observational study. .” PLOS Medicine 17(2): e1003015.
• Roberto CA, Wong D, Musicus A, Hammond D (2016) The Influence of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Health Warning Labels on Parents’ Choices. Pediatrics.
• Taillie Lindsey S HM, Popkin Barry M, Ng SW, Murukutla N., (2020) Experimental studies of front-of-package nutrient warning labels on sugar-sweetened beverages and ultra-processed foods: A scoping review. Nutrients.
• Bollard T, Maubach N, Walker N, Ni Mhurchu C (2016) Effects of plain packaging, warning labels, and taxes on young people’s predicted sugar-sweetened beverage preferences: an experimental study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 13: 95.
• Arrúa A, Machín L, Curutchet MR, Martínez J, Antúnez L, et al. (2017) Warnings as a directive front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme: comparison with the Guideline Daily Amount and traffic-light systems. Public Health Nutrition 20: 2308-2317.
• Arrúa A, Curutchet MR, Rey N, Barreto P, Golovchenko N, et al. (2017) Impact of front-of-pack nutrition information and label design on children’s choice of two snack foods: Comparison of warnings and the traffic-light system. Appetite 116: 139-146.
• Centurión M, Machín L, Ares G (2019) Relative Impact of Nutritional Warnings and Other Label Features on Cereal Bar Healthfulness Evaluations. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
• Popova L, Nonnemaker J, Taylor N, Bradfield B, Kim A (2019) Warning Labels on Sugar-sweetened Beverages: An Eye Tracking Approach. American Journal of Health Behavior 43.
• Franckle RL, Levy DE, Macias-Navarro L, Rimm EB, Thorndike AN (2018) Traffic-light labels and financial incentives to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage purchases by low-income Latino families: a randomised controlled trial. Public Health Nutr: 1-9.
• Taillie LS, Marissa G. Hall, Barry M. Popkin, Shu Wen Ng, Nandita Murukutla (2020) Experimental studies of front-of-package nutrient warning labels on sugar-sweetened beverages and ultra-processed foods: A scoping review Nutrients.

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Should Fast Food Have Warning Labels?

Being a college student, we are all busy.  Sometimes we might not be on campus to grab something at the café but we need to grab something quick and easy so we resort to fast food.  In Cresson, Pennsylvania, we are close to very few places for food; in fact, most of the food that is nearby is fast food. Fast food is tempting because, well, it is fast and tastes pretty good, but everyone knows it is not healthy for you.  Even though we know it is not good for us, we still eat it.  Do you think if fast food labels carried warning signs, that would be enough to stop us? Cigarettes have warning signs:  Some people do smoke but since cigarette packs started displaying warning signs, more people have quit or do not  start smoking.

Upon starting college, everyone makes jokes about the “freshman 15” or the “sophomore 20,” which is funny to joke about until you realize you have gained that weight.  Whether the excuse is because we were too busy, too stressed, or was drinking and hanging out with friends, it happens.

Don’t you want to know what you’re putting into your body? Most people don’t really think about the harm of the little habits they create in their lives and what you put into your body.  What if you were allergic to one of those “little” things that is not talked about.  Or sometimes you can develop an intolerance to things over the years and start feeling sick and you don’t know why.  Obesity is a real problem that could possibly be fixed if people knew what they were eating and how harmful it could be to their bodies.

As humans, we tend to keep the big picture in mind; while that’s important, we need to focus on the day-to-day little habits, decisions, and activities that are going to make that big picture possible.  A quick trip through the drive-through is thoughtless for some people as it is cheap and convenient.  This starts when we are kids going to McDonalds and Dairy Queen with friends and family.

According to a study done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “16-20 year olds alone spend 44 percent of their money on eating out. Also, the average American family spends 50 percent of their money on restaurant food. In 1977,  under 39 percent of families money was spent eating out. Turing eating out into a habit, like the fast-food industry wants you to, can have a bad effect on your health including digestive issues, you can get fat, you have too much sodium in your system, and it can also affect the respiratory and integumentary system” (https://www.teenink.com/hot_topics/health/article/993948/Fast-Food-Should-Come-with-Warning-Labels/).

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Are Warning Labels on Unhealthy Foods a Good Idea?

Since 1980, obesity rates have doubled in at least 73 countries, and a big culprit, according to most experts, is the increased consumption of highly processed foods. public health officials have zeroed in on a new tactic to fight these alarming trends: the use of warning labels on foods with high levels of sugar, salt, or fat. chile mandated putting warning labels on unhealthy foods in 2016; peru, uruguay, and israel have followed in the years since, and other countries are considering the idea. should the united states adopt this approach a food policy expert and an analyst at a libertarian* think tank face off..

Have you ever picked up a snack that looked healthy and then realized it contains as much sugar as a Snickers? The way food is packaged has a big influence on what customers buy. And currently a lot of that packaging encourages people to buy food that contributes to diet-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, that are among the leading causes of death in the U.S.

Requiring front-of-package warning labels indicating that a food or drink is high in sugar, salt, fat, or calories provides a clear and easy way for consumers to avoid products that contribute to poor health. Warning labels also address misleading marketing tactics. Companies conduct extensive research to determine what to put on packages to increase sales, and the messages and claims chosen seem to be designed to confuse rather than inform.

Warning labels discourage people from buying unhealthy foods.

Nutrition-related claims and marketing messages—for example, that something is “all natural” or “organic”—are often placed on products that don’t deliver the nutrition and healthfulness they seem to promise. These claims make people think that a product is beneficial to a healthy diet, when in reality, it might be something that should be consumed infrequently or not at all. Warning labels can cut through the clutter that masks unhealthy ingredients in food and drinks.

Simply put, warning labels work. Research shows that front-of-package warning labels are helpful in identifying foods and beverages that are high in sugar, salt, fat, or calories, and they discourage people from purchasing such products. Just 18 months after Chile’s adoption of warning labels in 2016, there was a 25 percent drop in sugary drink purchases. Since Chile took action, more than a dozen other countries have enacted or are considering food warning labels.

How can consumers make informed choices if food and beverage packages are designed to sell products, not inform the public? Warning labels are a promising policy action that puts our health ahead of companies’ profits. We deserve that.

—FRANCES FLEMING-MILICI

The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity

Obesity is a serious public health problem. But putting warning labels on unhealthy foods like candy and soda is not the solution.

We already know these foods eaten to excess make us unhealthy. We’ve never had more information about our food, with calorie counts, nutrition labels, and abundant advice about what we should and shouldn’t eat from doctors and nutrition experts. We don’t need the government trying to influence our food choices.

Warning labels exist purely to stigmatize products and the people who consume them. They don’t give consumers information, merely the judgment that they’re making the “wrong choice.” These labels imply that calories from some sources are worse than others. It’s true that too many calories from chocolate can cause obesity, but so can calories from any source. If sodas or candy have warning labels, so should pasta, bread, bacon, steak, and just about everything else.

We don’t need the government trying to influence our food choices.

Besides, warning labels for food don’t work. Consider what happened in Chile, which introduced food warning labels in 2016. One study claimed it cut soda consumption dramatically. But that wasn’t what happened. The study’s conclusion was based on a model of what researchers thought would’ve happened to soda consumption without the labels. In reality, calorie consumption barely budged, and Chile’s obesity rate in 2019 was the same as when the labels were introduced—34.4 percent.

In the United States, soda consumption has been declining for more than 20 years since it hit a peak in 1998. It wasn’t government warnings that were responsible for this decline. It was caused by consumers reacting to information that soda is unhealthy and freely choosing to drink less of it.

Food warning labels won’t work, and they are a bad idea. They are a stepping stone for politicians to control more of your choices and limit your freedom.

—GUY BENTLEY

Reason Foundation

Leading adult education through support for and the effective application of technology.

Fast Food Nutrition: Should Fast Food Have Warning Labels?

Activity description, preparation.

• Check the website to ensure it is not blocked at your site.
• Read through the lesson plan.
• Print and make copies of any handouts.
• Decide which parts of the project you want to use, if not all.
• Practice navigating the website so that you can demo it to students.
• Create polls and other digital lesson materials, as desired.

Teacher Tips

The site has ads. Tell students to disregard them and show how to close them.

The website also has  lesson plans , a  nutrition glossary , a  fast food meal calculator , and  healthy and tasty food options  for many restaurants.

Program Areas

• ESL: English as a Second Language
• ABE: Adult Basic Education
• Intermediate Low
• Intermediate High
• Intermediate

Lesson Plan

Start by talking about the last junk food you ate. Differentiate junk food from fast food by talking about the last time you ate fast food, what you ate, where, and why. Ask students about the difference between junk food and fast food, showing online images.

Ask students if they like junk food. Tell them to name their guilty pleasures.

Ask students if they like fast food. Why do they eat food from fast food restaurants rather than cook at home? 

Put students in small groups or pairs for conversation:

 Conversation:

• What is your favorite type of junk food?
• Do you think fast food can be part of a healthy diet? Why or why not? How often do you eat at fast food restaurants per month? Where do you go most often and what do you order?
• Is fast food popular in your country? If so, what kind of food is served?
• Why has fast food become so popular even though it is not very nutritious?
• What are some  positives  of fast food? What are some negatives?
• How do you balance the temptation of junk food with your desire to eat healthy?
• Do you think it is possible to indulge in junk food occasionally without negatively impacting your overall health?
• What are some healthy alternatives to traditional fast food options?
• Have you ever tried to give up junk food completely? How did that go?
• Do you think it is easier or more difficult to eat healthy in today's society, with so many unhealthy options available
• How do you think societal attitudes towards healthy eating have changed over time?

Tell students that they are going to learn more about fast food and its nutritional value.

Ask students to predict the answers to the following questions and record their answers. Alternatively, use a polling tool such as Poll Everywhere, Slido, Wooclap, Mentimeter, or other tools to poll students. Then share the correct answers.

Web Search or poll :

• How “fast” is fast food?
• Which is the most popular fast food in the USA? Hot dog, pizza, taco, hamburger, chicken
• Who is more likely to eat fast food? Men or women?
• Who is more likely to order a hamburger?  Men or women?
• How much does the average person in the U.S.A. spend on buying fast food per month?
• Which meal is the most popular for fast food? Breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
• How often does the average adult in the U.S. visit a fast food restaurant per month? Once a month, 4 times a month, 6 times a month, 8 times a month.

Pair students and designate one person in each pair as A and B. Distribute the handout  Infogap Reading - Fast Food Fasts.  Demonstrate how student A will read begin reading, and then students A and B will alternate paragraphs, with the student listening filling in blanks, and asking clarification strategies and questions (please repeat that, did you say...?, etc). 

Students can practice choral reading. Provide feedback on pronunciation such as pausing, intonation, stress, and prosody.

Optionally follow up with this Web MD article - What’s Really in your Fast Food?  

To better understand food labels, assign individual students, pairs, or small groups to find answers to nutrition-related questions on the handout I nternet Search - Food Ingredients and Nutritional Values . You may want to select fewer questions and copy the questions onto a shared Google Document where all students can record their findings to assigned questions in one place.

After students' work is complete, go over the answers, field questions, and ask students what new information they learned.

Tell students that they are going to use the information they learned to evaluate a menu item they often order at fast food restaurants.

Create a shared Google Slideshow (optionally) or have students use MS Word or Google Docs or PowerPoint to enter their information.

Go over the instructions and model:

1.     Use the site Fast Food Nutrition to search for the fast food snack or meal that you prefer from a fast food restaurant of your choice and enter information about it onto your slide.

2.     Select the restaurant and the items from the menu.

3.     Add images of the menu items and their names on your slide.

4.     Fill in other information on your slide: name of the restaurant and which meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack).

5.     Use the Calculator to see the nutrition facts. Take a snip/screenshot and include it on your slide.

6.     Use the Nutrition Label Information from USFDA and Fact Sheets as needed to point out one positive and one negative of the nutritional value of the meal or snack in the comments area of your slide.

7.     Give the meal an Overall Rating for nutrition: five stars - very healthy; four stars - somewhat healthy; 3 stars - not very healthy; 2 stars - not good for you; 1 star - very unhealthy snack or meal.

Have students share by presenting their information in class.

Review with students adverbs of frequency using the handout  Adverbs of Frequency.  Direct students to take notes as you elicit the adverb placement rules with them.

Rule 1: to be verb + adverb of frequency

I am always very busy with work deadlines on Fridays, so that’s when I get fast food for dinner.

He is usually sleepy in the afternoons, so he stops by Starbucks for a coffee.

Rule 2: Adverb of frequency + other verbs

She never eats fast food because she is trying to be healthy.

He often visits the fast food restaurant down the street for lunch.

Rule 3: modal or linking verb + adverb of frequency + main verb / other verbs

He could often be found at the fast food restaurant down the street for lunch.

She must rarely eat fast food because she doesn't like the taste.

Have students practice using adverbs of agreement in answering questions in pairs or small groups about the topic of fast food using the conversation questions on the handout Adverbs of Frequency.

Provide feedback and finish by asking for volunteers to give their answers.

Ask students to name items that have warning labels (cleaning products, cigarettes, alcohol, medications, etc.). Show images of items with warning labels.

Tell students that they are going to think of reasons to say both "yes" and "no" to the following question, based on all that has been discussed and read about in class:

Should fast food have warning labels?

Give students a few minutes to think on their own. Then pair or group students and tell them that as a team, they need to think of at least three reasons why someone would say yes and at least three reasons why someone who say no.

Have students record their groups' lists on a shared Google Document, Jamboard, Padlet (shelf), or other digital tool that you have prepared ahead of time. 

Go over the lists and ask groups to explain their reasoning for unclear contributions.

Tell students that they now should form their opinions on the question.

Distribute the writing assignment prompt handout  Fast Food Label Opinion Paragraph.  Go over the expectations for the assignment. Provide a model, as needed. Point out to students that their group brainstorming is the basis for their opinions, so they need to just formulate the brainstormed ideas into supporting sentences.

Have students compose their paragraphs on MS Word, Google Docs, or other word-processing program. Provide feedback on the first draft on content. Then have students revise and provide feedback on mechanics (grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.) before having students edit and submit their final drafts.

Create a rubric or checklist and/or have students conduct peer review or self-evaluate.

Students will be able to carry out both short research projects to answer a question or solve a problem, analyze and integrate information into clearly organized spoken and written texts by delivering oral presentations about their findings integrating graphics or multimedia and express an opinion and give reasons for the opinion.

• Infogap Reading – Fast Food Facts.docx - Infogap Reading - Fast Food Facts
• Internet Search - Food Ingredients and Nutritional Values.docx - Internet Search - Food Ingredients and Nutritional Values
• Adverbs of Frequency.docx - Adverbs of Frequency
• Fast Food Label Opinion Paragraph.docx - Fast Food Label Opinion Paragraph
• Basic Sentences
• Paragraph Skills
• CCR Anchor 1 - Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
• CCR Anchor 2 - Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
• CCR Anchor 1 - Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
• CCR Anchor 2 - Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
• CCR Anchor 1 - Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
• CCR Anchor 2 - Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
• CCR Anchor 3 - Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
• CCR Anchor 1 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• CCR Anchor 2 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
• CCR Anchor 3 - Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
• CCR Anchor 4 - Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
• CCR Anchor 5 - Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
• CCR Anchor 6 - Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

OTAN activities are funded by contract CN220124 from the Adult Education Office, in the Career & College Transition Division, California Department of Education, with funds provided through Federal P.L., 105-220, Section 223. However, OTAN content does not necessarily reflect the position of that department or the U.S. Department of Education.

Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Fast Food — The Fast Food Industry: Its Impact on Public Health and Society

The Fast Food Industry: Its Impact on Public Health and Society

• Categories: Fast Food

About this sample

Words: 796 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 796 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

History and growth of the fast food industry, impact on public health, economic and societal implications, corporate accountability and responsibility, government regulation and intervention.

• Statista. Fast food industry - statistics & facts.
• Business Insider. These are the 10 countries that consume the most fast food in the world.
• CDC. Adult Obesity Facts.
• Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US.
• NELP. Getting by with a little help from our friends: The growth of the fast food industry's labor practices.
• Climate Reality. Fast Food is Going Green—And That's Good News for the Planet.

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Food Warning Labels, Essay Example

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An American Ethical Dilemma

Food is a vital part of human life and something that is essential to existence. Nutritional warnings can commonly be found on the back of the product; however there is much controversy surrounding the imposed laws. Some suggest that all ingredients and modifications should be clearly advised on any food product, while others suggest that labeling each and every ingredient may cause public alarm. While public alarm could lead to mass outcry and difficulty for food manufacturers, the company still has a moral obligation to ensure that consumers are making informed decisions about their own health. The right belongs to the consumer and their right to know what they are consuming, purchasing and the potential risk that it poses. The purpose of this paper is to examine nutritional labeling and warnings as well as argue that food companies should label all ingredients exactly and put a warning if one of the ingredients is artificial or genetic altered.

The Debate Surrounding Food Labels

The controversy, like any other type of debate is fueled by opposing positions. While both make valid points, it is essential to understand the health and rights of individuals as citizens. Food companies are currently required to detail the ingredients contained in their product as well as the nutritional values. One of the concerns that have not been properly addressed is over genetically modified foods. These ingredients do not contain or have requirements to provide consumer warnings on the food products that they are in. Genetically modified foods, sometimes known as genetically modified organisms are produced from plants and animals that have genetically modified DNA. Currently the Food and Drug Administration does not require warnings for genetically engineered foods (Choi). The FDA does not require the warnings based on the fact that foods are placed through rigorous testing before they are released. Testing does increase the safety of food products, however the public has a right to know what they are purchasing and if it has been modified in any way. Europe requires warnings based on modified foods because of an outbreak of Mad Cow Disease in the late 1980’s (Choi). The public alarm and outcry convinced Europe, like many other countries to begin stringent labeling requirements for all food and ingredients. The United States however is in the minority and lacking in labeling requirements at this time of all ingredients contained in purchased food.

Past Nutritional Labeling

While food labeling guidelines are not new to society they have become more stringent over the past several years. Those that are against food labeling might suggest that even though the labels are in place that American people are still gaining weight. Since one of the purposes of ingredient labeling was to slow the progression of obesity and disease in America. It may seem like a valid claim; however the truth of the matter is the fact that there is a struggle between product manufacturers and labeling rules (Just 50). It has only been in recent years that doctors and other health care providers have begun suggesting to patients that they should monitor their caloric intake and learn more about the nutritional values of food. Perhaps the labeling requirements have not had adequate time to make a maximum impact. Again, it is true that food itself does not make people obese; it is their actions with the food, however without food labeling they have little knowledge of nutritional value or a lack of healthy nutrition. The purpose of food labeling is to allow consumers the ability to make healthier food choices and should be protected for health (Bonsmann et al 14).

Research has shown that because of food labeling, women are more likely to look at the food labels and adhere to healthier portion restrictions (Mandal 516). This assists in weight loss as it makes the individual more conscious about the amount of calories and other ingredients that they are consuming. Obesity has become a highly controversial topic in society as there are numerous health concerns. Parents are teaching their children to read food labels, monitor their caloric intake and become healthier. According to Mandal, obesity causes serious health concerns such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and an increased risk of Dementia (516). Looking back into history and prior to nutritional labels, society was worried about weight gain and improper nutritional intake. Today the goal is the same; however foods that are genetically modified should be addressed as well. There are health concerns that are possible with genetically modified food. If this is not clearly stated on the label, consumers are unable to make an educated decision or choice as to the risk that they are willing to take.

Health Concerns of Genetically Modified Foods

To date there are few studies that assess the health risks of genetically modified foods. By the mere process, foods that have been modified are created with genes and hormones that have potential unpredictable long term health results. According to Pusztai, modified foods may cause bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics, my cause allergies, bleeding disorders and other serious health concerns (280). The issue or problem is not that the food has been genetically altered, it is the fact that American consumers are not made aware of the process, nor the harm that could materialize. The United States was founded on freedoms and the right to have knowledge about their well-being, which is not being served at this time.

Food Company Stance & Concern

Marketing is big business for food product companies. The manner by which food is packaged, slogans are prepared and in some cases the promises of health benefit is typically what draws consumers to the product. Most food product manufacturers disagree with additional food label laws or restrictions. The reason is obviously because they do not wish to skew the consumer’s choices. While this is understandable, it is a health concern that affects all of society.

Monetary gain should not be placed in front of American children’s or adults health. It is estimated that by the year 2015, 2.3 billion people will be overweight with 700 million will be obese (World Health Organization). This is a cause for alarm and food manufacturers, as well as fast food restaurants should be required to detail all ingredients, quantity as well as calories of the product. Along with obesity is the fact that genetically modified food could be causing long term health concerns that consumers are not even made aware of.

Other benefits that are named by food companies for genetically modified foods are pest resistance, better growing, disease resistance and nutrition. By altering the growth pattern of the food or animal, scientists have been able to create a more hearty and viable product. Clearly, pests and insects have always plagued food growers, Mother Nature has caused mass loss and some foods suffer in nutritional value (Whitman 2). Pesticides have long been a concern for both farmers and those eating the foods. No one is arguing that there are not benefits to genetically engineered foods, simply the fact that consumers should be made aware of the fact and process.

It is as simple as placing a warning on the nutritional label of the food detailing the fact that one or more of the ingredients has been modified. The public could then make their own determination about the foods that they purchase and whether or not they wish to eat that particular product.

A Health Conscience Society

With the increased concern for obesity and health, many people are moving to a healthier lifestyle. The right to know is essential and is no different for genetically modified foods than the caloric intake that is already imposed (Whitmann). The cost of labeling and additional disclosures has also been cited in this controversy. While the label could increase the cost of the product, it would likely be less than cents for each product. Like any other cost it could be and probably would be absorbed by the end consumer. The small cost of a warning certainly does not equate to the potential health concerns or lack of consumer education. The cost, however is not the end concern, instead it conceals the concern of public outcry, fear and boycotting of products. Food companies would be unable to make the profit that they are accustom too, therefore they push for stagnate laws as well as guidelines. By doing so they are defeating the purpose of public information and safety. While the disclosure could create some concern, the public would be better informed and likely develop the understanding that there are benefits of genetically modified foods as well as some risks. The concern is the lack of information, not the product itself, which continues this heated debate.

In conclusion, public policy and right to information should supersede any for Profit Company or product. Addressing the concern for public panic or discord, one should remember that there are a number of products that are not good for citizens, yet they continue to purchase them. Items such as cigarettes and alcohol clearly have a warning of the negative health effects and medical concerns that they pose, yet they are leading financial sellers. Candy, fast food and high calorie foods are still very popular among the American people, yet they are required to accurately and clearly label each ingredient. Regardless of the problems or potential harm that a product causes, food companies must be held accountable for providing information to the public. If properly labeled, consumers would be responsible for their own actions and it would decrease the amount of liability that food companies have. It is about the choice and right to know of the public that is at the heart of the debate of this controversy. It is important that consumers be able to make the most informed decision possible, without any information being withheld. In order to rectify the concern or problem, each and every ingredient should be noted in its entirety as well as genetically manufactured products, so the buyer can decide for themselves.

Works Cited

Bonsmann, S. Storcksdieck genannt, L. Fernández Celemín, and K. G. Grunert. “Food Labeling To Advance Better Education For Life.” European Journal Of Clinical Nutrition  64.(2010): 14-19.

Choi, C. “Ensnared in a web of arguments: Genetically Modified food stirs active debate”. Medill Reports, Northwestern University. (2012).

Mandal, Bidish. “Use Of Food Labels As A Weight Loss Behavior.” Journal Of Consumer Affairs 44.3 (2010): 516-527.

Just, David R., and Collin R. Payne. “Obesity: Can Behavioral Economics Help?.” Annals Of Behavioral Medicine 38.(2009): 47-55.

Pusztai, Alia. The need for rigorous risk assessment. Chemistry & Industry 8, 280. (2000) Whitman, Deborah. “Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful?” Web: 2 March 2012 [http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/review.pdf]

World Health Organization. Obesity and overweight. Web: 2 March 2012 [http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/index.html/.]

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Writing Essays About Fast Food

Academic writing

Essay paper writing

It is not a secret that the fast food sphere has come a long way from the convenience product cafe in the outskirts of Southern California to the multi-billion-dollar industry today. Since multiple studies show that cardiovascular and obesity problems of Americans in most cases are linked with overconsumption of foods filled with fats, salts, and carbs, careful exploration of the fast food market is highly demanded today. This demand inevitably brings every student to write essays about fast food. While this is quite a mouthwatering topic to write about, we should consider all the details for crafting an A+ essay. This article can be your guide in writing essays on fast food step by step.

Facts about the fast food industry are inexorable and striking. Let’s consider some of them: 

• The highest death rates connected with junk food consumption and consequent weight-related complications have been reported in Nairobi, Kenya - that was nearly 2.8 million people each year.
• In more than 160,000 fast food locations in the US, more than 50 million Americans eat burgers daily.
• A third of children eat fast food on a daily basis.
• McDonald’s is more recognized than the Christian Cross.

We could continue with shocking facts and statistics even further, but what is crucial to understand that fortunately, the problem of eating too much junk meals is largely addressed by scholars from all around the world. As a result, multiple studies of recent years are available for you both on the Internet and in academic libraries. That might be exactly the reason why writing on this subject could be difficult, especially for students that are unfamiliar with professional essay writing. Why? Because it’s not that easy to gather all the overflow of the evidence and group it all into persuasive arguments, flowing through the pages of your academic assignment smoothly and in a scientifically correct way.

Whether you are writing a rationally constructed fast food argumentative essay or another type of paper requiring more opinion judgments, you should apply the same highly specific principles of academic writing. In addition to that, it’s also crucially important not to be too prejudiced about fast food. If you start your argument straight from the judgmental view of street meals as products that possess incontrovertible danger for human health, by doing this, you also start from the point of broken informational balance. Instead of taking the negative approach as an axiom, try to think like a scientist and explore any of fast food argumentative essay topics without the influence of your own point of view.

Nevertheless, fast food is a hot topic that might fuel some of the fiercest battles in your class, that’s why writing on this theme is especially interesting for a student of every faculty. So let’s get this show down the road and start our step by step guide of how to write an essay on what role does fast food play in our life and culture.

Fast food and obesity essay

The studies conducted at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington clearly show that unhealthy eating habits are being the second biggest threat of early death worldwide, right next to the dangers of smoking. The risk factor here is a high body mass index, which signifies obesity and is a sign of increased cholesterol level. The high cholesterol level, high blood glucose level, along with high blood pressure, are all the consequences of obesity that is typically caused by regular consumption of fast food. Moreover, this problem also has an economic nature. This means that, when you are writing an unhealthy eating habits essay, it’s also useful to seek the roots of this issue in the economy field. By doing this, you will be able to propose a valid solution to the problem.

While we mentioned only one of the approaches above, when crafting your fast food and obesity essay, you could employ different techniques as far as your university professor considers it acceptable. Anyway, you need to start with the basics. First thing first, you have to find a proper topic. It is best if it will sound somewhat challenging and provocative because you have a chance to uncover the new approach and propose ideas that have never been addressed before by other students. Meanwhile, the general topic like a junk food and obesity essay could give you also more freedom in choosing the argument line, which you can shape after you perform extensive research on this theme. Some students come up with ideas for their titles after they do all the research and group their evidence by type and strength. While the other ones prefer to go with the flow, to apply their creativity and opinion right from the start by creating a compelling title in the first place, and then do all the most difficult parts. You can try both tactics and then choose whichever suits best for your pace, schedule, and style of writing.

Nevertheless, the research part is often being the key to crafting successful fast food is unhealthy essay. So what you do is begin to look for the evidence that supports the notion that any burger is a potential reason for one of five deaths in the world. Objectively speaking, eating one burger might not cause immediate and irreversible health problems. But the regular consumption of foods with low nutritional value, the high fat, calorie, and sodium content makes these meals potentially hazardous for health. As you can see now, whether writing an essay or a speech on fast food, it is crucial to employ an all-round approach to the exploration of this topic. This will help you sound rather professional than biased.

The good idea for your essay is to provide medical studies that prove the link between overconsumption of fast food and health as the first argument. You can find tons of information about this subject in scholarly articles on obesity and fast food from all around the world. For example, the Guardian research indicates that in 2011 alone, the number of people suffering from diabetes worldwide has increased nearly twice since 1980, and that was 153 million to 350 million people. This fact could be linked to junk foods available at any convenience store or shopping mall nearby, but this could be rather indirect evidence. Instead, it is much more relevant to look for specific studies on the topic that you are writing about.

Nevertheless, it is also worth noticing in a good persuasive essay on how fast food contributes to obesity about the hazards of obesity and the reason why we should talk about it more. According to recent studies, obesity rates have doubled in 2008 since 1980. The US, unfortunately, continues being an epicenter of this problem, where 2 of 3 Americans are clinically overweight. In addition to that, 500 million people were recorded in 2011 as obese with body mass indexes greater than 30, while 1.4 billion were clinically overweight with body mass indexes exceeding 25. A good opening phrase for effects of fast food essay could be based on the study that suggests that obesity kills more people than car crashes.

But if we return to specific studies about fast food and obesity relation, another research that you can highlight in your essay about junk food shows that fast food diminishes our basic instinct, which is the sensory-specific satiety. This instinct is responsible for feeling full after you eat your meal. You’ve probably noticed how soon you want to eat after visiting fast food restaurant. That’s the catch to mention in fast food essays. After experiments done on rats in e School of Medical Sciences at Australia’s University of New South Wales, it was proved that so-called junk food alters our brains’ motivational control and reward behavior. To put it simply, when someone stops eating traditional meals, they know when it’s enough. However, this trigger doesn’t work with fast food, which provokes overeating and results in health implications like mitochondrial dysfunction, weight gain, and tissue inflammation.

Finally, one of the studies shows that regular fast food consumption doubles the risk of insulin resistance being one of the reasons for the development of type 2 diabetes. They also point out that not only fast food affects obesity, including diabetes overweight, but also it increases cases of hospitalization with coronary diseases.

You could also mention in any of your future essays on junk food the marketing side of this problem. One of the reasons why people are overeating at fast food restaurants is the high number of them located in places where people usually work, live, and recreate. The Canadian Journal of Public Health researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario, Canada, published the results of their findings indicating that the density of fast food places increases the chances of eating too much junk food. Another research from the University of South Australia supported this information indicating in their European Journal of Epidemiology that in 2010, each 10% rise of the fast food locations resulted in 1.39 times more deaths from cardiovascular conditions. Similarly, the University of California, Berkeley, scholars found in 2009 that people living nearby fast food restaurants have a 5.2 percent greater risk of obesity.

In this regard, it is also valid to point out the reasons for eating too much fast food. Try to think about why people of different ages and backgrounds prefer eating at fast food diners rather than healthy food restaurants. Of course, one of the reasons for this is an attractive marketing image. First of all, eating something tasty is an essential part of how young people like to go out and socialize. In addition to that, specific chemicals and technology of production of junk food ingredients imply that they perform kind of a sensory attack to our receptors being enormously delicious, while also turning off the sensory satisfaction instinct and leaving us craving for more even when we are full. Make sure you don’t forget about this argument when writing an essay about what is really in fast food. Fast foods are also convenient for a variety of reasons for different people. Some of them don’t like cooking at home, so they go the easiest way and buy fast food. Also, people working in the office are also prone to eat at fast food restaurants. Such a meal is simply cheap, tasty, and convenient on the go.

Burgers and chips, chocolate bars and brightly colored candies, soda and ice-cream are also being an affordable treat for children from low-income families. It could appear as your central argument for a fast food and childhood obesity essay. Unfortunately, fast food is a highly desirable meal, especially for children. Various promotional offers and toy cartoon characters in the kit are another marketing trick that targets children to crave those burger menus. In many schools in the US, junk food is a part of the menu that any child can eat daily, which is also worth mentioning in a fast food in America essay. While in Mumbai, India, fast food is already totally prohibited for from selling in schools and next to their territories. We will talk more about this a couple sections below, so keep reading to know more about what you could write about the fast food industry with regard to the increasing worldwide childhood obesity rates of recent years.

Effects of fast food on health essay

In the section above, we have briefly touched upon the areas of research that could be relevant when writing the effects of fast food on health essay. The causation of regular fast food consumption is also strongly related to a wider variety of health issues. An essay on harmful effect of junk food is one of the most popular assignments to cover the topic of adverse effect of fast food on health. Even though the issue is rather serious, don’t overload it with negative assumptions and attempts to prove it in the most horrific way. Instead, keep things clear, reasonable, and rational. Try to dig into the roots and causes of the problem. Investigate the exact way of how fast food becomes hazardous for the health of children and adult people. You simply need to find that borderline that makes a tasty treat and turns it into a dangerous habit.

You may also alter the approach, creating something like eating at home vs eating out essay. Here, you have an opportunity to include all the pros and cons of healthier food, which one can easily cook at home. Moreover, this is also a good title for an argumentative essay because this type of academic assignment essentially needs to contain a counter-argument to your thesis statement, even if it’s quite common like a fast food kills argumentative essay. Further, you can examine things that stand in the way of cooking at home. For example, that could be the lack of knowledge of how to cook tasty and simple meals or the false assumption that home-cooked dinner is more expensive than eating out. People might also think that cooking at home takes a considerable amount of time.

Fast food and health problems have been widely discussed by academics from the leading universities around the world. Many famous dietologists also emphasize the incredible harm of junk food. While the most popular question to talk about is the threat of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems when writing the fast food and physical health essay, you also might want to mention that regular fast food consumption has proved to cause real brain damage and might even lead to a mental meltdown. The thing is that our brains just don’t get enough nutrients and vitamins with fast food, that’s why our bodies keep asking for more when being hungry shortly after you eat that French fries.

If you are writing the effects of consuming too much fast food essay, the great approach to choose to fascinate your professor and class is to go deeper into the chemistry of its ingredients. By carefully examining what fast food is made of and how nutrients work, you can find answers to your thesis statement proposed questions in order to resolve your argument and prove your point. You may look for ready answers as there are a lot of researches that have been performed to let people know what hides inside junk food. Meanwhile, it could also be much more interesting to propose your own ideas about the researched topic. As we already mentioned above, you may compare home-cooked meals with fast food in relation to its price, affordability, easiness, and the after-effects on the human body; this info will be especially relevant for a processed food essay. You might also explain how processed food is made, how to read nutrition labels, what foods are safe to buy, and what you should avoid. Your fast food informative speech will only benefit from that on the way to your A+ grade. Luckily, it is relatively easy to monitor what you eat thanks to the nutrition labels that fast food places and pre-packed food makers are obliged to make. You may enlist some especially dangerous elements so that the readers of your fast food warning labels essay will be aware of their harm.

The easiest way to know what you are buying is to read nutrition labels. A quick guide on them might be useful for you, but for shaping a persuasive essay about junk food, this information is obviously not enough. Our advice is to look for evidence to support your ideas in academic sources while also performing your own junk food research in restaurants and convenience stores. Due to the fact that the variety of food labels give too much specific information, try to start from simple steps. For example, you want to watch for a color-coding. To buy something healthier, look for more green ones (low fat, sugar, salt), than amber (medium fat, sugar, salt), or red (high amount of fat, sugar, salt). You also want to mention which amount of those ingredients plus energy (kJ/kcal), saturated fat carbohydrate, sugars, protein, and salt, is mentioned on the pack. These facts are great to explore in the essay on junk food a silent killer.

If too many students write about the current hazards of fast food relating to our physical health, and you don’t want to repeat the same ideas over and over again in one more essay, there is an alternative way to go. By choosing a slightly different topic, you can reserve yourself the highest grade of them all for sure. You will stand out from the crowd and be noticed by your professor. The only problem is that you will have to perform much more profound research to deliver your ideas in an academically proper way. So by now, you might be wondering, what are those mysterious alternative topics?

Well, for example, you can go for the history of fast food essay and examine the root cause of the whole problem that has got so globally large and important nowadays. How the burger culture went all the way from small and convenient products at the gas stations and suburbs diners to the leading worldwide industry that develops so well in almost every country? By watching its development, you might also propose the same approach for tackling the obesity problem. For instance, if promotion and smart marketing campaigns you consider as key factors to the overall fast food business success, then most likely, it is also the potentially most successful way to target the same audience and to promote healthier food choices.

However, if you want to go even further in your creativity, you may choose such a controversial topic as the benefits of fast food essay. Here, you will need to think out of the box. What benefits could have something so widely regarded as hazardous? Well, we have a few tips on what you could propose in such an essay. First of all, as we mentioned before, all food manufacturers and restaurants have calorie counts and nutrition labels on their foods. So in any renowned fast-food restaurant, you will get the portion that doesn’t exceed the recommended value of fats, sugars, salts, sodium, calories, etc. The good advice is just to eat one burger and say no to the second one in case if you want more.

Another benefit of fast food is that you can also pick healthier options in restaurants like the oatmeal for breakfast and the summer salad with grilled chicken for lunch. They also have a wide variety of affordable offers. You can try the best of Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and Middle-East food just for a few dollars.

Argumentative essay about junk food in schools

While fast food topic is quite popular today, still, writing an academic research paper, you shouldn’t let your emotions getting away with you. Your personal opinion and emotional approach are good for another kind of essay, which we will be talking about in the following sections. Meanwhile, it’s time to discuss what is so special about writing an argumentative essay about junk food in schools, and what you should do to make it the most appealing for a professor.

First and foremost, you should remember to maintain a rational approach to your subject. It is extremely important to keep the informational balance of both your arguments and counter-arguments; otherwise, it’s quite simple to get blown away by the most popular notion that fast food is simply unhealthy and then continue writing your essay based on that argument as an axiom that doesn’t need proving. However, simply a negative view of this topic cannot be considered the ultimate truth. When you are writing an academic assignment, you are acting as a scientist that explores the nature of things and makes their own conclusions on the basis of all the data and knowledge. All the info stated above might sound difficult at first, but when you look at this technique more closely, you will notice that performing this kind of research along with gathering the documentation as a proof of your assumptions from the trusted academic sources actually sounds like a very interesting way to work on an argumentative essay on fast food consumption.

When outlining your argumentative essay, you should also remember to put forth the strongest argument right in the first body paragraph. As you move on through your topic, keep uncovering the details about the ideas that you want to discuss in your paper, such as should junk food be banned in schools essay. According to the academic rules that define what an argumentative essay is, it should necessarily contain a tension of the argument. What do we mean by this? You can simply put together the opposing views right after another and discuss what evidence overweight the argument, thus making a point that proves your thesis statement. For example, the opposing view on the subject due to the previously stated example topic could be the essay about why schools should serve fast food options.

As you can clearly see now, here, you can explore both benefits and hazards of fast food being sold in schools. It would be extremely relevant to support your opinion on one or another argument by discussing the real examples. What happened to the schools that have already banned fast foods? Do they have statistics about the health of pupils learning in those schools? Do they run the promotional campaigns of encouraging kids to maintain a healthy diet, and if yes, do they work? See, here you can find a whole large field of investigation that is engaging and relevant for every student.

While writing about fast food selling in schools, it would also be valid to explore the topic in order to write children and fast food essay because particularly the younger generation is targeted by global brands marketing campaigns of junk food. The famous TV presenter, blogger, and cook Jamie Oliver runs a whole social media campaign against that tendency, which is called #IAdEnough, which you might also want to mention in your paper. It’s important to mention, though, that Jamie Oliver doesn’t argue against fast food promotional campaigns in general; he only insists that they should not be targeted at children and teenagers since they are more vulnerable and prone to copying the behavior shown in the advertisement.

Having said that, your thesis statement of a good argumentative essay could also focus on the questions that you could explore in an essay on effects of fast food on our new generation. Picture the societal advantages and challenges of our times and how they affect the choice of food for the younger audience. Of course, the global development of pocket-size smart devices, the Internet, and social media affects modern culture greatly. The overflow of various unfiltered information going through all of these sources makes it even harder for modern kids to make conscious decisions about what they want and what they really need. 

When looking at all these social tendencies globally, you may shape the argument of essay writing on fast food towards finding the root cause for the problem of the overly high popularity of fast food in the market of the younger generation. You might also propose solutions to this problem. For example, why not making healthy food also cheap and quick to cook, as well as incredibly tasty and visually appealing? 

Research paper on fast food

While an argumentative essay on any topic requires putting together two opposing points of view and make your own reasonable conclusions as a result of that exploration and comparison, when you are writing a research paper on fast food, you want to apply a slightly different approach. The main point to remember here is that the research paper doesn’t concentrate on the single one point of an argument, nor does it consider only one polarity view to be ultimately outweighing another. When writing this kind of an academic assignment, you want to focus on analyzing the problem that you pose in your thesis statement from various points of view, considering different facts and evidence along the way. The aim of the research paper is rather rationalizing on a particular subject than trying to convince or to discern certain ideas.

The first thing that you need to do while working on a fast food and obesity research paper is to carefully gather all the possible references on your topic that you can find. We know it is the most comfortable to look for them online, but at the same time, try to do something that’ll make you stand out of the crowd. For example, go to your university or public library. You will be surprised how much useful information is presented in the sources you find there.

However, if you are still looking for some fast food research paper topics, it is not necessarily to look among research papers that you see all around on the Internet. In order to sound original, try to look for scientific articles on fast food, as well as some popular media resources that cover the topic of junk food consumption effects. Often, these articles contain a lot of useful information given in quite a short form. When you know all the thesis sentences and claims that it covers, you can note them and then develop these ideas and use the given data throughout your research paper.

After you have collected all the data that will support your train of thought, you need to organize your facts and quotes by certain criteria. You decide what criteria will be the most significant for you. Anyway, it should reveal the idea of your thesis statement. You could also make notes along the way that will appear useful when you will write the body paragraphs. After you’ve done all that, it’s time to plan and write down the fast food research paper outline. This could be a simple topic phrase outline or a more advanced annotated outline with whole topic sentences. Whether you should choose the first or the second one, it depends on your academic level and requirements of the teacher.

Research essay about fast food

Another kind of academic assignment that you might be asked to write is a research essay about fast food. You might be wondering how this is different from all the other kinds of academic papers. Well, the specific requirements really differ from one university, college, or school to another. To know exactly what rules and norms of formatting, what style and scientific approach you should abide by, ask your professor. And of course, don’t forget to visit lectures on a regular basis.

Moreover, a research essay is different from, for example, a persuasive essay on why fast food is bad in the way that you want to prove and explain your thesis statement. In the first case, you perform extensive research of various credible sources on your topic and then analyze it in a rational and logical kind of way. Of course, all these principles you also apply in your persuasive essay about fast food, but that is slightly different. In the last case, you apply more of the emotional and moral evidence. Persuasive essays are pushier; they are designed to convince your audience to agree with your point of view on the subject that you are talking about.

Persuasive essays that require less of a logical approach and designed to assess mostly your ability for critical thinking are also called something like the opinion essay about fast food. When writing this, don’t forget that you shouldn’t be blown away by your emotions. Your ideas also shouldn’t be left without the support of relevant references in case you have a more advanced academic level. Yes, this is all about your opinion, but it also suggests that you have carefully researched the given topic before writing about it and not just reflected on something you know little or nothing about. The same goes for the fast food discussion essay. Here, you want to discuss various, often controversial points of view on the given subject, not relying much on your personal opinion.

Fast food essay outline

In order to get the best grade, you might start your work on the essay, looking for the catchy essay titles for the topic of the popularity of fast food restaurants. However, this approach might not always be the best idea to employ for writing an academic assignment. First off, what the excellent student really wants is crafting a relevant, strong, and persuasive fast food thesis statement that will lead them all along the way of writing the paper. A perfectly posed question can do miracles with your assignment. It will be so easy to write down paragraph by paragraph if you know for sure how you are going to deploy your topic.

You might not want to spend some considerable amount of time on shaping the perfect thesis statement, but you got to trust us, it’s definitely worth the hassle. Don’t be afraid to alter it on the way, for example, as you do your research, you get to know more and more important data and evidence about the subject. When you feel that you’ve done all these things right, it’s time to move on to the next step. And that is writing the fast food essay outline. You may be wondering how the perfect outline actually looks like. If you type in the search engine of your browser when starting to work on your fast food argumentative essay sample, the sample essays that you find might contain some advanced and long outlines. It looks professional, maybe even too much. Your task is creating a short and concise outline that can be accepted by your professor.

However, even the outline doesn’t have as much influence on your eventual grade as the fast food essay introduction. This part is the first page or two that the professor will read, and of course, he or she will memorize it the most at the end of the day when going through dozens of similar essays like yours. It may also be the main reference point if you have to stand out in front of the class and defend your point discussed in your essay. By the way, one more tip for you: competitive and engaging fast food essay hook makes the perfect introduction. It might take some time to think about mainly because the topic of junk food is largely addressed.

To find a perfectly new and fresh attention grabber for essays on effects of fast food persuasive essay, we recommend you look up the popular social activists and bloggers forums, websites, and groups in social media. This might not be the most reliable source of information to state in a reference page, but you need it for other reasons. Namely, for finding the newest and the most accurate information to hook the audience of your fast food persuasive essay. For example, one of the recent blog posts of the healthy diet community claimed that obesity kills more people annually than dictators and political regimes in the times of World War II. Does it sound shocking and attention-grabbing? For sure! And that is exactly what you are looking for when thinking how to write a persuasive essay introduction on fast food linked to obesity. After you have found this perfectly challenging hook statement and shaped your thesis statement in the proper way, don’t rush to finish your introduction right away. Wait for a few hours and even days so you can go back to it with fresh ideas and maybe alter it to perfection.

What is no less important for a good essay grade apart from the introduction is also a conclusion for a fast food essay. The first thing that you need to remember is that rephrasing all the arguments from your essay is not simply rewriting it. Strive for pointing out all the major turning points while thinking of your thesis statement as a proven fact. Thus, your conclusion will sound strong and persuasive. The next thing that you definitely want to do is finish your essay with a persuasive clincher phrase that encourages the further exploration of your essay topic.

Fast food essay topics

Given that writing about fast food consumption and its long-term effects on human health became a common thing to do for students at most of the universities across the world, it is fair to say that most of these essays include almost the same information. The facts about the link between fast-food restaurants density and health issues of people living nearby, the consequences of overconsumption of trans fats, sodium, and salts in fast food - all these data and statistics are surely known by your professors since they might have read it thousand times before. So, what should you do to really stand out and to gain the best grade in your class? We have the right answer! What you need to think of in the first place is picking some fresh and new topics for fast food essay. Do you think that there is not much place for creativity? We will prove to you in this section that there are lots of areas in the fast-food exploration field that haven’t been largely discussed by the scholar audience.

As we already mentioned in the previous sections, a good way in which you could start your exploration is the essay about how fast food places use kids to market their brand. Indeed, this is a global problem that requires spreading the carefully researched data and academic knowledge. As a result, you might contribute to the healthier development of our younger generations. Just think about all those toys in the food kits and children menu options in the fast-food restaurants that you know. The imagery that they use are is highly appealing to the younger audience. Meanwhile, due to the tremendous amounts of information that appears online and in advertising (oftentimes hidden in social media context), the unfiltered advertising portions process through our brains without much resistance. We almost subconsciously assume, without even giving it a second thought or doubt that a highly sweetened carbonated beverage is associated with happiness while chilling with your friends and family. We associate burgers with socializing and having a good time. Thus, the advertising is targeted directly at young and unprotected by media literacy and awareness minds.

The next paper you may want to work on is the causes and effects of the popularity of fast food restaurants essay. Here, you should employ a classic academic structure of the paper that requires a binary approach, i.e., you have to look both at causes of this problem and its direct consequences, also known as effects. In this regard, you should watch carefully to maintain a perfectly logical order and reasoning. To be completely sure about the links between certain facts and data and your comments on its consequences, look through the list of the most common logical fallacies in order to stay away from things like wrong reasoning or the ‘straw man’ effect. The cause and effect essay can have a few different kinds of structure to begin with. The first and most common type is the chain of causes and effects. In cases when you are working on one little write-up like an addiction to fast food essay, you can use only one to three causes and effects. For example, the regular habit of eating out causes the risk of obesity. The chain of causes and effects would look like a more expanded view of this general cause and effect link: the regular consumption of fast food delivers too many calories and too little nutrition, which causes an unsatisfied desire to eat more, and overeating, in its turn, provokes bad digestion and obesity as a result of it. That would be the chain of causes and effects.

The next type of causation and consequences linkage could also be deployed in a why is fast food bad for us and we keep going back essay. You could have a structure like this. Either there could be one cause and many effects, or it could be many causes that lead to one effect. Basically, here you can find a lot of similar features with the induction and deduction processes. If talking about examples, regular eating out at fast-food restaurants could be the one cause that provokes many long-term effects associated with health risks like obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and so on. Don’t forget to keep an eye on the latest researches in this field to possess the newest information that hasn’t been disproved by scholars recently.

The next structure that we are going to talk about is many causes that lead to one effect. For example, you are writing a should fast food be served with warning labels essay. You can include here many causes that lead to the overconsumption of fast food. That could be the lack of attention to the nutrition labels, the lack of knowledge about what those labels mean or how to count your daily calories, and which amount could be considered the optimal if thinking individually. There are many causes why we don’t care about what is written on those labels. There is also a number of reasons why they could be considered ineffective for reducing the health risks linked with fast food consumption. The labels might contain deceptive or improperly stated information, or they could be confused with advertising labels (like low-calorie, eco, natural, no gluten labels that potentially hide lots of sugars and other chemicals in the same product).

You can also go in the opposite direction in your research. Instead of focusing on the fast food hazards, explore why it became so popular and why so many people from various societal groups prefer eating fast food over other healthier options at full-serving restaurants. This could be examined in a convenience of fast food essay. Similarly, you can also explore both short-term and long-term consequences that the fast-food culture has for people of your country or in the world. You can also discuss the medical and health issues as a direct consequence of the regular fast food consumption and think about how the fast-food culture affects people regarding other social spheres in the effects fast food has on society essay.

Another interesting field for exploration is a comparison of opposing phenomena. They are easy to find in a topic that you are currently working on. Fast food is largely regarded as the opposite of a healthy diet. It is also being polarized to homemade meals. You could discuss the relations between one or a few of these opposing subjects in the fast food vs home cooked meals contrast and comparison essay. Just remember not to paint the fast food all black because this contrast could not be as obvious as you could think at first. For instance, I personally know a few families that cooked their meals only at home. They had lots of fried foods with an enormous amount of fats and carcinogens. Of course, as a result, all the family had an obesity problem, high blood pressure, and heart diseases.

Since the consumption of fast food has a huge impact on society in general, many students and professors tend to look at it from a political point of view. They try to assume and explore whether it would be effective to solve the problem on a governmental level. As a result, questions like the tax regulation of fast-food brands often arise these days. If you like to think of politics, you could pick a “should the government regulate fast food” essay topic. Remember to maintain a balanced approach and to discuss opposing points of view with a rational critical thinking attitude. It would be easier, if you know how to write a critical thinking essay. For example, you may tell about soda tax, which is a tax designed to reduce the consumption of drinks with added sugar. This tax became a matter of public debate in many countries, and beverage producers like Coca-Cola often oppose it.

Often, if you write a persuasive essay, you would be interested in what are people talking about fast food in advertising, political speeches, editorials, newspapers, forums, and blogs. This is exactly the reason why professors and teachers choose contemporary topics for you to discuss, like the dark side of fast food essay. To write this kind of a persuasive essay the best way possible, try to think of yourself as a journalist or a lawyer that fights for a certain opinion to be widely considered. Pick the side you wish to advocate and stand for at all means. The next essential thing to know is your audience. Are they opposing your viewpoint, inclined to favor your side, or still undecided? Depending on that, you would structure your essay.

We could talk for hours about the various ideas for fast food essay topics, but your creativity could do this job even better. The most important thing to do when writing an academic essay is to show your personal approach to the topic and the ability to think critically. Of course, your essay should be adjusted to all the rules and norms of the university formatting, but that is not the main thing that professors usually assess when deciding on what grade to give to some particular essay writing.

So now you know how to approach such a broad and burning topic. We really hope that with the help of our guidelines, you will get the best mark possible. Good luck!

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Fast Food Ethics Essay

However, people’s action to sue fast food companies seems hardly sensible, because their foods are not poisoned, spoilt, or molded. Although their foods are far from healthy and their advertising tactics are extremely cunning, fast food restaurants are not the only one to blame for today’s rocketing rates of obesity-related health problems. It is entirely a person’s decision whether or not he or she chooses to eat fast foods. It is largely known that fast foods are junks for the body, yet people still buy them wanting a quick fix for their rumbling stomach. People can always avoid fast foods and make healthier options if they want to, and suing the fast food restaurants will not make them lose any weight or fat they have in their body. If …show more content…

Though utterly delicious, the foods they serve are totally unhealthy junk foods that are high in sugar, trans and saturated fat, simple carbohydrates, sodium, and a lot of hazardous chemicals which naturally make them enemies for our body. Fast food restaurants being everywhere makes it a number one choice for most people to get an easy and cheap meal, especially for those who live or work near the restaurants, without really caring about what kind of junk they are eating. Fast food companies also have unethical marketing techniques that target children, using promotional cartoon or movie-related toys to make children even more attracted to buy their products. Moreover, fast food restaurants selectively give nutritional information to their innocent customers, hiding the shocking facts that will make the customers recoil from buying their foods and refuse to come back ever again. Despite all of these, suing fast food companies doesn't feel quite right. Purchasing fast foods is entirely each individual’s decision, for no one is forcing them to buy those foods. They can always back away from and avoid junk food if they want to. Plus, suing fast food companies for making them overweight will not make them lose any fat, let alone escape obesity. Aside from overeating, there are several other factors that can make people obese, such as genetical factors, slow

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Reasons contributing to caesar barber's heart attack.

Some people say that fast food is just mouth watering but they don’t know that too much could lead you to a heart attack . Caesar Barber had a heart attack,after he gained 100 pounds he started weighing 300 pounds. It was all because of New York city’s McDonald’s, Burger king, Wendy’s and KFC which he went 4 or 5 times a week. Later on he sued Fast Foods restaurants which I thought was over the moon ridiculous. So I think it was Caesar barbers fault that he had his heart attack.

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Fast food restaurants to blame for america.

Fast food restaurants should not be held responsible for the health of Americans. It baffles me that so many people want to blame McDonalds for obesity when we as adults chose what we eat. I will be the first to admit that I am addicted to fast food and I know that I am overweight. I am to blame for that, not fast food restaurants. I am the one that decides to go out to eat, I am the one who decides what I order, and I am the one who physically eats the food.

Obesity Epidemic In America

While fast food is a major player in obesity, it is not solely the issue. “Obesity results from an imbalance between the amount of energy taken in, through eating and drinking, and the amount of energy spent on metabolism and physical activity” (Mandal). People in this world have free agency, which is the power to choose. We all make choices everyday. If a person chooses to eat fast food everyday, and not workout, then there choosing to get fat.

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Maus by art spiegelm literary analysis, how junk food can end obesity by david freedman.

Junk food is responsible for the growing rate of obesity. This is outlined by David freedman in his article of “How junk food can end obesity.” David Freedman has credited the “health-food” motion, and followers of it along with Michel Pollan. Freedman claims that if the America desires to stop the obesity epidemic, or at least reduce its effects, they must shift to the fast meals and processed meals enterprise for assist, now not the “health-food” movement.

Fast Food Catastrophe: Caesar Barber

Fast Food Catastrophe Caesar Barber ate at fast food restaurants 5 to 4 times a week he went to MCDonalds, Wendy 's And K.F.C.He did this because it was quote unquote “addictive”. From his eating habits he had a heart attack and how he dealt with it was drastic he sued the company 's for ruining his life. He sued the companies MCDonald 's Wendy 's and K.F.C I think it is his fault this is why. Fast food in not addictive like cigarettes are because fast food does not have the addictive chemicals.

Mcdonald's Supersize Me

during the test, Spurlock questioned random people whether or not they ate at mcdonalds. Most said they did. What was astonishing is that most of these people knew eating too much could be bad, but ultimately they ignored the fact. During the month Spurlock was asked to whether or not he wanted his meal supersized 9 times. Even though the lawsuit failed to have Mcdonald’s sued, Spurlock points out that much of the same criticism leveled against the tobacco companies applies to fast food franchises whose product is both physiologically addictive and physically

How Does Fast Food Affect Your Health

Fast food is an affordable and convenient way to fill yourself up when on the run. Although you shouldn 't feel guilty for an occasional indulgence, regularly eating fast food can seriously damage your health. Coupled with low nutritional value, the high fat, calorie and sodium content of these foods can lead to a variety of health problems. With statistical associations to weight gain, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular conditions and all-cause mortality, regularly eating fast food can be a dangerous thing. A typical fast food meal is extremely high in fat and calories.

Essay On Fast Food Warning Labels

There are very few downsides and very many upsides to why there should be fast food warning labels. Fast food warning labels will make it very convenient to know about fast food items; it will benefit the companies themselves; and finally, it will help reduce obesity, obesity-related illnesses, and health costs. Fast food warning Labels will help make it very convenient to know about what's in the food that fast food chains serve. To many people, reading the nutrition facts and the ingredients list may be difficult, as many times companies try to hide the cons of their food by making the print on the nutrition facts and ingredient lists very small, however some people were never taught about how to read nutrition facts and ingredient lists in the first place. In 2006, a study(The Nutrition Label

Argument Against Fast Food

Daniel Weintraub, in the article, “ The battle against fast food begins in the home”, claims that fast food companies are not to blame, instead it's the parents to blame for making their children obese. “Fast food companies have no fault in this overweight situation” says Weintraub. The author, which is Weintraub, supports his argument by explaining the data and research used to show that most studies focused on “ The increase consumption of fast food and soft drinks, larger portion sizes in restaurants, the availability of junk food on campus, advertising of junk food to children and their families, and the lack of constant physical education programs in the school”. The authors purpose is to inform readers that parents need to take responsibility, so that, their children stop blaming others for something that is happening in the home. The author writes in an informal tone for adults with children in the house.

Ethical Issues In Fast Food

Fast food companies have demolished competition throughout the last 30 years in the restaurant industry. The practices used to eliminate competition such as using unhealthy food to make a profit have been reported unethical by Americans, but it tends to be desired by the American society. According to the American Franchise Corporation, certified by TrustArc, fast food companies generate $570 billion annually in the United States ("Fast Food Industry Analysis"). These statistics continue to rise as more and more fast food companies become ubiquitous. As a result, fast food companies get richer, while people contract life-altering health effects.

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Should junk foods carry warning labels?

There is, of course, stuff we can chew and swallow that isn’t food. Play-Doh comes to mind. As does Silly Putty.

My thoughts turned to those substances, among others, when my friends at Time magazine asked me recently to opine on the suggestion that junk foods should carry warning labels. My first inclination was: No, that’s too much. But then it dawned on me: Is anything that is a legitimate candidate for a warning label a food in the first place?

I looked up the definition of food, and the first one I found was this: “Any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth.” That in turn implies that non-nutritious substances that, say, gum up our coronary arteries, pad our adipocytes, or rot our teeth might not qualify.

So, in some ways, a warning label on a food would be like a warning label on a computer that says: “Not to be used for computing.” So how can it be a computer? Or a label on a car indicating it is, “Not suitable for transportation.” Well, then — is it a car? You see where I’m going.

The suggestion about warning labels came at the World Health Organization’s 67 World Health Assembly. The case was made that  junk food is even more damaging to public health today than tobacco , and that  warning labels should be posted accordingly  on the implicated foods.

The argument that junk food (whatever, exactly, that is) does more damage globally than tobacco is far more defensible than it may at first seem.  As far back as 1993 , we knew that the combination of eating badly and lack of physical activity was just behind tobacco on the list of leading causes of premature death (and chronic disease) in the United States. When the analysis that produced that original list was repeated a  decade later , that gap had narrowed — due both to less smoking, and ongoing neglect of both feet and forks, with worsening epidemics of obesity and diabetes to show for it.

Related studies have been published with regularity ever since, showing  again  and  again  and  again , in populations around the globe — that eating badly and inactivity are exacting an enormous toll. Both have now been implicated among the  leading causes of premature death and chronic disease worldwide . So that case can be closed.

What, then, of warning labels?

Well, the  libertarians  among us, and that portion of libertarian in all of us, are likely inclined to balk. In fact, the  balking began  before ever the talking on the subject had concluded. The basic gist here is this: “Don’t tell me what to eat!” And, of course, resistance to intrusions by Big Brother inevitably invite slippery-slope paranoia: If the government can tell me what food I shouldn’t really eat, what’s to stop them from telling me what food I must eat? The next thing you know, breakfast is prescribed by the Feds and administered by military police.

I understand the objections. But I don’t think they hold up. And in fact, I want to make the case that a skull and crossbones on a package of “toaster pastries” or multicolored marshmallows masquerading as part of a complete breakfast (what part, I’ve always wondered?); or a day’s supply of sugar dissolved in caramel-colored liquid; or something that once resembled animal flesh that has now been processed into a concoction of meat, sugar, salt and carcinogens — does not go nearly far enough.

After all, we are talking about food. And food should be … well, food.

Tobacco is tobacco: There is no way around that. None of us has to smoke, and those of us who do are exposed to the intrinsic harms of tobacco. We deserve to know what those are, and how significant. This is really no different than providing just such information about pharmaceuticals. I doubt even the libertarians object to disclosures about the potential side effects of pharma’s offerings. In fact, I suspect the libertarians may feel particularly entitled to just such information.

Tobacco and alcohol are the same. They are drugs, albeit drugs used recreationally. They come with intrinsic dangers, and the consumer has a right to know about them.

One might argue to extend just such thinking to junk food, and thus counter the libertarian argument. Indeed, I think that could be done: being told what’s what is not being told what do to! We can be told what is in our food without being told what food to put in our mouths.

But as noted, I don’t think the “unless you want to die slowly and painfully, don’t eat this food!” label goes far enough. Because unlike tobacco or alcohol, or drugs used to treat disease,  food is supposed to be good for us , not bad. It is supposed to be sustenance, not sabotage.

We are, truly, what we eat — using the nutrient components of food to reconstruct ourselves from our molecules on up every day. Consider, in particular, that food is the one, only, literal construction material for the growing body of a child you love. How we ever got the notion that junk food – out of which we are growing our children — was cute, or innocent, I have no idea.

You can’t smoke tobacco and avoid tobacco. You can’t drink alcohol and avoid alcohol. But you can eat food and avoid junk. There is, in fact, an  impressive range of overall nutritional quality in almost every food category  — so we could abandon junk food altogether, and quickly learn not to miss it.

In my opinion, that’s what we should do. Despite thinking at first that warning labels might go too far, I wound up realizing they wouldn’t go nearly far enough. Junk should never have been glorified as a food group in the first place. So sure, let’s apply  some objective method  to determine what foods warrant a scarlet “J,” but then,  let’s eradicate them  — because they aren’t food. We can sell them for something else — like spackling, for instance. But food ought to be food, not junk. It’s silly to have “don’t buy this food” labels on food we keep selling as … food. If it warrants the warning, it really doesn’t qualify. There are alternative products that do in every case.

Which might, I suppose, put me at odds with the libertarians. What else is new.

But frankly, even they should object to the false advertising involved in marketing junk as food. Besides, they can still smoke and drink.

David L. Katz  is the founding director,  Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center . He is the author of  Disease-Proof: The Remarkable Truth About What Makes Us Well .

Image credit:  Shutterstock.com

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An opinion essay about fast food.

Look at the exam question and essay and do the exercises to improve your writing skills. 

Instructions

Do the preparation exercise first. Then read the text and do the other exercises.

Preparation

Check your understanding: matching

Check your vocabulary: gap fill, check your writing: multiple choice, worksheets and downloads.

Is fast food popular in your country? Do you think it causes health problems or any other kinds of problems?

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Fast Food Industry: Arguments for and Against Essay

Executive summary, introduction, managing expectations, managing perceptions, evaluations, list of references.

The fast food industry has experienced massive growth over the last one decade. Health experts have linked foods offered in this industry to the increasing lifestyle diseases. They argue that the industry subjects people to junk foods, causing serious health concerns in the society. Some members of the society have also associated fast food industry with a lot of social evils that make them believe that the industry should be strictly regulated through government policies. However, it is unfair to associate all the lifestyle diseases such as coronary complications and diabetes to the industry. Every type of food has its negative effects when it is consumed in large quantities. What needs to be done is to increase awareness campaigns about dangers of overconsumption of some types of food.

The role played by this industry is so vital that it would be unreasonable to propose punitive regulatory policies against it. There are those who depend a lot on this industry. Some people believe that they get maximum variety of foods they need from the fast food stores. A standard McDonald’s store will have a variety of meals to choose from, making them very popular with the youth. This industry is also known for its innovative nature. We need to promote healthy eating among members of the society. When we visit fast food stores, we should ask for healthy foods that do not pose any health risks to us. It would be okay to take some of the delicacies such as fried chicken once in a while, but it should not form the basic dish in the daily menu.

Fast food industry has experienced a massive growth over the last two decades in various countries across the world. McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Burger King, and Domino’s Pizza are some of the leading fast food restaurants that have managed to expand their operations beyond their local market. However, there has been a raging debate about the benefits and negative consequences of this industry. The controversy has been on the health consequences of the industry against some of the benefits it offers. While a section of the society believes that this industry is very beneficial, especially to those who have limited time to prepare their own meals, another section has been complaining about some of the negative health consequences and financial impact this industry has on people.

The arguments against fast food industry are just as strong as the argument for it. It is important to analyze specific facts that are put forth by the group opposed to it, and those who are in support in order to determine the relevance of the industry (Carney 1995, p. 66). Basing our arguments on business ethics, this research will analyze benefits of this industry against the negative consequences it has on people.

In a piece of research, it is always important to be able to manage expectations of the audience in order to improve chances that they will accept the findings of the research. According to Schlosser (2012, p. 25), the society is highly diversified, and when approaching specific issues, people are likely to take sides based on their feelings about the issues. Their feelings will define their expectations. For instance, those who believe that fast food industry is beneficial to them and other members of the society will expect the findings of this research to be in support of their beliefs. On the other hand, those who are opposed to the industry will expect this report to give strong points that will be against the industry.

Each of the two sides has its own reasons why it takes a specific stand on the issue, and this must be respected. However, both sides must appreciate that in research work such as this one, there will be a need to take a stand based on the findings that will be made. The findings will form the basis of evidence that will advice whether the report will support or reject specific point of reasoning.

Different people have different perceptions towards fast food industry. There are those who believe a mention of fast food industry means such delicacies as fried chicken, hamburgers, hotdogs, and those other fancy foods that they enjoy taking along the city streets (Cate 2011, p. 69). This group therefore, associates this industry with fun, and it may be difficult to change their perception from this. It may be difficult to convince them that the fun they generate from such food may pose some threats to their health. On the other hand, there are those who believe that this industry is the main reason why countries like Qatar, the United States, and the United Kingdom is spending a lot in the health sector.

These extreme perceptions must be managed so that they can appreciate that in one way or the other, they may be wrong. Before getting into the evaluation of different scholarly opinions, it is strongly suggested that those who have strong beliefs over the issue should take a break and appreciate that they could be wrong. This way, it becomes easy to open a fair ground of debates over the issue.

Fast food industry has been in existence for some time now, and the recent statistics shows that it is expanding at an unprecedented rate. According to Jakle and Sculle (2002, p. 45), fast food stores have outmuscled conventional hotels that was popular before, both in the developing and developed countries. Hotels are currently considered a preserve for the rich, or those on tours. Despite massive campaigns by the medical fraternity and other members of society against fast foods, there have been no indications that people are willing to withdraw from eating such foods. They continue to ignore for reasons they believe are justifiable enough. It would be important to analyze specific reasons that make them support or denounce this industry.

Arguments for the Fast Food Industry

According to Smith (2006, p. 55), fast food industry is one of the fastest developing industries not only in the developed nations but also in the developing world. This scholar argues that for the last one decade, there has been over 70% growth of this industry worldwide. Travelers find it easy to pope into fast food stores, and so do those at work or in a picnic within the city or city suburbs. This research sought to identify specific benefits that people get from this industry, making it one of the most robust industries in many countries around the world. One of the reasons that have been cited as the reason for the growth of this industry is its convenience. In the current economy, most people find themselves working in town settings. As a result of the pressure that employers have on their employees, it becomes difficult for people to find time to rush home for lunch.

In some cases, some of these employees only have one hour or less to get their lunch. Scherer (2010, p. 53) says that ,it is during such breaks that these employees get some little time to address some personal issues, or complete some assignments that they were not able to do, just to ensure that they can beat their deadlines. For this group, what they need most is a convenient location that is near their offices, and can offer foods they need within the shortest time possible.

Such locations are definitely not hotels where they will have to wait for over 45 minutes for their meals to be ready. Fast foods offer a perfect solution to this group. With a list of foods that are always ready such as fried chicken and hamburgers, customers get to be served in less than five minutes. It would take them another five to ten munities to take such meals, and less than two minutes to pay the bill. This means that in less than twenty minutes, one would have taken lunch and would be ready to go back to their work stations (Emerson1979, p. 88). This is one of the main reasons why this industry has experienced tremendous growth.

According to Johansen (2012, p. 87), the friendly prices that fast foods offer must have been the main source of attraction, especially among the middle class people. With the ever increasing cost of living, people are looking for alternatives that would cost them less as compared to other alternatives. Smith (2012, p. 78) says that a meal that costs $ 180 in a standard hotel may probably cost $ 60 or $ 70 in some of the fast food outlets. The middle class is very sensitive about the cost they have to pay for various products. Such a massive difference in price would easily make them be drawn to fast food stores. Given the fact that they have to eat in such outlets for at least five times a week, they easily find it economical to eat at the fast food stores.

A section of the society believes that they get maximum variety of foods they need from the fast food stores. For instance, a standard McDonald’s store will have a variety of meals to choose from, making them very popular with the youth. This industry is also known for its innovative nature. While hotels tend to be conservative by preparing only those meals that are known to their customers, fast food outlets always try to bring something new into their menu. This way, they get to present a variety of meals to their customers. Some of these customers like the experience of having new types of food every time they visit these stores. This makes them anticipate for more new products on every visit they make. This has seen many people, especially the youth, flock in fast food stores.

The societal structure is changing, and some of the roles that were associated with a specific gender, have to be redefined in an environment where both parents are bread winners. The notion that women were supposed to take care of children and home, while men look for family bread is no longer in existence. Women are currently as active in the corporate world just as their male counterparts. They leave their houses in the morning, and come back in the evening as tired as their husbands. It becomes difficult for them to go to the kitchen and prepare meals for the family. Such families have found their solace in the fast food industry (Rosoman 2008, p. 97).

On their way home from work, they can easily walk into a fast food outlet and buy a complete meal for the entire family. This way, they do not have to subject themselves to a tedious task of preparing meals once they get home. Given the friendly pricing of most of the fast food stores, they find it easy to manage their budget easily, while still ensuring that every family member is pleased with the meals they get. Fast food stores have been viewed as a symbol of diversity that we currently have in our society.

The world has been turned into a global village, and it is easy to find people from various corners of the world staying within a small part of town within this country. Qatar, just like the United States, has been attracting many visitors from all parts of the world. With such diversity comes the need to have food outlets that will offer a variety of food products that would meet the diversified needs. Most of the hotels prefer sticking to specific types of food that are popular within a given region. However, giant fast food stores such McDonald’s will find it easy to prepare a variety of meals as long as there is a ready market for these foods.

This not only make such stores convenient for people, but they also act as forums where members of the society get to appreciate the diversity they have in the country. Such social forums encourage integrations among people of different cultural settings. This makes the industry an integral part of the society whose role goes beyond offering meals, but also fostering peace and unity among people from different cultural backgrounds.

Arguments against the Fast Food Industry

Fast food industry has been viewed as one of the leading health concerns in the current society. Some members of the society have also associated fast food industry with a lot of social evils that make them believe that the industry should be eliminated through government policies. It would be necessary to analyze some of the specific claims that have been made against this industry to determine if they are relevant.

According to Dalgleish (2006, p. 67), most of the foods offered in the fast food industry are associated with a series of health problem. The fast food industry offer junk food that many people prefer simply because of their tastes or the belief that they are cheap. The deep-fried chicken or meat, the hamburgers, and such other related foods are rich in calories. When taken regularly, such calories may accumulate in the body leading to serious health consequences.

Currently, the leading causes of death in the United States are the coronary related problems. Other lifestyle diseases such as diabetes are also on the rise. These diseases are directly related to the kind of meals we take, and that is why many health experts have associated them with the fast food outlets. Foods offered in these stores also pose other health problems to the innocent population (Duram 2010, p. 47). As the name suggest, most of the meals at such stores take very a short period of time to be prepared. For example, meat would be fried within the shortest period possible because of the large number of customers that have to be served.

This means that if that particular meat had some infections, then it would be easily consumed by people, a fact that puts their lives into a great danger. The main problem is that the victims do not appreciate that they are subject to some serious health problems that may affect their lifestyle. They know that these risks exist, but prefer to live in denial. This may require some interventions from the government to make the players in this industry comply with some of the standards that should be set by relevant governmental agencies on health.

Fast food industry is one of the strongest forces that lead to distortion of the traditional family structure. According to Hargreave and Hill (2001, p. 95), one of the most important moments in a family is during the meal time. It brings together all members of the family at a table, and this helps strengthen family ties. Members of the family may get to discuss other important matters after meals, and this helps in developing strong foundations for children. This way, children develop as responsible members of the society who appreciates social structures. Parents also get to understand their children, and the specific issues that may be affecting them in one way or the other.

Fast food stores are changing this attractive family structure. Parents now know that they can work till late hours, pass by a fast food outlet and buy food for the entire family. When they reach home late at night, children are always too sleepy to engage in any healthy discussion with their parents. They are forced at eat in a hurry so that they can go to bed. The parents also fail to get quality time for each other. They slowly get withdrawn from each other, and the feeling that they do not need each other starts developing in their minds. The man develops the feeling that he can do without the wife because some of the duties he expected her to address can be taken care of by these outlets. This explains why there is a consistent rise in the rates of divorce (Hayes & Laudan 2009, p. 83).

Most of the fast food stores have been associated with human rights abuse and total disregard to some of the labor laws. According to Torelli (2011, p. 77), the law defines that every American is entitled to work for 7-8 hours in a day. Any other extra hours must be treated as overtime, and such overtime must have higher remunerations. However, a recent study by Aaseng (2001, p. 68) shows that some of these fast food stores are not following this regulation. They subject their employees to poor working environment, and some are forced to be on duty for over 12 hours in a day. While some pretend to pay a little higher for the extra hours worked, most of these stores pay a flat rate even for the overtime that employees are subjected to work. In New York, there have been demonstrations by workers in this industry claiming that their rights are being violated.

In Qatar, things are not any different. Most of the fast food stores prefer employing people as casuals. They would lay them off when they realize that they have worked for them long enough to qualify for permanent employment, only to higher them latter as new employees. According to the report by Pendrys (2011, p. 96), this tactic is very common among the leading firms in this industry. In order to perfect this impunity, they have developed a strategy where their employees are paid per day. This is to confirm that they are treating these employees as casuals whose services are only needed at that moment they are within the firm. As Sacco and Schott (2011, p. 86) observe, poor pay that employees receive from their work is one of the reasons why there is social strife in parts of the society. Such cases as industrial actions have negative impact on the economy.

Some of these employees may even consider engaging in criminal acts to help them increase their income to supplement with what they get from these stores. The increasing numbers of people who visit hospital with lifestyle related diseases have overstretched capacities on most hospitals. This has lowered the quality of service delivered at such institutions.

It is clear from the discussion above that there are people who strongly believe that fast food industry is important in the normal developmental processes in our society. On the other hand, another section believes that fast food industry is associated with health problems and other social evils that make it an undesirable industry. These two factions have very strong reasons that make them believe in their stand. However, a review of both sides’ views reveals that there is some truth in what both sides say. It is a fact that some of the foods offered in the fast food outlets are junk, and therefore, pose serious health problems to the users.

These health problems not only affect the victims but also the government and public in general. When many people fall ill with some complex diseases such as heart problems, the government will be forced to spend a lot to take care of this population. Government expenditure on health sector has been increasing over the last one decade. This is closely related to the foods offered by this industry. As mentioned above, some of these foods pose serious health problems to those who consume them.

The government has the responsibility of ensuring that its citizens get access to quality medical care. Given the increasing number of those who visit hospitals with diseases related to their eating disorders, government facilities are overstretched. This makes it difficult to offer them quality healthcare. In the meantime, the number of people who will be working in the government or private institutions will be decreased. This in turn lowers the output level of the society. Ethically, this may be an unacceptable trend that this society may not tolerate.

On the other hand, it is also true that fast food stores have offered a cheap alternative to the middle class who are struggling to make ends meet. These food outlets are conveniently located along the streets, making it easy for the working class to have access to meals during lunch hours without much struggle. This industry has been very supportive to women who have gotten into the corporate world. They can now get ready meals for their families, lessening the burden of having to prepare meals on their own. In order to find a middle ground between these two contradicting arguments, there is need for a rational reasoning.

Everything when taken in excess has its negative consequences. The society needs awareness campaign to let them know the specific foods to eat in moderation to avoid any negative health consequences. This way, the society will know how to eat responsibly. When the demand for food classified as junk by medical experts reduces, these fast food stores will be forced to stock healthy foods.

Aaseng, N 2001, Business builders in fast food , Oliver Press, Minneapolis. Web.

Carney, G 1995, Fast food, stock cars, and rock ‘n’ roll: Place and space in American pop culture , Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham. Web.

Cate, A 2011, The fast food detox: The 14-day plan to help you eat clean and get lean , Cengage, New York. Web.

Dalgleish, S 2006, Fast food, Smart Apple Media, North Mankato. Web.

Duram, L 2010, Encyclopedia of organic, sustainable, and local food , Greenwood, Santa Barbara. Web.

Emerson, R 1979, Fast food: The endless shakeout , Lebhar-Friedman Books, New York. Web.

Hargreave, J & Hill, T 2001, Fast food Felicity , Nelson Thornes, Cheltenham. Web.

Hayes, D & Laudan, R 2009, Food and nutrition / editorial advisers, Dayle Hayes, Rachel Laudan , Marshall Cavendish Reference, New York. Web.

Jakle, J & Sculle, K 2002, Fast food: Roadside restaurants in the automobile age , Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. Web.

Johansen, L 2012, Fast food vindication: The story you haven’t been told , Murray Press, Los Angeles. Web.

Pendrys, E 2011, Memoirs of a fast food man , Authorhouse, New York. Web.

Rosoman, C 2008, Therapy To Go: Gourmet Fast Food Handouts for Working with Adult Clients , Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London. Web.

Sacco, P & Schott, J 2011, Fast food dating: Your 2 cents: over one thousand served! . DoctorZed Publishing, Adelaide. Web.

Scherer, L 2010, Fast food , Greenhaven Press, Detroit. Web.

Schlosser, E 2012, Fast food nation: The dark side of the all-American meal , Mariner, Boston. Web.

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Smith, A 2012, Fast food and junk food: An encyclopedia of what we love to eat , Greenwood, Santa Barbara. Web.

Torelli, S 2011, The fast-food kitchen , Harvest House Publishers, Eugene. Web.

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• Ideology of Fast Food Industry Development
• Fast Food Ban Necessity in Schools
• The economical aspects and different perspectives for fast food industry in Canada
• Fast Food's Main Detrimental Effects
• Schlosser's Articles
• Food and Its Influence on America
• Fast Food, Quick Problem Emergence, Rapid Addiction and Slow Recovery Process
• The Consequences of Fast Food

Food Warning Labels

People know what are they exactly they are eating? No because there is no warning labels in the food packages. Same may oppose my position. To argue that warning labels are necessary for fast food. It would cause consumers to think twice before they decide to eat fast food. However, my research has says warning labels should be on food and help people understands what they are eating. “Americans continue to face many challenges as they debater these important issues and aim to make the food supply as safe as possible”.

Warning labels should be including in food packages because they will help people take control of what they consume and food industries will have to provide healthier options. People will become more aware of what they are eating if there are labels on food packages. It would help them be more involved in what they eat. And with food labels they will be more educate know more about the facts on the nutrition label. In this book by Victoria Sherrow are a published author and an illustrator of children’s books and young adult books.

Some of the published credits of Victoria Sherrow include Jonas Salk: Beyond the Microscope (Makers of Modern Science), about food safety (2008) it touches on an issues how important is labeling laws. They say that currents laws give food product companies too much give discretion, in terms that what they are list and how they are listing it. One contentious area is involves labeling genetically modified the GM foods. Publication of the FDA stated that labeling is required for information that is material, to avoid false misleading statements (Sherrow 2008).

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This means that the food labeling is required for most prepared foods, such as breads, cereals, canned and frozen foods, snacks, desserts, drinks. Nutrition labeling for raw produce fruits and vegetables, fish is voluntary. We refer to these products as conventional foods. Because nutrition labeling in accordance with be provided upon request for any restaurant food or meal for which a nutrient content claim a health claim and permitted by a regulation in is made, except that information on the nutrient amounts.

Those are the basis for the claim determined by nutrient databases, cookbooks or by other reasonable bases that provide assurance that the food, meal meets the nutrient requirements for the claim. Because nutrition labeling may be in various forms including those provided in other reasonable means. My opposition may argue” It would be enormously impractical to label every genetically modified new crop and would falsely imply a difference in foods’ safety” (Sherrow 2008 p. 86).

While seems reasonable I argue that show food label product will help people to be healthier and not risk their own life of getting sick and not getting dangerous diseases. Without labels there is no need for industries create healthier food for people if they aren’t aware of what they are eating. It will lead to diseases don’t know what they are eating there plate. In this article by Marion Nestle she is the Paulette Goddard professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University.

She is author of food politics and with Malden Nesheim why calories count: From science to politics, which will be published in March. Nestle spoke to Nutrion Action’s Bonnie Liebman from New York (Nestle 2011 p. 10-11) touches on the legal issues of how the food industry influence what we eat. The food industry tries to influence us what to eat, but company lobbyists meet with officials in the federal agencies to make sure that the government does not say that people should be eating less of their food products (Nestle 2011).

The food environment wants us to eat unhealthy food, they controls the kinds of food are the intakes are better at getting people to eat more and not less. But they are also designed to make sure that you are not starving at all and that your brain has fuel and your body has energy all the time. Local and organic and seasonal foods are important because they give consumers a choice of you to represents an “explicit critique “of the existing food system. The mainstream companies are buying organic food companies.

Some of which sell organic, healthy sounding chips, cookies, sodas, but they are still sailing some other unhealthy junk food we eat. But also there not enough food to give to everyone in world but if everyone purchase a little more of organic food from farmers markets it would make a huge differences. Right now only a small fraction of the population is buying more organic foods with labels, also fraction are growing and the food industry needs growth for us to eat healthier. Adding a Nutrition information panel will guide buyers to choose healthier products to help eople avoid unhealthy diets. The food industry influences nutrition and health. In negative or positive way that depending if it has a food label Nestle Marion ascertains food producers and manufactures of dietary supplements convinced the public, and congress that their products did not need to be regulated by the a Food and the Drug Administration. Also questionable effects of “fortifying foods” considered junk food is that practice that promotes unhealthy eating more negative affect of the food industry are also examined. Children are also a prime target for food industry.

The producers know exactly what is going on with our food products and manufactures because they have seen it in person when pursues the food products. It the food companies should be involved in food and nutrition by putting labels on food packages. The professionals in marketing campaigns show encouraging by hiring experts’ consultants giving them research grants, providing support of food products and manufactures to emphasize the benefits or minimize of the potentially adverse effects of their products. They show you how dairy industries that took issue with the depiction on a healthy diet .

It should base on the plants foods and the limit of the amount of meat and dairy foods, are exposed. Putting food labels will causes industries to make healthier foods. Peter Shawn Taylor is currently editor at Large of Maclean’s magazine. He earned a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Alberta in 1989; and was senior analyst for the Alberta Liberal Caucus in the early 1990s under Liberal Leader Laurence Decore says taxation on junk food, warning labels on unhealthy foods is a good idea in order to assist consumers to eat healthy (Taylor 2013 p. 2). Today, it’s recently affecting the demanded new taxes on junk food and grotesque warning labels on pizza boxes, similar to the ones on cigarettes. Consequently, if the information on the nutritional quality of food is not provided to the public, people who consume unhealthy food products could be exposed to health risks. What is worse, they could face the difficulty of making the right decisions on choosing food products. The article describes in detail that food taxes can make people make the right choices with the food.

As for dark warnings, public-health worries that rising levels of obesity mean Canadian children will live shorter lives than their parents, however, the evidence to support such a claim simply does not exist. There are many people in the world who are dying of junk foods because they are so addicted to the fast food and can’t stop anymore. They are overweight and can’t do anything because they are too fat and then they are increasing their chances of getting diseases which is also risking their own lives. The call to action is to demand food labels on food products.

Consumer reports touch on legal issues of labels that tell people where beef comes from could be unhealthy for them. The labels help consumers become more informed of what choice to pick when it comes to food. There is an outbreak that of food contamination in a certain country that could help you avoid those food products. Consumers need evidence that there is maker of product called Pom. That is now required to provide two randomized that controlled human clinical trials to back to disease related claims. And this juice product helps supports claims that helps prevent heart diseases and prostate cancer.

That why this company appealing the decision of putting a labels this product for all the people that buys this juice product is good and health help you in getting any kind of diseases or some other sickness. Food labels will help us design a healthy diet . With all the information that I have collected about food labeling, all of them had negative thoughts about the legal standard terms. In conclusion, the newly resolved problem with the food labeling standard terms need to get more recognition because in the future consumers won’t have to fight any more for information to help them choose the foods they want and eat in a healthy diet. Food labels contain vital information, not misleading or untrue.

• Nestle, M. (2011, October). Buy Me! How the food industry influences what we eat. NutritionAction Health Letter, pp. 10-11.
• Reports, C. (2013, April 4). Where does your food come from? p6.
• Sherrow, V. (2008) Food Safety (Point/ Counterpoint). New York: Chelsea House.
• Taylor, P. S. (2013, 1 April). You can’t tax yourself thin. Canadian Business, pp. 22-22.

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