Fast Food Culture: Serving up Super Size Issues

An abundance of unhealthy, heavily advertised, low-cost food is what underlies the nation’s obesity crisis. We live in a fast paced society so of course fast food is a popular choice to keep up with the speed of the ever changing hectic schedules. Fast food is considered an essential part of national culture and is now comfortably an integral part of our lifestyles, irrespective of what part of the world we are in –fast food has gone worldwide.

 Slow down fast food:

With the array of fatty fast food outlets readily available to society it’s no wonder obesity is a growing concern in the UK with one of the contributing factors being diet. A major concern that has been raised is the idea that fast food is addictive. This belief has been featured in a number of newspapers provoking headlines such as ‘Fast food can be as addictive as hard drugs’. With this in mind we should be limiting the intake of these sugary, fatty treats and ensure we consume a balanced healthy diet. You may think you are safe when you opt for a salad from the many fast food eateries but even they can be full of unhealthy ingredients hidden in the dressing.

We all have guilty pleasures in life so why not fast food culture? Not surprisingly, McDonalds holds the title of being the best-known fast food brand in the world, with 30,000 restaurants in 120 countries and for many has come to symbolise the hopes and fears of the Americanisation of global culture. Today the fast food industry is at its peak. The business is considered to be profitable, since it doesn't require large income. Many fast food restaurants, such as McDonalds are now operating as franchisees. That means they use the image brand of a well-known company, which incorporates the reputation that is associated with this brand.

Regardless of whether or not fast food addiction is actually proven, we do know that people can change their food tastes and preferences if they choose to. As such people can choose to wean themselves off sugar just the same as enjoying semi-skimmed milk rather than full-fat milk. In this same way people can reduce the amount of fatty and sugary foods in their diets and increase fresh fruit and vegetables, and healthy carbohydrates and fats.

We often blame modern fast food culture for obesity due to the sheer amount of fatty and sugary foods out there, which results in people over eating. Nearly 90% of what we think of as taste is actually smells, so just the smell alone can entice us to consume the fast food on offer. Not only can we smell this fatty food we can also see it everywhere- posters, billboards and adverts both print based and TV based are constantly luring us with images of tasty food and promising us that we will ‘Eat Fresh’ at Subway, that ‘What you want is what you get’ at McDonalds, you can ‘Have it your way’ at Burger King and the food is ‘Finger Lickin Good’ at KFC.

 Eat in or take away?

Choosing the right meal for you can be tricky; there are many decisions that come with fast food such as large or super size? The problem with these decisions is that the choice to super size your meal is too easy, which many people find when saying ‘yes’ instead of ‘no’.

There are many impacts of these decisions which can have detrimental effects. The nations expanding waistline threatens to have a devastating impact on our public services such as ambulances being equipped with extra-wide stretchers and winches, taking up more space in the back of the ambulance. Social services are also feeling an impact as they face increased cost of caring for people with illnesses related to obesity, including arthritis and diabetes.  
 

There's no doubt that obesity is rising in the UK, but whether we can become addicted to sugar and fat - the key components of junk food - remains a matter of debate and how we deal with it is the real issue.

- K.J.N -