Wednesday 9 October 2013

Fast Food

What is wrong with Fast Food and Should the Fast Food Companies Be Held Liable for Promoting Such a Product?

Author: Edi Purwanto 

            Fast food has become popular with all ages around the world recently. For instance, people in the USA spend more money on fast food than on entertainment. This is because chemists in large food companies make the flavour of fast food appealing by using a mixture of chemicals which influence flavours and smells as well as salt, sugar and fat. As Americans spend more money on fast food, almost 66% of them have become overweight, and annually, 300,000 of Americans die because of obesity(Manufacturing Fast Food Addiction 2007).Moreover, scientists claim that fast food could be as addictive as heroin, and people can bevery dependent on sugar and fat. Experts have done a lot of research into whether fast foods areunhealthy for people(Fast food 'as addictive as heroin 2003). Although some studies of fast food are flawed, the majority of studies support the idea that fast food has some problems. As a result, fast food companies should be responsible for promoting such a product.


            The first main finding of studies is that fast food contributes to people becoming overweight. Not only people in America but also people in Europe and Asia have become overweight. The WHO calls this “globesity” which has become a problem both in developed and undeveloped countries (Manufacturing Fast Food Addiction 2007).British expert’s states that the reason why fast food causes usto becomefat because itgoes around our body's natural hunger control systems (Salleh 2003).Professor Andrew Prentice from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and his colleague, Dr. Jebbdescribe that the amount of calories in a regular size fast food meal is one and a half times of calories in British food, and two and a half times the calories in African food (Salleh 2003).Another study shows similar results; The Medical Research Council conducted a study between two groups of volunteers which were provided very similar foods but different of calories. From this study, they found that despite people feeling that they are consuming a regular meal, obesity and weight gain may increase in people who consume a high calorie diet (Salleh 2003). Thus, there is clearly evidence that fast food makes people fat.
            The second main finding of the studies is that fast food is addictive. Researchers in the USA suggest that people have become very dependent on sugar and fat in fast food. Once they stopped consuming fast food, they could suffer from “cold turkey”; this term is used to describe the withdrawal effect from drugs. For instance, Dr John Hoebeland colleagues at Princeton University in New Jersey explained that rats fed a diet containing 25% sugar were thrown into a state of anxiety, chattering teeth and the shakes when the sugar was removed–these symptoms are also found in people who withdraw from nicotine or morphine. He believed that opioids or 'pleasure chemicals' in the brain are released because of high-fat foods (Fast food 'as addictive as heroin 2003).Furthermore, Ann Kelley, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin Medical Schooldescribes that there is a relation between the brain's pleasure chemicals and a craving for this kind of food. She said that simpletasty foods areadequate to adjust gene expression and people could be addicted to this food (Fast food 'as addictive as heroin 2003). In addition, Michael Schwartz, an endocrinologist at the University of Washington in Seattle explains that as our body’s fat increases, we lose our brains’ ability to respond to the leptin hormone. This hormone is normally released as a signal that we have to stop eating (Fast food can be addictive, 2003).Therefore, this is obviously evidence that fast food makes peoplebecoming addictive.
            However,some experts argue that fast food studies are flawed and further study is needed. Prof. Ian Caterson,an Australian obesity expert suggested more studies were needed to verify the interference of fast food with appetite management. There has been disagreement about the relationship between obesity and food content, but there are clearly other causes that make people fat such as “reduced fat foods”. Reduced fat foods are the food with its fat extracted, but the carbohydrates are preserved, so the energy is still high (Salleh 2003).In addition, consuming fast food may not cause addiction, but other factorscontribute to addiction such as a complex combination of substances, conditions and susceptible biology. Other experts explain that
                “Our brains have evolved to make food and sex pleasurable in order to spur survival. Drugs alter our desires and make us crave more by co-opting those systems. Arguing that food and sex are addictive because they affect the same brain circuits as a recreational drug is like claiming that humans are attracted to sex and sugar because they remindthem of drugs: utterly backwards (Szalavitz 2003)”.
Nonetheless, other experts disagree that studies are inadequate. Beside, fast food contains a variety of chemicals, high fat and sugar. Thus, while fast food studies are flawed, these studies have strong evidence.
            Finally, fast food companies should be responsible for promoting such a product because they do not provide nutrition and ingredients information in their products.Fast food companies add a variety of fats, gums, starches, emulsifiers, and stabilisers which are also used for confectionary, medicine and cleaning products as well.As a result, these substances make fast food becoming addictive (Manufacturing Fast Food Addiction 2007).Furthermore, fast food contains a high sugar and fat, so the number of obese people is increasearound the world.In addition, fast food companies sell dangerous products without giving the health cautions.Similar to the tobacco companies, fast food companies have to labeltheir products and share their money to the treatment of obesity (Fast food can be addictive 2003). Thus, fast food companies should be responsiblefor the negative effects from their products.
            In conclusion, fast food contains high fats and calories, and it also includes a variety of dangerous chemicals. As a result, they alterthe function of humans’ hormones and brain. These changescontribute to people having a lot of health problems such as addiction and obesity. Thus, fast food companies should be responsible for promoting such a product.

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