The Impacts of Fast Foods on Obesity and Weight of College Students - Assignment Example

Table of Contents Chapter The impacts of fast foods on obesity and weight of college Chapter 2: Aims and objectives Aim Objectives: 2 Chapter 3: Hypothesis 2 Chapter 4: Introduction/Background Research 3 Chapter 5: Methodology 5 Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusion 6 Chapter 8: Bibliography 7 Chapter 1: The impacts of fast foods on obesity and weight of college students Chapter 2: Aims and objectives. Aim: The study aims at investigating how different levels of consumption of fast-foods can contribute to obesity and more weight in college students. Objectives: 1. To find out how proximity to fast food restaurants to their homes can contribute to their increase in weight. 2. To find out how proximity to restaurants restaurants to their homes can contribute to their increase in weight. 3. To estimate the relationship between intake of fast foods by college students, and Body Mass Weight (BMW). 4. To differences in the risk of obesity between the students who come from urban areas and those who come from the rural areas. Chapter 3: Hypothesis A higher proximity to a fast food restaurants contributes to a higher risk of obesity that a higher proximity to the regular restaurants. In addition, the rural students are more susceptible to obesity than their rural counterparts. Lastly, the BMW of the students who take a lot of fast food is higher than that of those who take less fast food. Chapter 4: Introduction/Background Research Fast food is the category of foods that is usually prepared and served very hurriedly. In most cases, this category of food is sold in restaurant that operates with precooked or preheated ingredients and mostly served as takeaways. These types of foods have been strongly criticized particularly die to issues of health. Many studies have, in fact, attributed the high level of overweight and obesity to these foods. This paper intends to look into the impact of fast foods on obesity and overweight, because these are health concerns that have originated very many diseases nowadays. Obesity is a medical condition whereby the body of an individual contains very high level of body fats to a level of occasioning adverse health impacts. When the body mass index (BMI) is greater than 30 kg/m2, a person is said to be suffering from obesity. Such a person is highly susceptible to diseases such as type II diabetes, heart diseases, osteoarthritis and certain types of cancers, among many others (Haslam and James, 2005). The fast spread of fast foods in restaurants has generated a lot of debate especially regarding the impact of such foods to the health of people. In fact, many nutritionist and health professionals have cautioned their clients against overconsumption of such foods as they claim their health risk can be massive (Abdollah, 2007; Mcbride, 2008; Mair et al. 2005). However, it is notable that the evidence that link fast food to obesity and gain in weight is not very convincing. Most of those who claim that it fast foods is responsible for obesity have conducted their research on very small samples hence narrowing the validity of their generalization. A recent study by Rosenheck (2008), on the relationship between fast foods and obesity, it was found that the results from observational studies have not been able to establish a link between obesity and fast foods. A couple of recent studies have paid attention to fast foods restaurant as possible contribute avenues of gaining weight (Philipson and Posner, 2008). Anderson and Matsa (2009) concentrate on the connection between obesity and feeding habits, whereby he related the presence of many restaurants around the highway in a rural area and the eating habits. However, they found no credible link between obesity and restaurants. Our study is however a bit different from that of Anderson and Matsa (2009) because we are going to use quite a large sample that will be more effective in identifying even the minutest effects. What’s more, we shall visit the exact location to identify the eating habits and the weight of our participants, unlike Anderson and Matsa, who used telephone for communication. Those who are opposed to fast foods maintain that these foods have several effects that is harmful to the compared compared to other types of foods (Spurlock, 2004; Schlosser, 2002). Most of the cited among these bodily harmful effects is their high content of calorie, which can lead to a myriad of diseases if consumed in high density. What’s more, their energy content is way above the average that is consumed for a dietary intake (Prentice and Jebb, 2003). In a study conducted by Ebbeling et al. (2004), on 26 obese and 28 lean adolescents, they found that obese adolescents had higher caloric intakes when examined during a day when they consumed fast foods, but none calorie was detected during the day when fast food was not taken. Some studies have noticed that the highly aggressive marketing people highly patronize the largest fast foods chains. An experiment carried out by Robinson et al. (2007), on young children; found that marketing customers preferred foods from McDonald fast food chain, than any other chain that sells other types of foods. In order to study the impact of exposure to fast foods on children and adolescents, Chou, Grossman, and Rashad (2004), applied National Longitudinal Surveys survey data. Chapter 5: Methodology This study will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies. As Gay (1996) explicates, quantitative and qualitative techniques presents corresponding aspects of the scientific study method, whereby the quantitative approaches are concerned with testing of hypothesis (primary deduction) while qualitative approaches are concerned with generating of hypothesis (primary induction). More so, the complementary use of qualitative and quantitative methodologies provides a better array of perspectives and insights and allows substantiation of the results by different methods of triangulation, which boosts the general validity of findings and improves the usefulness of the study. Nevertheless, Sekaran (2000) maintains that the investigation of accurately complementary techniques presents significant challenges too. These take account of additional human and financial-based additional costs, the need for respect for different epistemological positions and methodologies as well as teamwork. In order to carry out the investigations, a sample of 40 students from the campus was selected from our campus to participate in the study. Among them 20 were male students while 20 were female students. The selection criteria used was simple sampling method. Although Creswell (2007) criticizes this method of sampling on the grounds that the list of the population members must be available, it is preferred for this study because; according to Neuman (2003), all the students in the campus were accorded the same chances of being selected. Furthermore, I have chosen to carry out the study in my college such that it could be possible to obtain all the list of the participants I would like to include. To be included in the study, the participants had to meet 3 inclusion criteria, including: (1) should be in good health, (2) should be between 20 to 45 years of age, and (3) should not have been pregnant one year before joining the college. Following the effective selection of the participants, arrangements were made to measure their body mass index (BMI), after which they were requested to fill a questionnaire, which asked a variety of questions to examine their lifestyles. With respect to the arguments of Berg (1998), questionnaires will be used in this study because they have a number of advantages, including: (1) It is less expensive because it requires less financial and human resources; (2) Its use can ensure reach of many respondents; (3) The respondents get opportunity to think about how to answer the questions; (4) Since there is no face-to-face interaction, the respondents who would like to hide their identity will be encouraged to participate; and (5) The data is pre-coded and hence its analysis is quite easy. To ensure informed participation, Cone and Foster (2003) pointed out that it is critical to seek informed consent from the participants and also ensure their confidentiality. In this view, the researcher ensured that a clear informed and voluntary agreement was made with the participants. The kind of informed consent met specific requirements, including a statement that the study was about research, specification of any experimental procedures, a description of the procedures that was involved, an explanation of the purpose of the research, and details of the expected period of participants’ involvement (Weber, 1949). Chapter 6: Results In order to specifically determine the students’ patronage of fast-food restaurants while they retire to their home, the participants were asked to state the proximity of the nearest fast-food restaurant as well as the regular restaurants (in miles). The regular restaurants, in this case, are those that do not specialize in fast-foods - the results of this survey as shown in Table 1. Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusion Chapter 8: Bibliography Abdollah, T., 2007. A Strict Order for Fast Food, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 10, 2007, A-1. Anderson, M. and Matsa, D.A., 2009. Are Restaurants Really Supersizing America?. Mimeo, UC: Berkeley and Northwestern University. Berg, B., 1998. Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Chou, S., Grossman, M. and Saffer, H., 2004. An Economic Analysis of Adult Obesity: Results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Journal of Health Economics, 23 (3), pp. 565-587. Cone, J. and Foster, S., 2003. Dissertations and theses from start to finish: Psychology and related fields. Washington, DC: American Psychology Association. Creswell, J. W., 2005. Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating approaches (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Ebbeling, et al., 2004. Compensation for energy intake from last fast food among overweight and lean adolescents. JAMA, 291,pp. 2828-2833. Gay L.R., 1996. Educational Research. Competencies for Analysis and Application. 5th Edn. London: Merill Prentice Hall Haslam DW, James WP., 2005. Obesity. Lancet, 366 (9492), pp. 1197–209. Mair, J., Pierce, M. and Teret, S., 2005. The Use of Zoning to Restrict Fast Food Outlets: A Potential Strategy to Combat Obesity. London: The Center for Law and the Public’s Health at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities. Mcbride, S., 2008. “Exiling the Happy Meal,” Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2008. Neuman, W. L., 2003. Social research methods: Quantitative and qualitative Perenniel, January 2002. Philipson, T. and Posner, R., 2008. Economics of Obesity: A Decade of Research. Forthcoming Journal of Economic Literature. Prentice, A.M., Jebb. S.A. , 2003. Fast Foods, Energy Density, and Obesity: A Possible Mechanistic Link. Obesity Reviews, 4, pp.187-194. Robinson, et al., 2007. Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children’s Taste Preferences. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 161, pp. 792-797. Rosenheck, R., 2008. Fast Food Consumption and increased caloric intake: a systematic review of a trajectory towards weight gain and obesity risk. Obesity Reviews, pp.1-13. Schlosser, E., 2002. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal. Harper Educational and professional publisher. New York: Sage Sekaran, U., 2000. Research methods in business. New York: Hermitage Publishing Services sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Spurlock, M., 2004. “Super Size Me," Documentary Film 2004. Produced by The Con in association with Studio on Hudson. Weber, M., 1949. The methodology of the social sciences. (E. Shils, & H. Finch, Trans.). New York, NY: The Free Press. Read More