Fast Food, are we taking it too far by blaming fast food restaurants for obesity - Research Paper Example

? 3 May, Fast Food, Are we taking it too far by blaming fast food restaurants for obesity? When is it individual responsibility and when is it appropriate to place blame? With every passing day, more and more fast food companies that include but are not limited to KFC, and Burger King and most importantly, McDonald’s are being sued around the world (Dahm, Shows, and Samonte). They are accused of encouraging people to adopt poor eating habits which are causing obesity in people. More people are crossing the limit of normal weight and are gaining enough weight to be called obese. Obesity has become one of the primary health care issues in the contemporary age. “In May 2003, the US journal Health Affairs reported that in the US, the obesity health bill is estimated to be nearly USD 100 billion per year” (EIRIS 2). Also, people have become excessively conscious about the health care. This has generated an impulse among the people at large to begin propaganda against the fast food companies. Obsessed with the lack of self control, people tend to find an escape from their guilt by blaming the fast food companies for their uncontrolled eating habits. Opponents of the fast food industry tend to compare fast food to cigarettes, saying that smoking one cigarette pack a day is not more harmful for health than eating three big macs a day. “The concept of “Big Food” litigation [was] crafted along the line of “Big Tobacco” litigation” (Crawford and Jeffery 272). Cigarettes and fast food deteriorate health in their own respective ways, and there is nothing untrue about it. However, cigarettes are a means of consumption of smoke whereas food is fundamentally a source of nutrition, no matter how fatty that may be. Overeating can always cause obesity, whether or not fast food is consumed. If three big macs are to be equalized to one pack of cigarettes, this is no reason to sue the fast food companies because they never ask their customers to consume three big macs in a single day. It is up to the customers what they eat and how much they eat. Cigarettes are totally the pollutants for lungs whereas fast food is also rich in proteins and carbohydrates in addition to fats. If any food that contains fat and carbohydrate is to be blamed for obesity, health conscious people should resort to taking protein tablets and eat nothing, because anything they would eat would have some proportion of fat and carbohydrates in their contents. After all, it is the nature’s decision, and is so because fats and carbohydrates are necessary for health, though if consumers can not keep themselves from overeating, it is they who should be sued instead of the fast food companies. Robert Sweet, the US District Judge rightly said, “If consumers know (or reasonably should know) the potential ill health effects of eating at McDonald's, they cannot blame McDonald's if they, nonetheless, choose to satiate their appetite with a surfeit of supersized McDonald's products” (Sweet cited in Collins). In order to get to the root cause of the problem, it is useful to find out what has stimulated fast food companies to sell food rich in fat. Fat happens to be the most typical source of taste in any kind of food. Take a piece of bread and eat it, it won’t taste good enough. Application of a spoonful of butter or cheese on it would enhance its taste manifolds. Even in homes, people frequently make use of dairy products rich in fat content like cottage cheese, butter, cream and milk. In fact, there are many obese people who do not at all go to the fast food restaurants. Many people are genetically obese. Two children, who are brought up in similar circumstances, are of same age and consume same food can not be expected to have the same body mass index. One might be very skinny and the other might be obese. It is the way an individual’s body reacts to the food consumed that makes a difference. Many people remain on diet 24/7 and are yet obese. Yet there are others who feed on fats and the body does not retain a bit of it. Fatty foods are all around us. They are in candies, toffees, biscuits, chocolates, pastries, patties, pizzas, cheese sandwiches, beverages, sweets and French fries. If fast food companies are to be sued in any case, they should not be sued alone! Along with them, all ice cream and donut making companies should be banned (Alexdry). Not just that, potato fields should be ruined because they are the main source of fat in fast food companies. Why just ban processed potatoes, why not ban raw potatoes? Obviously, no one can eat raw potatoes. When they will be fried, they will become a necessary item of fast food menu. Therefore, it would be quite unreasonable to let people be affected by fast food items made at home when they are being banned outside. If one wants to be so critical and possessive about the intake of only right kinds of nutrients, one should only resort to fresh fruits and vegetables. Nonetheless, a vast majority of people in the society would not like to be left with only fresh fruits and vegetables to eat. An in-depth analysis of the matter suggests that suing fast food companies does not make sense in any way. People should instead correct their own eating habits. They should rarely visit fast food restaurants and when they do, they should not take it as an opportunity to have all the meals of lifetime in one go. Health conscious people should be very selective in their selection of menu when they go to fast food restaurants. Customers have option whether to get a simple chicken burger, or a chicken burger with cheese. Obviously, the former is less detrimental to health as compared to the latter because the added cheese enriches the burger with fat consuming which, the customer may gain weight. Likewise, while selecting the salad, health conscious customers should go for pickled vegetables or corn salads instead of rich creamy fruit salads. After all, it is an individual’s choice that matters and plays a decisive role in determining his/her body mass index in addition to genetic factors. “…people have to know that McDonald’s food is fattening and if you eat it all the time you will most likely get fat. I’m a proponent of personal responsibility…” (Leah cited in Thomson 14). We choose what we are going to eat Consuming the right kind of food is an individual’s responsibility and it should not be shared with the fast food companies. The Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act made by the US House of Representatives in 2004, also known as the Cheese-burger Bill, was particularly introduced to prevent people from filing cases against fast food restaurants on the grounds of obesity (Lusted 34). Fast food companies can be blamed if the food they provide customers with is unhealthy or unhygienic in any way. For example, if mice are spotted running in the kitchens, if a burger sandwiches a cockroach along with the meat fillet, if the food given is rotten and smells foul, or if the service is biased and customers are treated with racism, then it is quite sensible to place blame upon the concerned fast food company. Once, “McDonald’s was sued for having beef products in French fries, after claiming no such products were present” (Brownell and Horgen 277). This was fairly reasonable to sue McDonald’s for this. No fast food restaurant has a right to feed its customers stuff that they do not want to consume. However, in a vast majority of cases, famous fast food restaurants are too particular about the health and safety concerns of their business and ensure that their kitchens are clean, food is fresh and the service is unbiased. In fact, fast food restaurants sell so much on daily basis that hardly any food can rot! Suing fast food restaurants for encouraging people to eat more is a very unimpressive idea. Fast food companies do business just like any ice cream, toffee, chocolate or candy making company does. They see that the demand of market is tasty food made available to the public at a cheap rate. Fast food is an outcome of people’s fantasies for food. Fast food companies have been unnecessarily stereotyped for making people obese. This stereotyping has caused many fast food companies to fight many cases in their defense in the recent years. The practice of using litigation as a means to sue fast food companies is of no use at all. People don’t realize mistakes in themselves and tend to place the blame on these companies. A person gains weight because he/she eats more than is required, or does not exercise enough to convert all the fat into energy. Besides, obesity is a result of many genetic characteristics of an individual. It is very unfair to blame fast food for the obesity. Works Cited: Alexdry. “Are Fast Food Chains to Blame For the Obesity Pandemic?” 2011. Web. 3 May. 2011. . Brownell, Kelly D., and Horgen, Katherine B. Food fight: the inside story of the food industry, America's obesity crisis, and what can we do about it. USA: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004. Print. Collins, Dan. “McDonald's Wins Fat Fight.” 22 Jan. 2003. Web. 3 May. 2011. . Crawford, David, and Jeffery, Robert W. Obesity prevention and public health. Volume 13. NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print. Dahm, Molly J., Shows, Amy R., and Samonte, Aurelia V. “Eating Behaviors, Obesity, and Litigation: Should Casual-Food Restaurant Operators Heed the Warnings to their Fast-Food Counterparts?” Journal of Foodservice Business Research. Vol. 13. Issue 3. (2010): 217 – 236. Ethical Investment Research Services. “Obesity concerns in the food and beverage industry.” (2006): 1-18. Web. 3 May. 2011. . Lusted, Marcia A. Obesity and Food Policing. US: Abdo Consulting Group, Inc, 2008. Print. Thomson, Deborah M. “The Uneasy Student Body Performing Fat Suits.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. Vol. 5. No. 2. (2009): 1-19. Read More