Fast Food Nation and How It Affected Eating and Shopping Habits - Coursework Example

Fast food nation Introduction As mentioned by Schlosser, fast food sector has widened chasm between poor and the rich and hastened the malling of nations landscape, the sector has fueled epidemic of obesity as well as propelled American culture of imperialism abroad. Schlosser has challenged me to reason more carefully when selecting the food that I consume. From my view, the facts of the book are disgusting in some ways and enlightening in others, some of the facts to me seems like propaganda and others sound material facts that could be verified in today’s market and living standards of people in America (Schlosser 54). As suggested by Schlosser, ‘we are what we consume’, from my own evaluation, my fast food expenditure is more than consumption on any other commodity including books, movies and other materials. Schlosser conducted a research on fast food and made conclusions that are relevant in what is observed in today’s eating habits and fast food (Luke 58). He has described how fast food industry has changed America into a fast food nation, reading his book does not leave the reader without reconsidering his/her eating and shopping habits.. This study explores the book on fast food nation written by Eric Schlosser with an aim to explore how his views have influenced my eating and shopping habits. The main aim of the study is to identify how fast food views as described by Schlosser has influenced my eating and purchasing decisions, how I consume it, whether I consumer more or less of organic or the natural foods, the ingredients I consider essential when purchasing food, whether I consume less processed or fully processed food. Discussion For a long time, I have highly consumed fast food; this has mainly been driven by the fact that the food’s taste is good. This has made me for long ignore or not even know the cocktail of various chemicals used to give the food taste and the grisly events involved in slaughterhouses that are most likely to put nasty taste to the burger and the beef. As mentioned by Schlosser my experience of buying and consuming fast food has reached routine level becoming unexceptionally mundane. The various risks or undesirable effects associated with fast food is now ignored and taken for granted, eating fast food has now become a social custom. Fast food industry began as a handful of hamburger and hot dogs in South California, today, fast food is served in stadiums, restaurants, zoos, schools, airports, and universities, in trains, on cruise, ships, supermarkets, petrol stations, hospital cafeterias, and aeroplanes (Schlosser 55). As mentioned by Schlosser, America is full of fast foods, be it home, schools or workplaces. Drawing from Schlosser’s view, I have realized that my pattern of eating habits has been determined largely by complex interplay of economic, social, and technological forces. Fast food industry has been central in transforming American’s diet, economy, workforce, landscape, and the popular culture. Fast food has also played a central role in spreading obesity, millions of people eat fast food on daily basis and do not give much thought to their eating habits, and most of the people are unaware of the consequences and other subtle ramifications that come with their fast food consumption. From Schlosser’s thoughts, I realized I used to give little or no consideration to the source of what I eat, how it has been made and how it is influencing the community around me, as long as such food is fasty. Schlosser has revealed the need to know what exactly lies beneath the happy, shinny surface of fast food transaction. Schlosser’s views are a little more practical since he ate lots of fast food during the research, which he conquers the fact that it tasted good and that taste is the key driver for consumers eating of fast foods (Schlosser, 2002). From the book’s reading I have been able to differentiate fast foods based on source and ingredients, I’m able to avoid most of the foods containing meat and too much sugar. According to the research conducted by Schlosser, the distinctive tastes of various fast food types from different fast food chains like McDonald and Russet Burbanks are evident. It rises not from the type of potatoes used, technology applied, or the equipments used in the restaurant but from the varying chemicals used by fast food chains and particularly the type of cooking oil used by the fast food stand. Before I read Schlosser’s book on fast food, it was evident that opening the freezer, the refrigerator and kitchen cupboards, more than 90% of the foods was fast foods and the look at labels on the stored foods meets the eye with phrases like ‘natural flavor’ or at times ‘artificial flavor’ for every ingredients list. However after learning that the good taste often rises from chemicals used to make fast food is a key factor that has seen great change in my shopping habits as well as raised consciousness in my eating habits. Today I’m keen on ingredients used to make fast food that I buy in case I have to consume it. Today I consume more of vegetables than proteins due to the fear of the dangers associated with fast food like obesity as mentioned by Schlosser (2001, p. 49). For instance, Schlosser has disclosed the way meat that is used in fast food is slaughtered and handled, the cattle are fattened in feed lots before being slaughtered, these cattle are fed with meats parts taken from other dead animals though naturally cows are vegetarians. Mingling of meat from many animals exposes it to e coli bacteria, as such, the meat taken from such places need thorough cooking to be safe. The danger is that most fast food chains employ teenagers who hardly understand or are hardly patient with such prolonged but recommended cooking. Such a view makes eating any type of fast food that has meat sound detestable. After reading the book, I have been avoiding eating hamburgers and any other types of fast foods that contain meat, I am currently consuming more salads, fewer deep fried items, and where I have to eat meat, I go for the broiled meat. In addition, most of these fast foods comprise of manmade additives that add taste to the processed foods. Initial purchase of these food items are driven by the appearance and packaging while subsequent purchases are often driven by taste. The realization of obese as a condition arising from eating habits has spread fear among most Americans, despite this, the fear is yet to be reflected in the purchasing and eating habits of consumers. However, his thoughts have seen change in my eating habits, today I consume less or no junk foods and less sugary foods, many Americans particularly the teenagers are driven by taste and are yet to realize the effects of their eating habits (Burros, 2006). Although it is difficult to stop eating fast food, at least I am now conscious of how frequent I eat fast food restricting myself to twice a week, I am also sensitive on the ingredients of these fast foods. I’m currently consuming a lot of vegetables and more often I’m cooking food from home to avoid the different junk foods that I used to buy from restaurants and food chains. Sensitization has also been done among social forums, schools and health centers and forums concerning the rising rate of obesity victims among Americans, this has seen regulations been imposed to check on what the fast food restaurants and chains are selling to schools (Schlosser 56). However, it is hard to control individual’s consumption of fast food in a nation that has purely adopted fast food as the normal meal for its people. This sensitization has challenged my eating habits, I hardly eat sugary things like biscuits and sodas, which formed my common foods in the past particularly for breakfast and lunch. Like many other Americans, the challenge is how to adapt to other foods that are deemed to be naturally flavored having been used to the artificial flavor used in fast foods. About 90% of Americans expenditure is on processed food, the freezing, dehydrating, and canning techniques used in these foods processing destroy much of the flavor. One of the things that Schlosser identified is that the flavor industry has however remained secretive and their precise formulas used in making flavors are not divulged (Schlosser 128). Such secrecy is deemed important in protecting the beloved brands and reputation of fast food chains, which wishes to have consumer believe that the flavors in their foods originate from their restaurant kitchens. Such knowledge has challenged me to avoid use of flavors in my food, I used to apply flavors in cooking rice but since such secretive information was revealed to me by Schlosser, I have been able to cook food using natural spices only and little or no flavor. An example of the firms in the flavor industry is New Jersey Turnpike, International Flavor, and Fragrance (IFF) that are world’s largest flavor companies running chemical plants and refineries. The secrecy of these flavor-manufacturing areas raises much doubt as to the healthy safety in use of the flavors they make. Schlosser argued that the good taste associated with fast foods arise from smell of gases that are released by the various chemical aromas. The fast foods are fully processed foods and they have been referred to as comfort foods since they add reassurance and pleasure but insensitive to health and safety. Fully processed food comprise of food additives like preservatives and flavor, which add destructive chemicals in our bodies. These food additives are not tested by consumers to attest how safe they are in our bodies (U.S. Food & Drug Administration, 2008). Contents like monosodium glutamate (MSG) cause nausea, headaches, drowsiness, breathing difficulties, chest pain, and rapid heartbeat and can lead to potential harm in our bodies (Ashurst 76). These processed foods offered by fast food chains comprise of aromas that are drawn from thousands of chemicals that determine the dominant flavor given by the foods, a good example is the roasted coffee that comprise of various chemicals, and these chemicals remove the natural flavor from coffee giving it an attractive aroma. Fully processed food have aroma that is often displayed in the packaging used. The other important thing to consider in processed food is the color additives that are often added to fast foods in small amounts as compared to the amounts of flavors added. Just like an eye shadow or lipstick, the role of food colors is to decorate food. Titanium dioxide is often used in processed sweets, icings, and frostings to brighten their color (Schlosser 124). Titanium dioxide is a common ingredient used in women cosmetics, oil paints, and in house paints. This versatile mineral is used in Wendy, McDonald, and Burger King to decorate salad dressings, soft drinks, sandwich buns, and chicken dishes. The ingredients included in the processed foods sold at fast food chains send a threat to consumer’s health and safety. Drawing from Schlosser’s discussion on fast food, the views show that less processed food is better for consumption than the fully processed foods. The views of Schlosser have challenged my sensitivity to the consumption of processed food. Consuming less processed food enables one to avoid the chemicals, flavors, and food colors that could be harmful to our bodies and our health, I cannot remember the last time I bought hamburger or even pizza, in most of the foods I buy from restaurants, I realize that I mostly eat less cooked vegetables like sukumawiki and cabbages and I hardly buy hamburgers. These types of foods may not be very tasty as compared with but I am learning to cope with the change. Today’s McDonald fast food is dubbed ‘natural flavor’, which is oddly mysterious phrase since the natural or artificial flavors are equally harmful to human health depending on the type (Luke 66). Schlosser has demonstrated that whatever the fast food packaging show as natural flavor may not be distinguished from the artificial flavors and that they are just the same chemicals but produced differently. As such, natural flavors are not necessarily purer or healthier than the artificial flavors. For instance, almond flavor or the benzaldehyde is derived from apricot and peach pits, which are natural sources but contains hydrogen cyanide, which is a deadly poison to human health, this sends a fearful approach to the use of flavors in food and has indeed made me stop buying flavors or consuming highly flavored food. Benzaldehyde can be obtained through different processes like mixing clove oil with banana flavor, through this process, hydrogen cyanide is eliminated. Schlosser’s view on natural or organic foods sensitizes us to be keen of the foods we consume indicating that some fast foods could be labeled as containing natural ingredients, which are more harmful than the artificially made ingredients (Schlosser 122). This explains why fast food chains like McDonald do not disclose their source for natural flavor that they add to French fries. Some of these fast food derive flavors from the most unexpected sources, for instance, Wendy’s grilled chicken and sandwich contain beef extracts while Burger King’s chicken breast patty comprise of natural smoke flavor that is bought from Red Arrow Company that specializes in production of smoke flavor that is added to barbecues and processed meats. The knowledge provided by Schlosser about these flavors has challenged my perception about flavors, today, what is displayed as natural flavor in the packaging is no longer a driver for my food-purchasing pattern. It is hard to differentiate natural foods and the organic foods offered by fast food chains and the only way to avoid the artificial flavors and the dangerous natural flavors is to cook food from home and particularly avoid certain foods like meat. While this kind of change has been challenging since I was used to the fast food from childhood, it is in the end rewarding since I am able to minimize health and safety challenges associated with the fully processed fast foods. Schlosser has also explored fast food industry and described most of the staff as teenagers and students who works on shifts; this gives the industry an attractive workforce and thus stands a better position to encourage more teenagers to consumer fast foods (Schlosser 80). Conclusion From the views of Schlosser, American has completely become a fast food nation; most of the people’s expenditures are on fast foods, which are owed to the pretty good tastes of fast foods. Schlosser has discussed the sources of the pretty god tastes of fast foods, which he says is owed to the chemicals used, the gas that these chemicals generate. He has also discussed the various food additives contained in fast foods demonstrating how safe or unsafe these additives are (MacGregor, 2006). One of the issues highlighted from his views is that natural or artificial flavors do not guarantee healthy use of flavors and both could have harmful health effects. He advocates for consumption of less fast foods owing to the capacity of these foods to cause diabetes. He also advocates for less processed foods as opposed to fully processed foods. His views have challenged consumers and sensitized them to consider the ingredients contained in foods before purchasing, following his views, consumers can alter their eating habits to more healthy eating. From Schlosser’s views, I have greatly changing my eating habits, I’m now consuming less junk foods due to fear of obesity, and less meat given the condition that fast food chain handles meat, I’m also able to avoid the fast foods given the chemicals used in the food additives used, which Schlosser has demonstrated as dangerous to consumers’ health. I have been able to shift to less processed food most of which I am cooking from home. I also think there is need for government to come in handy to regulate fast food industry so as to ensure that the health of consumers is not at risk. Works cited Ashurst, Philip R. Food Flavorings (3rd Edition), Gaithersburg (MD), Aspen Publishers, Inc., 1999. Print. Burros, Marian. Enhanced Meat' Means Your Steak Gets Watery Injection, Chicago Tribune 16 August 2006. Luke, Brian. Health and wellness journal. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011. MacGregor, Hilary. Latest food additive: Viruses, Los Angeles Times, August 28, 2006. Schloser, Eric. Fast Food Nation, 2002. Retrieved from: http://www.spiritouch.com/en/pdfs/fastfoodnation.pdf Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Perennia, 2001. Print. U.S. Food & Drug Administration, FDA Announces Final Rule Amending the Food Additive Regulations to Allow for the Irradiation of Fresh Iceberg Lettuce and Fresh Spinach, August 21, 2008. Whitehouse, Maureen. Soul-Full Eating: A Delicious Path to Higher Consciousness. New York: Soul-Full Eating, 2007. Print.+ Read More