The Effects of Fast-Food Restaurants on Obesity and Children - Annotated Bibliography Example

The effects of fast food restaurants on obesity and children The effects of fast food restaurants on obesity and children There has been a serious discussion about the impacts of fast-food restaurants on childhood obesity. The fast-food effects have resulted into restrictions concerning the fast-food outlets and their contents near schools. Many researchers have proved the correlation between fast food and obesity. The research outcomes show that fast foods cause obesity to many individuals. The fast food commercials mainly target children because they are not aware of the consequences of their consumption. Their goal is to make the children addicts of fast foods for them to take such foods when they grow up. The studies also prove the effects of obesity on children. Some of the effects include lower school performances and future health problems. The paper contains an analysis of six different sources that talk about the impacts of the restaurants on obesity and children. Spurlock M. (201. Super size me. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-eRXuuH9AI Morgan Spurlock was very concerned about the prevalence of obesity in the United States. In the film, Spurlock wanted to study the effects of the fast food industries. He also intended to identify the upshots of fast-food commercials on children in the country. In his research, he examined the effects of McDonald foods on his health for about one month after an unsuccessful interview with the restaurant’s executives. The film director relied on only MacDonald’s foods for one month forcing him to take three meals daily. His weight increased at a very high rate within one month. He concluded that fast-food restaurants increase the rate of obesity. According to his observation, 1 in 4 individuals visit the fast food restaurants daily in America. Additionally, most of them eat French fries. He also discovered that a very high percentage of Americans are obese due to the current boost in the restaurants. Spurlock also said that childhood obesity could result into prevalence of diabetes in the future. According to him, among three children born in 2000s one of them may develop diabetes in the future. Huget, J. (2012). Kids get an eyeful of fast-food marketing. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/11/kids_get_an_eyeful_of_fast_foo.html According to Huget, children’s eating behaviors are affected by the fast-food restaurant commercials. The author asserts that the adverts are currently increasing. This was proved by the research conducted by Preschoolers between 2007 and 2009. The researchers discovered that the famous fast-food restaurants like McDonald, Burger King, and Subway increased their commercials by 21, 9, and 56 percent respectively. This has increased the rate of junk food usage by children. Furthermore, 84 percent of children of ages 2 and 11 ask their parents to take them to the fast food restaurants every week. The author believes that this has been the major cause of the increase in the proportion of obese individuals. Kessler, D. (2010). The End of Overeating: Taking control of the Insatiable American Appetite. Retrieved from http://asweetlife.org/feature/obesity-overeating-is-planned-and-designed-into-our-foods-2/ David Kessler (2010) emphasizes that fast foods cause overweight and obesity. He mentioned that twenty years before the year 2008, the weights of most Americans increased at a very high rate. This is because they used most of their food money on fast food restaurants. According to Kessler, fast foods are addictive. This is because sugar, salt, and fats, which are the main contents of the foods create craving by altering the normal brain pathways. Additionally, the fast food industries focus on making foods that are effortless to chew and ingest. This makes most children to like them. When the foods become easy to eat, people consume a lot of it without noticing it. This leads to overeating and obesity. Janet, Currie, Vigna, Stefano, Moretti, Enrico et al. (2009). The effect of fast food on Obesity and Weight Gain. Retrieved from http://emlab.berkeley.edu/~moretti/obesity.pdf Currie, Vigna and Moretti affirm that fast foods cause obesity. They think that children gain additional weight due to the consumption of fast foods compared to adults. Consequently, the increase in the number of the fast food restaurants currently has led to the elevated number of obese children. The authors conducted the study to examine the impacts of the fast food restaurants on obesity and children. They monitored the effects of altering the supply of the fast-food restaurants on the weights of about 3 million children and 3 million pregnant women within the same geographical area. They placed the restaurants 1 mile from schools and from the residential areas. Their study outcome showed that the availability of the restaurants near the schools increased the children’s weights by about 5.2 percent. However, it increased the weights of the pregnant women by only 1.6 percent. This implies that the restaurants affect children more than adults. Alviola, Pedro, Nyaga, Rodolfo, Thomsen, Michael et al. (2011). The effects of fast food restaurant on School-level obesity. Retrieved from http://agecon.unl.edu/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=d76da650-7f68-4790-a791-813d2dd004d3&groupId=2369805&.pdf Alviola, Nayga, Thomsen assert that children obesity is a serious health concern because of its economic consequences. Additionally, childhood obesity reduces their academic performances and their quality of life. They believe that fast-food restaurants increase the school-level obesity. To prove this fact, the researchers studied the correlations of the amount of restaurants at varied miles from the sampled public schools and the rate of obesity. The research outcomes showed that the level of obesity in schools depends on the nearness of the fast-food restaurants. The schools that had the fast-food restaurants placed a quarter a mile way had higher levels of obesity compared to other schools where the restaurants were placed more than a mile away. In addition, they discovered that the restaurants affect the children at the middle schools more that those of hire grades. Consequently, they concluded that the restaurant cause increase in obesity. Stanish, J. (2010). The obesity epidemic in America and the Responsibility of Big Food Manufactures. Retrieved from http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/320/the-obesity-epidemic-in-america-and-the-responsibility-of-big-food-manufacturers According to Stanish, many people in America are Obese. The author believes that fast food industries are to blame for this. The restaurants spend a lot in promoting their products. The besieged audiences for the commercials are children. For instance, McDonald has been accused many times of attracting children to their fast foods using their famous signatures such as play places and happy meals. The foods contain salts, as well as sugars that enhance obesity. Several food commercials children watch on televisions are for fast foods. Nutritionists claim that they should not be consumed in large quantities. There are very few commercials for fruits and vegetable, which should be taken in large quantities. Additionally, the fruits and vegetable commercials do not target children. People find it difficult to stop eating the fast foods since they are obtainable. Consequently, most people blame the industries for the higher levels of obesity among children. The author thinks that the fast food industries can act responsibly by reducing the amount of sugar, salt, and fats in their products. Additionally, they should stop airing the misleading commercials. Conclusion Fast food restaurants have contributed to the increase in obesity with children being the most affected individuals. Most research outcomes reveal that most Americans are becoming obese due to the increase in the number of fast food industries. This is because the industries sell foods that contain high amounts of sugar, salt, and fats. Additionally, the fast food commercials are increasing at a high rate with several of them targeting children. Researches show that obesity affects children in various ways. It leads to lower academic performances and poor health in future. According to study outcomes, obesity is a major constituent of diabetes. References Alviola, P., Nyaga, R., Thomsen, M. et al. (2011). The effects of fast-food restaurant on School-level obesity. Retrieved from http://agecon.unl.edu/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=d76da650-7f68-4790-a791- 813d2dd004d3&groupId=2369805&.pdf Huget, J. (2012). Kids get an eyeful of fast-food marketing. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/11/kids_get_an_eyeful_of_fast_foo. Html Janet, C., Vigna, S., Moretti, E. et al. (2009). The effect of fast food on Obesity and Weight Gain. Retrieved from http://emlab.berkeley.edu/~moretti/obesity.pdf Kessler, D. (2010). The End of Overeating: Taking control of the Insatiable American Appetite. Retrieved from http://asweetlife.org/feature/obesity-overeating-is-planned-and-designed-into-our- foods- 2/ Spurlock, M. (2012). Super size me. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-eRXuuH9AI Stanish, J. (2010). The obesity epidemic in America and the Responsibility of Big Food Manufactures. Retrieved from http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/320/the-obesity-epidemic-in-america-and-the- responsibility-of-big-food-manufacturers Read More