Fast Food Nation by Erick Schlosser - Essay Example

?Introduction In Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser posits that the world is getting fatter, and that this is correlated with the rise of fast food restaurants around the world. He also points out that fast food restaurants market to children to encourage brand loyalty, as children have no in-bred loyalties, so fast food chains see an opportunity to build loyalty from scratch with these children. As obesity has many consequences, and there is a definitive link between obesity and fast food, there needs to be a pushback against these restaurants. They should not be allowed to market to children, and they should be encouraged, if not forced, to reduce their portion sizes to adults. While adults have personal accountability, the restaurants share some of the blame for obese populations, due to their cynical use of ever-larger portion sizes. The following submission will investigate the link between fast food restaurants and childhood and adult obesity, and make some recommendations and conclusions about this link. It will also examine the concept of fast food imperialism, and argue why fast food restaurants probably do not have an effect on the overall culture of foreign countries. Discussion Schlosser states fast food companies are targeting children all over the world. He points to the fact that, in Australia, half of the nation’s nine and ten year olds believed in Ronald McDonald and also believed that Ronald was an expert on what children should eat. Ronald McDonald is also ubiquitous in Beijing, where the kids called him “Uncle McDonald” who is “funny, gentle, kind, and…he understood children’s hearts” (Schlosser, 2001, p. 231). The problem with this is that the rise of fast food can lead to childhood obesity. Childhood obesity, defined as having a BMI (Body Mass Index) of equal to or more than 95% of the population, is on the rise. (Krebs et al., 2007 at S194). This is problem that is global. For instance, in England the rate of childhood obesity tripled between the years of 1982 and 2003, while a third of Canadian children between the ages of 2 and 11 are overweight, with half that number considered obese. In Australia, children of either sex were twice as likely to be defined as overweight in 2000 as in 1985 (Nakaya, 2006, p. 45-46). A for adults, Cheng (2003) warns that China is experiencing an obesity epidemic in its children, which is linked to the rise in fast food there, as 27.8% of its children are now overweight, and that the number of obese male students in Beijing has doubled between the years 1990 and 2000 (Cheng, 2003, p. 773). Other diseases associated with obesity and fast food include hypertension, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome and Type II diabetes. Metabolic syndrome is partially caused by the presence of trans fats in one’s diet, which is linked back to fast food chains which use trans fats in making their food (Azadbakht & Esmaillzadeh, 2008, p. 2). Obesity is not the only issue which was covered by Schlosser in this chapter, for another focus in that of fast food imperialism. Fast food restaurants in countries around the world is bringing the Western sensibility to these countries, which can be considered to be a kind of imperialism, and this is the next point that Schlosser makes that will be examined. Schlosser uses the case study of Plauen, a city in what Schlosser refers to as “new Germany,” to illustrate the point. Schlosser portrays the McDonald’s in this city as a kind of bright spot in a city that is otherwise depressed, with high unemployment and men desperate for work. Schlosser ends the story of Plauen by describing a bar that opened in that city that has a country-western feel to it, and this, implies Schlosser, defines Plauen today. The dream that Plauen has now comes not from the circumstances of Plauen itself, because the town is depressed, but, rather, by the shining example of McDonald’s, which fills the hearts of the Plauen people with hope of a better future, a future that is similar to the American Dream. And this is all because, implies Schlosser, Plauen has been supplied this American Dream through the presence of the first American fast food restaurant, McDonald’s (Schlosser, 2001, p. 252). Schlosser also uses the example of Dachau, which has a McDonald’s close to the notorious concentration camp. Just like in Plauen, the McDonald’s in Dachau was filled with people with Americanized clothes, eating Americanized burgers (Schlosser, 2001, p. 232). While this might seem to some to be insensitive to the history of Dachau, in that McDonald’s appears to be crassly commercialized and capitalizing on a tragedy by luring visitors to the ghastly Dachau site to its restaurant, it can be seen in another way. And that is that McDonald’s is merely performing a service for the visitors of Dachau, in that the people who visit the site need to eat, so McDonald’s is simply making doing so convenient. Nevertheless, because the people in the Dachau McDonald’s are Americanized with their clothing and so forth, Schlosser sees this as another example of Americanization in Germany, made all the more insidious because the McDonald’s is capitalizing on a particularly horrible part of German history. A similar phenomenon is happening in Japan right now, McDonald’s is in Japan, and the very presence of McDonald’s in Japan has changed the culture of the Japanese. Ohnuki-Tierney (1997) compares Japanese society and American society in the context of McDonald’s, and how McDonald’s changed Japanese society by cross-mingling American values with Japanese ones. Ohnuki-Tierney states that the young Japanese, who make up the majority of customers in Japanese McDonalds’, subscribe to the notion that America is a land without hierarchies, which is in contrast to Japan, which is a hierarchical society. Because of this, and the essential Americanness of McDonald’s, the young have adapted some of the American sensibilities, most notably that of manners. The traditional manners, which are still being practiced at home, were transformed in the public place, in part because of McDonald’s (Ohnuki-Tierney, 1997, p. 181). This is all a part of the homogenization of culture around the world, as transmitted by the fast food restaurants that enter these foreign countries. Watson (2000) sees imperialism as a way for America to spread its culture around the world, and the way that America does this is by exporting the artifacts of culture, including fast food restaurants, soap operas, electronic games and the like. In this way, America is trying to make other countries like America. So, although America has not been a conquerer in the traditional sense, it does, in effect, conquer different countries by attempting to mold them into the image of America (Watson, 2000, p. 121). That said, this argument seems to be pretty facetious. The reason for this is that it is difficult to believe that a fast food restaurant will result in a homogenized society, an Americanization of that particular country. This is essentially the view taken by Claude Fischler, according Rick Fantasia (1995). For Fischler, the fast food industry in France is not a pervasive influence on the culture, but, rather, a “benign reflection of the global circulation of culinary cultures” (Fantasia, 1995, p. 202). Fischler sees French fast food restaurants as the same as the prevalence of pizza and Chinese food restaurants in America. This means that, far from being an Americanizing influence on French culture, fast food restaurants merely reflect the culinary tastes of the French - nothing more and nothing less. Just as the prevalence of Chinese restaurants does not spread Chinese culture in America, the prevalence of fast food restaurants does not spread American culture to the French. Pieterse (1996) agrees with this, noting that in McDonald’s in China and India, the restaurants serve as a meeting spot for people, which means that the McDonald’s in these countries serve a different purpose then the McDonald’s in America. Contrary to the central thesis of imperialism, Pietrese posits that fast food restaurants reflect the societal customs of the locality, whether that locality is in New York City or Beijing (Pieterse, 1996, p. 1392). Conclusion Schlosser makes the point that fast food companies are contributing to obesity in populations around the world, as western diets, led by fast food companies, are supplanting traditional Eastern diets in the Far East, and Great Britain’s obesity rate is growing, coinciding with the rise of fast food restaurants in that country. He also makes the point that fast food companies are targeting children by the use of characters such as Ronald McDonald, who speaks to impressionable children and gives these children the idea that Ronald knows how children should eat. While fast food restaurants may be accused of making us fat, they cannot really be accused of imperialism as well. While the Japanese culture is showing signs of Americanization, it is probably because they are exposed to other aspects of American culture – such as music, video games, soap operas, movies, etc. These would be much more influential on culture then the mere presence of a fast food restaurant. Of course, the fast food restaurants in these countries may give the natives of that country a taste for the food, but, as for the accusation that culture is changing because of the presence of these restaurants, this is difficult to believe. Sources Used Azadbakht, L. & Esmaillzadeh, A. (2008) Fast foods and risk of chronic diseases. Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 13.1: 1-2. Cheng, T. (2003) Fast food and obesity in China. Journal of American College of Cardiology, 42: 773. Currie, J., Della Vigna, S., Moretti, E. & Panthania, V. (2009) The effect of fast food restaurants on obesity. Available at: http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~sdellavi/wp/fastfoodJan09.pdf Fantasia, R. (1995) Fast food in France. Theory and Society 24.2: 201-243. Garcia, V. (2006). Obesity: Modern-Day Epidemic. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest Publishers, Inc. Jeffery, R. & French, S. (1998) Epidemic obesity in the United States: Are fast foods and television viewing contributing? American Journal of Public Health, 88.2: 277-280. Jeffery, R., Baxter, J., McGuire, M. & Linde, J. (2006) Are fast food restaurants an environmental risk factor for obesity? International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 3.2: 1-6. Krebs, N.F., Himes, J.H., Jacobson, D., Nicklas, T.A., Guilday, P., Styne, D. (2007) Assessment of child and overweight and obesity. Pediatrics: Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 120: S193-S228. Nakaya, A. (2006). Obesity: Opposing Viewpoints. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomas Gale. Pieterse, J. (1996) Globalisation and culture: Three paradigms. Economic and Political Weekly 31.23: 1389-1393. Rosenheck, R. (2008) Fast food consumption and increased caloric intake: A systematic review of a trajectory towards weight gain and obesity risk. Available at: http://www.konopka-dr.de/pdf/Rosenheck08FastFoodChildren.pdf Schlosser, E. (2001) Fast Food Nation. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Ohnuki-Tierney , E. (1997) McDonald’s in Japan. In Watson, J. (1997) Golden Arches East. New York: Doubleday. Watson, J. (2000) China’s Big Mac attack. Foreign Affairs, 79.3: 120-134. Watson, J. (1997) Golden Arches East. New York: Doubleday. Read More