Fast Food Nation - Exploiting Adolescents - Research Paper Example

Fast Food Nation - Exploiting Adolescents Fast food has gain immense popularity and preference as it saves time and effort. The trend of eating “on the run” is proliferating in the West. However, in pursuit of hiring less paid employee and increasing the output, fast food outlets exploit adolescents, downplay with the health of customers, trigger anxiety and increase the appetite of people (Schlosser 8). Exploiting Adolescents The topic fast food is the centre of discussion since the year dot. Probably because of the ill health it triggers. Meanderingly, anti fast food came up with another criticism against it. In his book, “The Fast Food Nation”, Eric Schlosser brings gimmick to the exposé summarizing the central idea of the topic in the following statement, “A fast food restaurant can be a nice place to visit- but if you might not want to work there-especially if you are a teenager.” The sentence cleverly adumbrates the vulnerability of the working ambiance at the fast food outlet. American teenager’s dominates employment at these places (Wartmen, Web). Consequently, the issue is being strongly analyzed as adolescence mark the future of the country. The book discusses the misery of a sixteen year old high school girl, Elisa Zimot. She was keen to work at the Mc Donald’s outlet but resented later when customer’s dealt with her brutally. Often people misbehave with fast workers as they look at them with disdain and contempt. Other teenagers work tediously at fast food restaurants, beyond their legal working limit. A survey illustrated that many high school students around fifteen years of age work for twelve hours and sophomores working late at night in these restaurants. Although the working duration assigned by the Fair Labour Standards do not exceed from more than three hours for school going children, below sixteen years of age. In other words students are not allowed to work during school hours that is before seven in the morning and after seven at night (Sagon, Web). Even if the school is closed, they might work for few more hours but within the defined limit. Many students cross the limit and consequently their studies are affected. It is proven by a survey that maximum fifteen hours of employment help students academically where as beyond this range students show a decline in their overall academics and engage in anti social activities linked with drug and alcohol abuse (Schlosser 9). Apart from this the fast food restaurants are well equipped with machines, some of which are prohibited for the teenagers to operate. The author discusses Colorado State’s law where it is illegal for teenagers below eighteen to use hazardous machinery during work. Teenagers were restricted to handle the forklift, box crusher or a meat slicer. They were even prohibited to linger in places prone to radiation. Ironically, students were seen violating the laws usually working at the fast food restaurants in Colorado Spring. Many workers reported to have work late at night and early in the morning where others boasted stories of valour after operating electric tomato dicer (Wartmen, Web). Earning Money and gaining experience at an early age is vital to survive in the competitive world. However, the question is where are the teenagers investing their money? Are they saving it for higher education? Do they want to become entrepreneurs? Generally students spend money buying branded items or gadgets rather than saving it for rational use. The main concern is that the fast food franchises are exploiting the youth. They are enticing youth for the love of making money over the importance of education. If students from an early age will stick to the notion of making money at restaurants they will not learn to move ahead in life and explore their chances. They might halt their studies and search for jobs that require fewer skills like the ones offered at the restaurants. Students who take pain in studying and wish to earn money let it be from a restaurant, are more likely to astray from establishing a good career in the future. Also in the contemporary world with the bombardment of high tech machineries that have replaced most of the skilled labour, do not offer valuable experience which might be of help in the future. The machines do most of the task as workers merely need to follow the instructions (Sagon, Web). Fast Food and Health Issues Fast food is ascribed with evolving various diseases in human beings. Obesity is the common health problem. Fast food, especially fried items contain more than the required calorie per meal for given a day. Astonishingly, chicken nuggets contain beef extract and bear twice as much calorie as a hamburger. The main problem lies in nutritional value of this food which is low in essential elements like fibre and vitamins, and rich in high saturated fats and sugar. Saturated fats tend to accumulate in arteries forming plaques which hinder the flow of blood in the body and may increase the likely hood of heart attack or other cardio-vascular diseases. Fast food is also responsible for diabetes which more often constitutes to obesity. In the era of ease and comfort offered by the technology we have minimized physical activities and become prone to diseases. Among such illnesses was the epidemic of E. coli disease. It resulted from the unhygienic conditions of food processing firms such as the lowa beef packer (IBF) which butchered the cattle and provide meat to the fast food industry. In an attempt to gain maximum profit these firm increased their output by speeding up the process. While doing so, extra load was put over the workers who failed to accomplish the task efficiently. Consequently, making blenders in which they hurt themselves with knives and other slaughtering instruments. They fail to adequately separate the intestines from cow’s flesh (Sagon, Web). Gradually, as companies like IBF increased their production they faced shortage of workers. Hence to keep up with the pace, the firms hired amateur labour especially immigrant workers to carry out the task. The doctors appointed by the firm obscured injuries and illness of the cattle. Money was stingily spent on cattle’s welfare. Due to this negligence workers accidently polluted the meat with cow’s faeces which resulted in the widespread of the E. Colin illness. Fast Food Ads/Logos Increase Anxiety and Appetite Patience seems to have dispelled from the ethos of twenty first century. Surprisingly, fast food is held responsible for this mutation. The logos at fast food restaurant have certain specific colours that trigger peculiar psychological impact upon people. Let it be Mc Donald’s, KFC, Burger King or Subway, all contains the colours red, yellow, orange or green. These colours are goal directed as they stimulate sudden excitement and hunger in people. As per the colour theory these colours arouses anxiety and increases appetite. Consequently people consume more which means they spend more money and leave earlier because they are in a state of anxiety. This is known as, “behavioural priming affect”. Although the affects do not last long but researchers believe it to be partly responsible for arousing impatience and haste in people. When Kelly Brownell, a professor in the department of psychology, was enquired on how advertisement promotes over eating, he responded saying, that it is encoded in the language that the fast food industry use. For instance, they introduce a deal by using prefixes like Super deal, Big deal, Supreme deal, Big Mac, etc. This gives an impression that bigger is better. Hence people consume the huge, unhealthy products. In an experiment, the diet of elementary school children was compared while watching television with fast food advertisement and without such advertisements. It was observed that children ate more during a fast food advertisement rather than while watching other advertisement. In fact they ate forty five (45%) more. Estimation depicts that while watching food advertisement and snacking people may gain ninety four Kcal per day. In conclusion, the growing fast food outlets should be readily scrutinized until they are obliged to make amendments in their marketing procedure. The fast food that is easy and swiftly obtained arouses many health nuisances. Obesity and diabetes are the main illnesses. They shorten our life span by evolving cardiovascular diseases, insulin resistance and other severe health problems. Hygiene is another important factor as food processing firms provides poor sanitization which may adversely affect the health of people. Apart from affecting physical health, fast food industry affects people psychology through advertisement. Fast food ads trigger anxiety and increase appetite of people. These issues should be seriously solved with an ultimate solution. The writer requests the customers to boycott fast food products. He has stop eating at Mc Donald’s after publishing his book. Schlosser does not urge people to commence a vegetarian diet. Instead he wants people to recognize the societal ill that the fast food industry is spreading. Work Cited Food. Inc. Director: Kenner, Robert. USA: River Road Entertainment, 2008. Movie. Sagon, Candy. "The Hamburger Critic (and His Own Critics); 'Fast Food Nation" takes a scary look under the bun. But is it just fear-mongering?" The Los Angeles Times. March 14, 2013. Web. March 26, 2014. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. NY: Mariner Books, 2012. Print. Wartmen, Kristin. "The American Fast Food Syndrome". Civil East. January 13, 2011. Web. March 26, 2014. Read More