The Fast Food Problem of America

America, the global superpower, we have always been known to be the leaders of the free world and the home to the land of possibility. While of course this is still true America is also known as the home of obesity. When other countries think of this great country thoughts of freedom and prosperity, they are now diluted down and replaced with the thoughts of obesity, unhealthy lives, and the golden arches.

That is what the book “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser emphasizes. We as Americans are blinded and oblivious to the food we put in our bodies. We thoughtless put food into our bodies while unhealthy dietary, is also so ghastly and unhealthy for you based on the process in which the food on your plate is made.

We found that up to as many as eight cows can be in one burger increasing your chances of getting sick or even dying from E. coli. Can you as an honest American point to your food and tell me where it came from or even what it is? We are blindly eating food we know little or nothing about, this is what Schlosser tells us in his book. Schlosser quotes “The whole experience of buying fast food has become of routine, so thoroughly unexceptional and mundane, that it is now taken for granted, like brushing your teeth or stopping at a red light.”

The book explains fast food’s rise to power from it’s beginnings as drive trough's in Southern California, to when the McDonald brothers got ride of their carhops and shrank their menu to only items that could be eaten without silverware, and into the dominant force we know today that is more widely recognized than the cross from the bible. In the years that followed the drastic change in the fast food marketing that McDonald's started, hundreds of companies rose to fame after adopting what McDonald's had done. Because of this, not only has America seen the obesity epidemic that so many other countries see now, but every country has been infected with hundreds of fast food companies.

 The book describes thoroughly that the fast food stores marketing campaign is similar to Disney’s in which they present children with characters such as Ronald McDonald and hook them early on to make life long customers. "Fast Food Nation" really makes you think about what you eat on a daily basis and may make you think twice about the consequences of going to McDonald’s or Burger King next time you and your buddies are hungry.