What can We Do?

The first step to improving America's obesity problem is to stop eating so much! Not only do we visit fast food restaurants to often, we also tend to over eat past our normal portion because of fear of wasting food. A solution to this problem is to start visiting these restaurants less, maybe two to three times a month. And splitting a meal with a friend will help cut back on consuming so many calories. Also, cooking healthier home cooked meals more often and exercise will help control weight.

There are many alternatives to help make a difference in consuming so many calories One thought would be letting customers know exactly what they're eating by posting calories on menu's. Posting calories is being looked at by several states to become a law according to this article:

Calories on Fast Food Menus: Should it Become Law?

..."California is the first U.S. state to require fast food restaurant chains to list calories on their menus, with New York City following suit earlier this year. There are currently more than a dozen states that are considering similar health code provisions, a move aimed at promoting healthful eating..."

Another way to adopt a heathier life style is whenever you have a craving for something fast and cheap, instead of visiting McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, etc. go somewhere where you can grad something quic and tasty without the calories. An example would be a local deli such as Enstein Bagel, where you can grad a healthy salad or wrap and healthy fresh drink. Instead of buying a sundea from McDonalds, grad a fruit salad, instead of a cheese stick from Pizza Hut buy a bagel get it?

So What Does Fast Food Do To Us???

Why Fat Food Makes Us Fat





..."The hidden reason fast food makes us fat: It has a very high energy density--about 65 percent higher than a typical diet and twice as high as recommended healthy diets--which makes us eat more than we otherwise would. Energy density refers to the amount of calories an item of food contains in relation to its weight. Foods with a high energy density confuse the brain's control systems for appetite, which are based solely on portion size."...



Fast Food Effects on Health

..."To make a long story short, all this results in piling up of unused empty calories in the body, which get stored as body fat – till one day you look in the mirror and realize that your great figure has been replaced by this creature in the mirror..."

..."Recent scientific studies have shown that high-calorie foods rich in fats, refined sugar and salt could reconfigure the hormones in the body in such a way that they make you crave for such foods and always leave you asking for more...."

What They Don't Show You in Commercials

• There has been a time when watching tv, suddenly a fast foor advertisement comes on and catches your attention. Automatically your mouth starts to water for the perfect, fresh looking, neat burger. You make a trip to the restauraunt and to your dissatisfaction your handed and messy, greasy burger that doesnt resemble the commercials version at all.

• This happens all the time to people. These large fast food corporations target their consumers by portraying a delicious product, but they fail to convey the same look when you go to purchase it. Fast food is exactly what it sounds like...fast! The ad's are made to trick your mind into thinking your getting good quality food fast and cheap.

• Employess don't care how they assemble your food, as long as they have you got of the driveway quick and easy to serve the next person. The main problem is that while there are few people who will demand a refund or their food to be remade, but the majority of us will still eat the sloppy food anyway.
  
  

America Is Fat

Why do we consume so many calories and do so little to become less obese? It can be because of childhood eating habits acquired by parents or it can develop when you get older and become less caring of eating habits. Whatever the cause may be, we as Americans need to fix it. Obesity in America has gotten completely out of control, claiming the lives of thousands of people a year.

As of 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) projects 1.6 billion adults, ages 15 and up, were overweight and 400 million adults were obese, worldwide. Who's to blame? Some say blame our Government for not putting stricter awareness of unhealthy fast food corporations. That would be one thing to blame America's obesity problem on, but we don't have to eat these foods. We live in a nation where people don't take responsibility like they should, so is it our fault?

You have large corporations such as McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and Wendy's that lure in millions of customers for cheap quick tasty food. In return leaving people with greasy,high fat content, processed meals that can eventually affect their health.



Fast Food has been linked to several deadly health issues:

• Heart disease
• Obesity
• Cancer
• E. coli food poisoning
• Diabetes

According to Eric Schlosser, “the typical American now consumes approximately three hamburgers and four orders of french fries every week” (Schlosser 6). In one USDA study, “Thirty percent of American children were found to eat fast food on a typical day” ( Nitzke).

Children being raised on fast food are highly likely to encountering at least on of the health problems listed above some time in their life.