For those who are seeking the truth will gain real-life experience;which in fact offer contributing factors/beliefs that plays a major part in truth it's self.
I dont see anyhting wrong with eating meat, but i definitely see something wrong with eating heavily processed meats such as at McDonalds as these contain numerous chemicals that our bodies are not designed to ingest. I think that a less biased education of how these foods are processed and what goes in them would curb many from choosing that diet. I see commercials done by the SPCA that emphasize the inhumane treatment of animals, but I have never seen any unbiased look at what the animals are fed and what the the steps are to turn bessy into the Wendy's Double stack cheeseburger. The FDA also needs to crack down on how fast food is prepared. It is a common fact that fast food is bad for you, yet the FDA does nothing to regulate these mullti billion dollar chains, most likely becasue they are on the payroll themselves. Perhaps a class action lawsuit against McDonalds similar to ones pursued against big tobacco companies would start the chain of events leading to a healthier America.
When they say America leads the way, they are right. They lead the way in obesity. America has terrible eating habits. They enjoy processed foods that are quick and easy to make without a hassle. They like to come home and pop an easy meal in the microwave and have a meal or go to fast food restaurants order in one window and in the next have your food ready. But in reality America needs to change its eating habits. In the pictures of what we eat around the world America had the least concentration on fruits, vegetables, and non-processed food. They consumed mostly fast foods and bagged foods. America must change so we can stop being a nation of obesity.
Daisy Gigantana says... I would say that eating fast food such as burger and fries can be cheap compare to eating vegetables with lean meat. Unfortunately, ordering Double Quarter Pounder with cheese plus soda and French fries from McDonald contained more than half of allowable daily calorie intake. Now, this is okay to consume as long as afterward you have to do an intense work-out to burn the fat. But if not, your body stores this as fat. If continue the same eating pattern will turn to an obese person. It saddens me when people make a judgment about obese people and why they are obese. For me, I would say this boils down to economics. If I’m on a budget, only allow to spend five dollars for lunch and nothing more. Either I buy nutritional food now to prolong my healthy life or buy cheap fattening food since that is all I can afford and pay medical bills later. Then I go to McDonald and order burger, fries, and cola for five dollars since I can’t afford to order salad. So I made a choice to buy this fattening food with no nutritional value whatsoever and not realizing down the line I will gain weight and probably health problems. Somehow, I will pay eventually.
Cheap Food? High Price “You are what you eat”. I strongly support this assertion which is very meaningful. That is, the consequences of eating junk food (fast food) on a daily basis may result in obesity, heart decease, hypertension (high blood pressure decease) and diabetes. In addition, junk food can be very harmful for our brain. Conversely, eating a balanced diet can reduce the risk of heart decease, obesity, diabetes and so on. Researches have proved that eating vegetables and fruits, especially broccoli is very healthy for our brain. In America, the average people tend to consume junk food frequently. The pace of life is probably the main reason that leads people to consume junk food over a properly cooked meal. Waking up early in the morning, getting to work and going to school on time may be time consuming for most people. Because of those daily routines, it turns to be very hard for people to prevent themselves from stepping in McDonalds to take their breakfast and their lunch. I strongly believe that the issue of junk food (fast food) is linked to the American system of life. The price of consuming junk food must be very high for US. NEGOT JEAN LOUIS
The U.S. obesity epidemic today is clearly very alarming and unfortunately keeps increasing every day. I think fast food is the main reason America is having obesity problems today. The reasons why we are eating so much fast food today is not only because it is very cheap but because people do not have time to cook. Fast food it is not only convenient but also inexpensive. Most fast foods can be eaten while steering the wheel of a car and the restaurants are usually drive through and that is definitely easier than go home and spend half an hour or more cooking. Parents should not be feeding their kids fast food. I understand that a value meal saves a little money and definitely a lot of time. Fast food is quick and easy but they need to think how unhealthy that value meal is for their kids. Fast food is heavy on fat, salt and sugar and leads to overweight. The real cost of eating the food isn't reflected in the price on the menu. Parents should be more responsible when it comes to consuming and marketing fast food to children. Also, fast food companies should make sure that their fast food meals for children are healthier but at the end we cannot blame these companies, is our responsibility to watch out for what we eat. I think it's important that people know what they are eating and especially to know what their children are eating. Also, I think the government should have more laws to prevent these companies from using so many antibiotics and fertilizers on animals. Animals have rights that these companies are ignoring. I understand that they need to kill animals to sell their meat but there are less painful ways to do it.
Cheap food. The reality is, even If people read these types of articles and stories, how many people do you think will stop eating at fast food joints? Being honest, probably not even half. The reality is that it's much easier to go up a drive through and order a meal than to actually go at a restaurant and wait for a meal to be cooked for you. The life style here is pretty hectic. You have students going from work to school or school to work, and i say students because I believe young adults are most affected by obesity. Even If some wished to eat healthier, sometimes it's not possible. There's not enough time in the day to actually sit down and eat healthy when you have so much on your plate, and then also the fact that you leave school or work tired and you don't even have the energy to cook so instead, back up would be going to McDonald's or something. I don't know if it'll change. Some even join gyms and don't go fully through it because of too much stress and no time to make it all work. Hopefully something can change, some don't think about it or care but it does affect your health. Some type of action should be done and soon because quite frankly we're number one in obesity? It's quite sad. There has to be a way to change that. Fast food joint should be terminated! They don't care about anything, they just want to make money.
Everybody knows that eating fast food is a bad eating habit. In order to change this daily routine, parents first have to take their responsibility to teach their children how to eat more healthy food. Fast food is endemic in the USA. Since the day the baby was born, they brainwashed them with all the cartoon commercial about Mc Donald or Burger King "et al". An order point these days, young people are lazy to cook. Therefore, the only way for them to eat is to get fast food. It's cheaper and full of fat that can clog their artery and create all kind of diseases. There should be laws that could prevent fast food commercial accesible to children. A simple thing can be done. Educate the parents how to prepare healthy homemade food. The children will learn through examples and the future generation will develop better and healtier food habit.
As I see it, its not just our food intake that cause obesity, but also our relaxed lifestyle. A mix of the two have caused Americans to become obese. Our bodies aren’t able burning down the same amount of fat we intake, by eating a McDonalds burger. So our bodies start to accumulate all the grease, and chemicals, that our systems weren’t able to complete digest. Apart from that we don’t stop to eat, chew and enjoy our food, instead we scarf it down our throat without stopping and taking a breath. Thus our bodies aren’t able to completely digest any of the food we jam in there. We have begun to forget the taste of nutritious food, and replaced it with chemically enhanced grease. Which have caused damaged to our bodies, and way of living. Many of use have become addicted to these cheap fast food, as a way to replace the nutrients we need in a day, but that is not possible with a burger, especially when all the nutrients needed have been taken out, and all that is left chemicals, and the artificial taste of meat.
American lead the number of obese people around the world and as the developed countries grow richer millions of people want to access to the same hypocaloric diet and we can see how McDonalds has rise its flag in countries like China and Pakistan. Little boys are taught and fed givingf to them intoxicated meals every day because their parents excuse themselves that nom have time to cook healthy meals for them. In campus, majority of the students spend their time from their jobs and school and don't have time to cook or enough money to get access to healthy menu. As today the country is hurted by economic reccession ,the opportunity to begin modifying eating habits, improving out diets and making other choices as to what eat healthy is hard to accomplish.
Fast food is cheaper compared to vegetables, lean meat and other non processed food or more nourished food, and it’s cheaper for a reason. I think that heavily processed are much cheaper because it’s another way for the government to control and regulate people. I also feel that they love to point out how obese Americans are, and how hypertension, diabetes, and cancer are on the rise but would not take the time to educate people on how to lessen or protect themselves or their family from those diseases due to poor nutrition. And it’s clearly obvious that the campaign for positive health is less potent than it was 15 to 30 years ago and it’s sad.
Well I believe that the fast food concept here in America is way bigger than in other countries. In my country which is Mexico , fast food is not as popular as in this country . I remeber watching a few years ago a documentary related to Mcdonalds food called " SUPER SIZE ME ", its about this guy that eats mcdonalds for 1 mon? th every day and he almost died. Even with this documentary people wont stopp buying this food. Why is this ? Is of course because of the price , is so cheap and comfortable for people that they decide to buy it. This is a sign that people buy the cheapest thing at the best convenience and we need to do something about it because if not obesity will keep growing and growing and it will become a worst issue than it is now.
Pavlo Drobentsov In my opinion fast food is not good for every day use! It smell's, good, it tastes delicious, and compering prices to a restaurant prices, it is more convenient to eat fast food. But if a person eats fast food at least once a day, that is already as many calories as we should it in one day. And it is not only McDonald's, it is also Burger king, Wendy's, etc. The other bed thing about this "junk food", is that people don't even realize it is mad of. For example, the meat comes from manufacture as a burger already, but nobody does not even have an idea what it is made of. It is usually made of bones and all the bed left overs from the cow or pig, after places like Publix get all the good meat. Manufacture put's all of those left overs in a gigantic mixer, from which we already see the burger meet. Also the smell that is coming from a burger in any fast food place, is not a real smell, companies like McDonalds add a special smell ingredients in them, so when you heat it up, the burger starts to smell. So ask yourself if you really want to it something like that everyday! If to go to Publix or Winn-Dixie, you can buy a sandwich cheese, meat,vegetables and bread and spent 15 minutes at home on making sandwiches. But in the long run, you are saving money and you are eating healthy food.
I think this issue has gone way out of hand. I've seen many times, many news about the government saying they're trying to improve the quality of the food because overweight has become such an epidemic. The truth is, the effect this country has on overweight and malnutrition is based on the immense amount of advertising that brainwashes us daily, the misinformation about the foods we consume, and procrastination. Everyday, we see the food industry come up with a new product that's "supposed" to be good for us. Sometimes those products are bought by the people because many have the excuse that they have no time to cook a healthy meal, instead, they rather take 15 minutes and buy a cheeseburger at McDonald's than take 30 minutes to cook themselves some dinner. The food industry blinds us by putting labels in their products such as "great source of calcium" or "high in fiber." Most of the times people can be deceived by such labels since they might not have the knowledge of what the nutrition fact panel really means. Yes, it might read 170 calories, which fools us, but if we really understood and where all educated to know that out of those 170 calories 160 are from fat, and that the product contains 900mg of sodium we would think twice before we buy that product. Calories are not the only important thing, saturated fats, dietary fiber and sodium are. They trick us into believing it is really healthy when in reality, we might as well just eat a cheeseburger instead of putting all that ridiculous amount of salt in our body in just one serving. This in the long run, causes the highest amount of chronic diseases in the US. It is a matter of misinformation and ignorance. All it takes for the food industry is to brainwash us with a couple of words in the label and they've got it sold. It is ridiculous how the amount of death's due to obesity are increasing every year. The United States is becoming an obese country, actually being known as a fat country!
I think that the food industry should try to stop this by providing more specific information on the products that each food contains, rather than throwing in a fancy line and trying to hide the junk the product has by reducing the calories. It is sad to see how this country is recognized for being so smart and well informed. Isn't it ironic? How stupid and ignorant the majority of us are when it comes to choosing our food. It is like if we are committing suicide, little by little we are killing ourselves! Also, I find it unbelievable to see that they have actually made reality shows based on this. Just the other day, I was watching FAT AT 15! I could not believe it, I was traumatized with the thought of that show for about a week. I couldn't believe that they actually put those kids out there like that, it is so humiliating and psychologically wrong for these children to be showing their lifestyle and the horrible life's they live due to their obesity. Instead of spending all that time and money to broadcast it on TV, they should try to put some of that money on forcing the food industry to put nutritional information in all their products, including restaurants, especially fast food restaurants. Most of the people don't know where the chicken, pork or meat they eat are coming from. Yes, it is understandable that sometimes buying organic food is expensive but if a person would just be able to cut the amount of junk food it wouldn't be that bad. Also, advertisement affect children the most. It is estimated that in between cartoon commercials over the weekend, at least 5,000 different food advertisements are seen by kids. It gets to a point where they are conditioned to believe that the food isn't that bad because they are brainwashed from such a young age. It breaks my heart to see a 12 year old girl that 200 pounds! That is just not right in any level. I believe the health association's and food industries should really come along with a plan to reduce these numbers. Every year the percentage of obesity increases, if I am not mistaken, last years was 65% of adults in the US are obese and 45% of children are obese. That is just unbelievable!I think people should try to become more aware of what they are putting in their systems or at least try to cut down. But I am sure that if the health associations would throw a commercial on one of these issues, the number will be reduced. This is a matter of ignorance and misinformation. I believe it should be our right to know what we are really eating when we think we are having a delicious piece of chicken or whatever it is. WE NEED NUTRITIONAL EDUCATION! I believe this should start in schools, the younger kids are introduced to this information the faster the changes we will see. " We are what we eat!"
I believe the health association's and food industries should really come along with a plan to reduce these numbers. Every year the percentage of obesity increases, if I am not mistaken, last years was 65% of adults in the US are obese and 45% of children are obese. That is just unbelievable!I think people should try to become more aware of what they are putting in their systems or at least try to cut down. But I am sure that if the health associations would throw a commercial on one of these issues, the number will be reduced. This is a matter of ignorance and misinformation. I believe it should be our right to know what we are really eating when we think we are having a delicious piece of chicken or whatever it is. WE NEED NUTRITIONAL EDUCATION! I believe this should start in schools, the younger kids are introduced to this information the faster the changes we will see. " We are what we eat!"
Personally, I love eating meat, if anything I'm a meatytarian(i think i made this word up right now) since i, under no circumstance, like eating vegetables. Unfortunately, I think that is maybe one of the main reasons McDonalds targets people, namely young ones, into eating processed meats. They just don't like vegetables. Of course everything in life is wholesale, if you have MORE of something, the more cheaper it will be, supply and demand symdrome. so why do they waste so much resources on raising animals instead of just educating everyone to eat healthier and use the vegetables on people rather than fattening up the pigs to eat em? because people will more likely buy more meat than they will on other things, the world is about money, no matter what the cost. That's the way humans have been through all eternity, money talks, before it used to be with slavery, more money than hiring non-africans because they didn't have to pay the slaves. since slavery is no more, times tend to change, but the concept of money doesn't. when it comes to money, people lack ethics. take Dynamite for example, created by Alfred Nobel, it made BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS of dollars for the war, why was something so DESTRUCTIVE continued to be produced? because of money, more profit, more production. and in this case, it's the same idea, if killing pigs and processing meat generates more money, then McDonalds will continue doing it. why stop something when it's "working"? People lack ethics.
This food situation in America is in my opinion a disaster. It is a major contributor to the state of our environmental issues as well as a hazard to our health. Of course, television has “brainwashed” us in to consuming large numbers of fast food, but slowly the “slow food” is falling to corruption as well. Food should be nutritious, affordable, and free of bi-products or bacteria if possible. It’s alarming that the majority of the food available at our local super markets is processed with sugar and high fructose corn syrup (or its many variations), as well as other bi-products to preserve its nutrition-lacking ingredients. Far more disturbing are the produce isles that are slowly becoming a processed orchestra as well. The produce available strangely has the same shape, color, and lacking flavor, similar to that of a model who has gone under the knife one too many times. It looks plastic. Generally, non-organic produce is now bio-genetically engineered, sprayed with fertilizer and insecticide, harvested before it is ripe, shipped across the country and then gassed to ripen. I can understand that these initiatives took place to increase the availability of products year round, but at what cost to our bodies and the environment. The amount of oil and bi-products it consumes to mass produce vegetable or fruit using fertilizers and insecticides, as well as force-ripening gasses, and shipping now consumes almost 15-20% of our national use. Not to mention that we eat this stuff. Produce begins to die the moment it is picked from its plant, we are eating dying food that is engineered to look fresh and inviting. What I find difficult to swallow is that organic food, which generally has had less done to it, is far more expensive and less available. Another issue we must look at is food safety as well. Cheap food unfortunately seems to have a greater risk of being contaminated. Look at the recent egg recall that affected the Midwest. Over one billion eggs were recalled that were produced by only two factory farms in Iowa which come from the same corporate owner. That should be astounding! The quantity has become more important than the quality of our food. Another example is the rBGH that is given to our cows to increase production of milk; however, milk is often over produced and we are consuming a hormone that we don’t have enough information about its long-term effects. The hormone rBGH is banned in Canada and in Europe and many consumers fought back and requested milk and dairy products to exclude the product. Today you can see many products listing “rBGH free” but you will also see the disclaimer underneath that cites no difference between milk with rBGH and without it. This is a result of a lawsuit filed by the creator of rBGH, Monsanto, in an effort to save face of producing its product. Another grave risk factor is the number of antibiotics that are given to animals that are used for food. Because large factory farms have such large quantities of animals living in close quarters, they are often subject to virus, infection, and illness. They must then be treated with antibiotics, which are then consumed by us via the food chain. We the consumers are the biggest and most effect tool to change what has become a giant machine of food production. If we start demanding more organic and locally farm raised foods, the more the giant companies that run our food chain will have to adapt. Read you labels. Learn what is in your food. A great website to do this is www.foodfacts.com.
One of the most important things that I can think of to shed light to this issue is to have all the consumers take a mandatory Nutrition class. This will alert everybody to the harm that they are doing to their own bodies. Most people are really not that concerned evidently, and only realize what they have done when they have a serious illness to wake them up to reality. We only have one life, and one chance to make sure that we keep our "temples" as healthy as possible. I really do not even believe that people treat their vehicles this bad. Hopefully, for the welfare of America, we can make progress in this arena. One thing for sure is that it will not be easy.
It is frustrating that we as a country have given so much power to the commercial giants who are systematically killing our bodies, our land, and our opportunities- and we pay them to do it. Even if you are conscious of what you eat, the Big-whatevers' (Pharma, Mac, etc) power is rooted so deep that our federal government is high up on the payroll of these companies, and they therefore get away with so much that you never know who is behind what you are seeing or hearing. Paid advertisements and research studies- if you aren't an expert on the subject, you can be easily misled by these publications. They are literally feeding us garbage from every direction, and our only possibility of survival is to educate ourselves on what we can do to have better health, and how to protect our rights, because these CEO's have educated themselves on how to take them away- business schools are about profit and the bottom line, often at the expense of ethics or rights. We are not forced to buy their products- we do have other choices. I believe the case of availability of healthier options is one of the biggest issues, this is a major problem because the companies actually have the upper hand since this is a free market. So the choices we have may not be the easier ones, but our future actually depends on it- the Time article proposes an interesting point: that we will have to change our ways regardless of whether we are prepared to or not, as the resources run out and climate changes etc. Scary to think that about having a food crisis when we have all been pigging out for so long, and what we would do without McDonald's then...
There is a whole lot of tragic irony that Americans would realize if we didn't put ourselves to sleep every day watching tv- BTW, a device which was essentially created to market products more efficiently to a mass audience. It really seems gross that with all the triumphs, successes and affluence our country has had that we are allowing, and contributing to (though some ignorant and others conscious) to our own social degradation and the destruction of our environment.
Andrea Gonzalez has a point. I work from 6am to 3 pm then come home to do homework, get ready go to school, then after school come home to watch TV; but before coming home i pass by wither McDonald's or Taco Bell to grab my dinner. Why is this because I'm too tired to cook and it is faster. We eat fast food because it is addicting to one another. We go to McDonald's we try a new Angus Burger Wrap, we are then hypnotizes in the flavors that our taste buds taste.
There is also the problem that there is so many places to choose from if your dont like McDonald's you have the options to go to Arby's, Wendy's, Burger King, or Checkers. What some people don't realize is if you don't have time to cook or want something quick there are different options: order take out to your favorite restaurant. Most of these places use REAL meat, not meat that has been through a laboratory. Even thru my busy schedule i pick up the phone and order from a local restaurant and order my food to get it on my way home, even though I'm not eating good, but I'm eating better then McDonald's. Now many fast food places are "TRYING" to become healthier. In reality, I dont see a change. to resolve this solution I believe cutting down in these fast foods and opening more restaurants like Pollo Tropical and Subway may better our addiction in fast food.
"Taste Great even Late", "I'm lovin it", "Have it Your Way" or even “Think outside the Bun”. These are all great marketing advertisements that Americans become victim to by choice. I think that the reason America is obese is because we cannot do anything in moderation. I see nothing wrong with stopping for some fast food if you are on a road trip and there is nothing else around. The problem is there are people in this country that feed their children and themselves this garbage constantly, then are shocked when there 8 year old is weighing 160 lbs and act like they don’t know why. Seriously?? Nobody ever wonders where all this meat comes from either, or what is being put into it, the only thing that seems to be the main concern is that the prices stays low and the food comes quick. A lot of Americans use the excuse that they do not have enough time to make lunch or dinner. In my opinion this is not an acceptable excuse, I work from 7-5 then school from 5:40-7 or 8. I cook all my food on Sunday and put it in the fridge so it will be ready for me to grab during the week. It’s not that some people do not have the time; it is that they are lazy and fast food is an easy escape. Children need to start being educated on good nutrition, and taught what lifelong benefits of eating healthy are. Morgan Spurlock made a movie called Super Size Me. He showed what the side effects of eating McDonald's for a whole month would be, if he would of kept eating past a month it would have eventually killed him.
Interesting little story! My feedback to this article is going to be a little straightforward. Hopefully people don't get offended. That said, I think what America is really known for is obesity. Now I don't mean obesity as a symptom that is hereditary, I mean it in the sense of poor eating habits along with no kind of exercising. Unfortunately, the way we live our day-to-day life is much different then that of other countries. In the U.S life, we have been conditioned to study hard to get into the work force. Once we arrive to the work force, essentially our lives our mon-fri 9-5pm. During the rush of our 9-5, with only about 30 minutes to eat food, why not go across the corner to a fast food joint to munch down some food, and get rushing back into the stress "work force". Seeing that time can be a limiting factor in our day to day, people rush for the quickest and most effective food. The fast food! It's a little repugnant to see a bunch of pigs lying on top of another just thrown like a bunch of wheat grass. I don't seem to fathom how us Americans can eat and savor meat that has been processed much more than what is shown on television. With all the hormones and chemicals they put into the poultry, I cannot understand how people continue eating it. I feel the only way people will come to understanding how bad the McDonalds and other fast food joints are, is until they become so unhealthy physically, where there skin just hangs like a ornament on a Christmas tree. Pardon my words, but the reality is if people don't see how unhealthy the food can be to them, then maybe what they need is a doctor to say, "you're on the verge of getting a heart attack". In my opinion, those kinds of words can definitely make an impact! One way of advertising appropriate meals is for people to show openly what happens to those who eat healthy food. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, and fish! Speaking from my own experience, I’ve been a vegetarian for almost a year, and I have never felt so healthy in my life. I feel good physically, the energy in my body doesn’t diminish, and my body digests very well. My recommendation to everyone is watch the movie super sizes me! That'll put some creepy vibes about McDonalds!
I think in order to change the way we eat and see nutritional foods, we must change the way we live our lives. As a young adult who works, has a home and/or family and is going to school, it doesn’t leave much time to think about what healthy meal we can cook that night let alone having the time to go buy the ingredients to make it. We get so caught up in the daily rat race and forget about everything else. Given, that is no excuse not to eat healthy. We must all play a part in changing this, IF we really want to. I believe that the first thing we need to do is educate ourselves in what we are consuming, how we are consuming it, where it is being grown and how. Then we must make the effort to change our ways of living and where we purchase these goods. There are a hand full of places were you can go and get fresh, local grown products. The problem is that we must make the effort to have this change. Until them, not much, if anything, will change.
Fast food is a controversial topic because it has been fighting against healthly food for many years. even though we know that fast food is bad for our health, we eat it anyway. In America, we have the highest rate of obesity, but why? maybe because we are the kings of fast food. As the professor said, we consume fast food because it is faster than cook some brocolli or go to publix. it is like we have to eat it, we dont have another choice. i think it is not only fast food, but other products like corn, carrots, etc are made with pesticides, do we have another choice? i think organic food its a better options, but it is expensive. The government has to do something about the prices, so everybody can get those products, and start eating healthly.
In a report made by Nation Master on august 2010 obesity Statistic results shows that America is the leading country with 30.6% of obesity (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity). It is alarming to see this numbers because this is something we can avoid. In my opinion, fast food will always exist and I'm not saying that we should stop eating burgers and french fries because some people just love the taste and I think we should treat ourselves once in a while (If that’s what you like). However, we need to address the ongoing issues with modern farming. These animals are given hormones for faster growth, which is part of the reasons why these meats are less expensive. In addition, the amount of antibiotics that are given to these animals is becoming an issue. Every time these animals are given antibiotics, bacteria reacts to it and becomes more resistant to the antibiotic, making it harder for the farmer to keep these animals from getting sick. Although, these animals are being grown for food consumption, the animals living condition are a continuing problem. They are grown in over populated cages or holding areas, covered in their own waste and treated cruelly. As a result, we end up eating all this stuff that these animals are given which in the long run will give us diseases such as high blood pressure, heart problems, strokes and so on. Even if we are tired because of our full time job, school and kids, we should make time to prepare our meals and add some vegetables and fruits to our diet. These will safe us from an early death due to obesity or any kind of disease that these unhealthy and processed foods will give us. We will be able to see our kids grow and it will provide them a good foundation to teach the future generation how to take care of themselves in relation to their health. Rebeca Furniss
To begin I have to say this has given me second thoughts about eating dinner tonight at McDonalds - or has it? Yes, I agree this is a cruel way of going about feeding the addictive needs of Americas meat lovers but I need so much more to believe it has a harmful effect on the human body. I moved to Downtown about six months ago and have been eating ritually at McDonalds, Burger king, or Checkers and have yet to notice any physical change in blood pressure, physical endurance, and/ or gastrointestinal activity. Though I’m Not to say that this method doesn’t have a harmful effect on people because it possible could but until I’m am presented with legitimate scientific proof that fast food has a long lasting negative effect on my body then the quality of the food seems ok to me; despite the physical cruelty done to the animals which seems like an issue of lacking founds. A possible solution could be what we do to the meat after the pigs are killed to tenderize it as appose to how we treat the pigs while they are alive so the meat remains tender. As far as water pollution, some sort of system could be developed to collect fetal matter from the pigs for sterilization for manure.
30 comments:
For those who are seeking the truth will gain real-life experience;which in fact offer contributing factors/beliefs that plays a major part in truth it's self.
I dont see anyhting wrong with eating meat, but i definitely see something wrong with eating heavily processed meats such as at McDonalds as these contain numerous chemicals that our bodies are not designed to ingest. I think that a less biased education of how these foods are processed and what goes in them would curb many from choosing that diet. I see commercials done by the SPCA that emphasize the inhumane treatment of animals, but I have never seen any unbiased look at what the animals are fed and what the the steps are to turn bessy into the Wendy's Double stack cheeseburger. The FDA also needs to crack down on how fast food is prepared. It is a common fact that fast food is bad for you, yet the FDA does nothing to regulate these mullti billion dollar chains, most likely becasue they are on the payroll themselves. Perhaps a class action lawsuit against McDonalds similar to ones pursued against big tobacco companies would start the chain of events leading to a healthier America.
When they say America leads the way, they are right. They lead the way in obesity. America has terrible eating habits. They enjoy processed foods that are quick and easy to make without a hassle. They like to come home and pop an easy meal in the microwave and have a meal or go to fast food restaurants order in one window and in the next have your food ready. But in reality America needs to change its eating habits. In the pictures of what we eat around the world America had the least concentration on fruits, vegetables, and non-processed food. They consumed mostly fast foods and bagged foods. America must change so we can stop being a nation of obesity.
Carlos Lacayo
Daisy Gigantana says...
I would say that eating fast food such as burger and fries can be cheap compare to eating vegetables with lean meat. Unfortunately, ordering Double Quarter Pounder with cheese plus soda and French fries from McDonald contained more than half of allowable daily calorie intake. Now, this is okay to consume as long as afterward you have to do an intense work-out to burn the fat. But if not, your body stores this as fat. If continue the same eating pattern will turn to an obese person. It saddens me when people make a judgment about obese people and why they are obese. For me, I would say this boils down to economics. If I’m on a budget, only allow to spend five dollars for lunch and nothing more. Either I buy nutritional food now to prolong my healthy life or buy cheap fattening food since that is all I can afford and pay medical bills later. Then I go to McDonald and order burger, fries, and cola for five dollars since I can’t afford to order salad. So I made a choice to buy this fattening food with no nutritional value whatsoever and not realizing down the line I will gain weight and probably health problems. Somehow, I will pay eventually.
Cheap Food? High Price
“You are what you eat”. I strongly support this assertion which is very meaningful. That is, the consequences of eating junk food (fast food) on a daily basis may result in obesity, heart decease, hypertension (high blood pressure decease) and diabetes. In addition, junk food can be very harmful for our brain. Conversely, eating a balanced diet can reduce the risk of heart decease, obesity, diabetes and so on. Researches have proved that eating vegetables and fruits, especially broccoli is very healthy for our brain. In America, the average people tend to consume junk food frequently. The pace of life is probably the main reason that leads people to consume junk food over a properly cooked meal. Waking up early in the morning, getting to work and going to school on time may be time consuming for most people. Because of those daily routines, it turns to be very hard for people to prevent themselves from stepping in McDonalds to take their breakfast and their lunch. I strongly believe that the issue of junk food (fast food) is linked to the American system of life. The price of consuming junk food must be very high for US.
NEGOT JEAN LOUIS
The U.S. obesity epidemic today is clearly very alarming and unfortunately keeps increasing every day. I think fast food is the main reason America is having obesity problems today. The reasons why we are eating so much fast food today is not only because it is very cheap but because people do not have time to cook. Fast food it is not only convenient but also inexpensive. Most fast foods can be eaten while steering the wheel of a car and the restaurants are usually drive through and that is definitely easier than go home and spend half an hour or more cooking. Parents should not be feeding their kids fast food. I understand that a value meal saves a little money and definitely a lot of time. Fast food is quick and easy but they need to think how unhealthy that value meal is for their kids. Fast food is heavy on fat, salt and sugar and leads to overweight. The real cost of eating the food isn't reflected in the price on the menu. Parents should be more responsible when it comes to consuming and marketing fast food to children. Also, fast food companies should make sure that their fast food meals for children are healthier but at the end we cannot blame these companies, is our responsibility to watch out for what we eat. I think it's important that people know what they are eating and especially to know what their children are eating. Also, I think the government should have more laws to prevent these companies from using so many antibiotics and fertilizers on animals. Animals have rights that these companies are ignoring. I understand that they need to kill animals to sell their meat but there are less painful ways to do it.
Cheap food.
The reality is, even If people read these types of articles and stories, how many people do you think will stop eating at fast food joints? Being honest, probably not even half. The reality is that it's much easier to go up a drive through and order a meal than to actually go at a restaurant and wait for a meal to be cooked for you. The life style here is pretty hectic. You have students going from work to school or school to work, and i say students because I believe young adults are most affected by obesity. Even If some wished to eat healthier, sometimes it's not possible. There's not enough time in the day to actually sit down and eat healthy when you have so much on your plate, and then also the fact that you leave school or work tired and you don't even have the energy to cook so instead, back up would be going to McDonald's or something. I don't know if it'll change. Some even join gyms and don't go fully through it because of too much stress and no time to make it all work. Hopefully something can change, some don't think about it or care but it does affect your health. Some type of action should be done and soon because quite frankly we're number one in obesity? It's quite sad. There has to be a way to change that. Fast food joint should be terminated! They don't care about anything, they just want to make money.
The reasons why we are eating so much fast food today is not only because it is very cheap but because people do not have time to cook.
I am not convinced of this Tatiana.
Everybody knows that eating fast food is a bad eating habit. In order to change this daily routine, parents first have to take their responsibility to teach their children how to eat more healthy food. Fast food is endemic in the USA. Since the day the baby was born, they brainwashed them with all the cartoon commercial about Mc Donald or Burger King "et al". An order point these days, young people are lazy to cook. Therefore, the only way for them to eat is to get fast food. It's cheaper and full of fat that can clog their artery and create all kind of diseases. There should be
laws that could prevent fast food commercial accesible to children. A simple thing can be done. Educate the parents how to prepare healthy homemade food. The children will learn through examples and the future generation will develop better and healtier food habit.
As I see it, its not just our food intake that cause obesity, but also our relaxed lifestyle. A mix of the two have caused Americans to become obese. Our bodies aren’t able burning down the same amount of fat we intake, by eating a McDonalds burger. So our bodies start to accumulate all the grease, and chemicals, that our systems weren’t able to complete digest. Apart from that we don’t stop to eat, chew and enjoy our food, instead we scarf it down our throat without stopping and taking a breath. Thus our bodies aren’t able to completely digest any of the food we jam in there. We have begun to forget the taste of nutritious food, and replaced it with chemically enhanced grease. Which have caused damaged to our bodies, and way of living. Many of use have become addicted to these cheap fast food, as a way to replace the nutrients we need in a day, but that is not possible with a burger, especially when all the nutrients needed have been taken out, and all that is left chemicals, and the artificial taste of meat.
American lead the number of obese people around the world and as the developed countries grow richer millions of people want to access to the same hypocaloric diet and we can see how McDonalds has rise its flag in countries like China and Pakistan. Little boys are taught and fed givingf to them intoxicated meals every day because their parents excuse themselves that nom have time to cook healthy meals for them.
In campus, majority of the students spend their time from their jobs and school and don't have time to cook or enough money to get access to healthy menu.
As today the country is hurted by economic reccession ,the opportunity to begin modifying eating habits, improving out diets and making other choices as to what eat healthy is hard to accomplish.
Fast food is cheaper compared to vegetables, lean meat and other non processed food or more nourished food, and it’s cheaper for a reason. I think that heavily processed are much cheaper because it’s another way for the government to control and regulate people. I also feel that they love to point out how obese Americans are, and how hypertension, diabetes, and cancer are on the rise but would not take the time to educate people on how to lessen or protect themselves or their family from those diseases due to poor nutrition. And it’s clearly obvious that the campaign for positive health is less potent than it was 15 to 30 years ago and it’s sad.
Well I believe that the fast food concept here in America is way bigger than in other countries. In my country which is Mexico , fast food is not as popular as in this country . I remeber watching a few years ago a documentary related to Mcdonalds food called " SUPER SIZE ME ", its about this guy that eats mcdonalds for 1 mon? th every day and he almost died. Even with this documentary people wont stopp buying this food. Why is this ? Is of course because of the price , is so cheap and comfortable for people that they decide to buy it. This is a sign that people buy the cheapest thing at the best convenience and we need to do something about it because if not obesity will keep growing and growing and it will become a worst issue than it is now.
Pavlo Drobentsov
In my opinion fast food is not good for every day use! It smell's, good, it tastes delicious, and compering prices to a restaurant prices, it is more convenient to eat fast food. But if a person eats fast food at least once a day, that is already as many calories as we should it in one day. And it is not only McDonald's, it is also Burger king, Wendy's, etc. The other bed thing about this "junk food", is that people don't even realize it is mad of. For example, the meat comes from manufacture as a burger already, but nobody does not even have an idea what it is made of. It is usually made of bones and all the bed left overs from the cow or pig, after places like Publix get all the good meat. Manufacture put's all of those left overs in a gigantic mixer, from which we already see the burger meet. Also the smell that is coming from a burger in any fast food place, is not a real smell, companies like McDonalds add a special smell ingredients in them, so when you heat it up, the burger starts to smell. So ask yourself if you really want to it something like that everyday! If to go to Publix or Winn-Dixie, you can buy a sandwich cheese, meat,vegetables and bread and spent 15 minutes at home on making sandwiches. But in the long run, you are saving money and you are eating healthy food.
I think this issue has gone way out of hand. I've seen many times, many news about the government saying they're trying to improve the quality of the food because overweight has become such an epidemic. The truth is, the effect this country has on overweight and malnutrition is based on the immense amount of advertising that brainwashes us daily, the misinformation about the foods we consume, and procrastination.
Everyday, we see the food industry come up with a new product that's "supposed" to be good for us. Sometimes those products are bought by the people because many have the excuse that they have no time to cook a healthy meal, instead, they rather take 15 minutes and buy a cheeseburger at McDonald's than take 30 minutes to cook themselves some dinner. The food industry blinds us by putting labels in their products such as "great source of calcium" or "high in fiber." Most of the times people can be deceived by such labels since they might not have the knowledge of what the nutrition fact panel really means. Yes, it might read 170 calories, which fools us, but if we really understood and where all educated to know that out of those 170 calories 160 are from fat, and that the product contains 900mg of sodium we would think twice before we buy that product. Calories are not the only important thing, saturated fats, dietary fiber and sodium are. They trick us into believing it is really healthy when in reality, we might as well just eat a cheeseburger instead of putting all that ridiculous amount of salt in our body in just one serving. This in the long run, causes the highest amount of chronic diseases in the US. It is a matter of misinformation and ignorance. All it takes for the food industry is to brainwash us with a couple of words in the label and they've got it sold.
It is ridiculous how the amount of death's due to obesity are increasing every year. The United States is becoming an obese country, actually being known as a fat country!
I think that the food industry should try to stop this by providing more specific information on the products that each food contains, rather than throwing in a fancy line and trying to hide the junk the product has by reducing the calories. It is sad to see how this country is recognized for being so smart and well informed. Isn't it ironic? How stupid and ignorant the majority of us are when it comes to choosing our food. It is like if we are committing suicide, little by little we are killing ourselves!
Also, I find it unbelievable to see that they have actually made reality shows based on this. Just the other day, I was watching FAT AT 15! I could not believe it, I was traumatized with the thought of that show for about a week. I couldn't believe that they actually put those kids out there like that, it is so humiliating and psychologically wrong for these children to be showing their lifestyle and the horrible life's they live due to their obesity. Instead of spending all that time and money to broadcast it on TV, they should try to put some of that money on forcing the food industry to put nutritional information in all their products, including restaurants, especially fast food restaurants. Most of the people don't know where the chicken, pork or meat they eat are coming from. Yes, it is understandable that sometimes buying organic food is expensive but if a person would just be able to cut the amount of junk food it wouldn't be that bad.
Also, advertisement affect children the most. It is estimated that in between cartoon commercials over the weekend, at least 5,000 different food advertisements are seen by kids. It gets to a point where they are conditioned to believe that the food isn't that bad because they are brainwashed from such a young age. It breaks my heart to see a 12 year old girl that 200 pounds! That is just not right in any level.
I believe the health association's and food industries should really come along with a plan to reduce these numbers. Every year the percentage of obesity increases, if I am not mistaken, last years was 65% of adults in the US are obese and 45% of children are obese. That is just unbelievable!I think people should try to become more aware of what they are putting in their systems or at least try to cut down. But I am sure that if the health associations would throw a commercial on one of these issues, the number will be reduced. This is a matter of ignorance and misinformation. I believe it should be our right to know what we are really eating when we think we are having a delicious piece of chicken or whatever it is. WE NEED NUTRITIONAL EDUCATION! I believe this should start in schools, the younger kids are introduced to this information the faster the changes we will see. " We are what we eat!"
I believe the health association's and food industries should really come along with a plan to reduce these numbers. Every year the percentage of obesity increases, if I am not mistaken, last years was 65% of adults in the US are obese and 45% of children are obese. That is just unbelievable!I think people should try to become more aware of what they are putting in their systems or at least try to cut down. But I am sure that if the health associations would throw a commercial on one of these issues, the number will be reduced. This is a matter of ignorance and misinformation. I believe it should be our right to know what we are really eating when we think we are having a delicious piece of chicken or whatever it is. WE NEED NUTRITIONAL EDUCATION! I believe this should start in schools, the younger kids are introduced to this information the faster the changes we will see. " We are what we eat!"
Personally, I love eating meat, if anything I'm a meatytarian(i think i made this word up right now) since i, under no circumstance, like eating vegetables. Unfortunately, I think that is maybe one of the main reasons McDonalds targets people, namely young ones, into eating processed meats. They just don't like vegetables. Of course everything in life is wholesale, if you have MORE of something, the more cheaper it will be, supply and demand symdrome. so why do they waste so much resources on raising animals instead of just educating everyone to eat healthier and use the vegetables on people rather than fattening up the pigs to eat em? because people will more likely buy more meat than they will on other things, the world is about money, no matter what the cost. That's the way humans have been through all eternity, money talks, before it used to be with slavery, more money than hiring non-africans because they didn't have to pay the slaves. since slavery is no more, times tend to change, but the concept of money doesn't. when it comes to money, people lack ethics. take Dynamite for example, created by Alfred Nobel, it made BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS of dollars for the war, why was something so DESTRUCTIVE continued to be produced? because of money, more profit, more production. and in this case, it's the same idea, if killing pigs and processing meat generates more money, then McDonalds will continue doing it. why stop something when it's "working"? People lack ethics.
Good points, Alexia.
This food situation in America is in my opinion a disaster. It is a major contributor to the state of our environmental issues as well as a hazard to our health. Of course, television has “brainwashed” us in to consuming large numbers of fast food, but slowly the “slow food” is falling to corruption as well. Food should be nutritious, affordable, and free of bi-products or bacteria if possible.
It’s alarming that the majority of the food available at our local super markets is processed with sugar and high fructose corn syrup (or its many variations), as well as other bi-products to preserve its nutrition-lacking ingredients. Far more disturbing are the produce isles that are slowly becoming a processed orchestra as well. The produce available strangely has the same shape, color, and lacking flavor, similar to that of a model who has gone under the knife one too many times. It looks plastic. Generally, non-organic produce is now bio-genetically engineered, sprayed with fertilizer and insecticide, harvested before it is ripe, shipped across the country and then gassed to ripen. I can understand that these initiatives took place to increase the availability of products year round, but at what cost to our bodies and the environment. The amount of oil and bi-products it consumes to mass produce vegetable or fruit using fertilizers and insecticides, as well as force-ripening gasses, and shipping now consumes almost 15-20% of our national use. Not to mention that we eat this stuff. Produce begins to die the moment it is picked from its plant, we are eating dying food that is engineered to look fresh and inviting. What I find difficult to swallow is that organic food, which generally has had less done to it, is far more expensive and less available.
Another issue we must look at is food safety as well. Cheap food unfortunately seems to have a greater risk of being contaminated. Look at the recent egg recall that affected the Midwest. Over one billion eggs were recalled that were produced by only two factory farms in Iowa which come from the same corporate owner. That should be astounding! The quantity has become more important than the quality of our food. Another example is the rBGH that is given to our cows to increase production of milk; however, milk is often over produced and we are consuming a hormone that we don’t have enough information about its long-term effects. The hormone rBGH is banned in Canada and in Europe and many consumers fought back and requested milk and dairy products to exclude the product. Today you can see many products listing “rBGH free” but you will also see the disclaimer underneath that cites no difference between milk with rBGH and without it. This is a result of a lawsuit filed by the creator of rBGH, Monsanto, in an effort to save face of producing its product. Another grave risk factor is the number of antibiotics that are given to animals that are used for food. Because large factory farms have such large quantities of animals living in close quarters, they are often subject to virus, infection, and illness. They must then be treated with antibiotics, which are then consumed by us via the food chain.
We the consumers are the biggest and most effect tool to change what has become a giant machine of food production. If we start demanding more organic and locally farm raised foods, the more the giant companies that run our food chain will have to adapt. Read you labels. Learn what is in your food. A great website to do this is www.foodfacts.com.
One of the most important things that I can think of to shed light to this issue is to have all the consumers take a mandatory Nutrition class. This will alert everybody to the harm that they are doing to their own bodies. Most people are really not that concerned evidently, and only realize what they have done when they have a serious illness to wake them up to reality. We only have one life, and one chance to make sure that we keep our "temples" as healthy as possible. I really do not even believe that people treat their vehicles this bad. Hopefully, for the welfare of America, we can make progress in this arena. One thing for sure is that it will not be easy.
It is frustrating that we as a country have given so much power to the commercial giants who are systematically killing our bodies, our land, and our opportunities- and we pay them to do it. Even if you are conscious of what you eat, the Big-whatevers' (Pharma, Mac, etc) power is rooted so deep that our federal government is high up on the payroll of these companies, and they therefore get away with so much that you never know who is behind what you are seeing or hearing. Paid advertisements and research studies- if you aren't an expert on the subject, you can be easily misled by these publications. They are literally feeding us garbage from every direction, and our only possibility of survival is to educate ourselves on what we can do to have better health, and how to protect our rights, because these CEO's have educated themselves on how to take them away- business schools are about profit and the bottom line, often at the expense of ethics or rights. We are not forced to buy their products- we do have other choices. I believe the case of availability of healthier options is one of the biggest issues, this is a major problem because the companies actually have the upper hand since this is a free market. So the choices we have may not be the easier ones, but our future actually depends on it- the Time article proposes an interesting point: that we will have to change our ways regardless of whether we are prepared to or not, as the resources run out and climate changes etc. Scary to think that about having a food crisis when we have all been pigging out for so long, and what we would do without McDonald's then...
There is a whole lot of tragic irony that Americans would realize if we didn't put ourselves to sleep every day watching tv- BTW, a device which was essentially created to market products more efficiently to a mass audience. It really seems gross that with all the triumphs, successes and affluence our country has had that we are allowing, and contributing to (though some ignorant and others conscious) to our own social degradation and the destruction of our environment.
Andrea Gonzalez has a point. I work from 6am to 3 pm then come home to do homework, get ready go to school, then after school come home to watch TV; but before coming home i pass by wither McDonald's or Taco Bell to grab my dinner. Why is this because I'm too tired to cook and it is faster. We eat fast food because it is addicting to one another. We go to McDonald's we try a new Angus Burger Wrap, we are then hypnotizes in the flavors that our taste buds taste.
In continue from above statement...
There is also the problem that there is so many places to choose from if your dont like McDonald's you have the options to go to Arby's, Wendy's, Burger King, or Checkers. What some people don't realize is if you don't have time to cook or want something quick there are different options: order take out to your favorite restaurant. Most of these places use REAL meat, not meat that has been through a laboratory. Even thru my busy schedule i pick up the phone and order from a local restaurant and order my food to get it on my way home, even though I'm not eating good, but I'm eating better then McDonald's. Now many fast food places are "TRYING" to become healthier. In reality, I dont see a change. to resolve this solution I believe cutting down in these fast foods and opening more restaurants like Pollo Tropical and Subway may better our addiction in fast food.
"Taste Great even Late", "I'm lovin it", "Have it Your Way" or even “Think outside the Bun”. These are all great marketing advertisements that Americans become victim to by choice. I think that the reason America is obese is because we cannot do anything in moderation. I see nothing wrong with stopping for some fast food if you are on a road trip and there is nothing else around. The problem is there are people in this country that feed their children and themselves this garbage constantly, then are shocked when there 8 year old is weighing 160 lbs and act like they don’t know why. Seriously?? Nobody ever wonders where all this meat comes from either, or what is being put into it, the only thing that seems to be the main concern is that the prices stays low and the food comes quick. A lot of Americans use the excuse that they do not have enough time to make lunch or dinner. In my opinion this is not an acceptable excuse, I work from 7-5 then school from 5:40-7 or 8. I cook all my food on Sunday and put it in the fridge so it will be ready for me to grab during the week. It’s not that some people do not have the time; it is that they are lazy and fast food is an easy escape. Children need to start being educated on good nutrition, and taught what lifelong benefits of eating healthy are. Morgan Spurlock made a movie called Super Size Me. He showed what the side effects of eating McDonald's for a whole month would be, if he would of kept eating past a month it would have eventually killed him.
Interesting little story! My feedback to this article is going to be a little straightforward. Hopefully people don't get offended.
That said, I think what America is really known for is obesity. Now I don't mean obesity as a symptom that is hereditary, I mean it in the sense of poor eating habits along with no kind of exercising. Unfortunately, the way we live our day-to-day life is much different then that of other countries. In the U.S life, we have been conditioned to study hard to get into the work force. Once we arrive to the work force, essentially our lives our mon-fri 9-5pm.
During the rush of our 9-5, with only about 30 minutes to eat food, why not go across the corner to a fast food joint to munch down some food, and get rushing back into the stress "work force". Seeing that time can be a limiting factor in our day to day, people rush for the quickest and most effective food. The fast food!
It's a little repugnant to see a bunch of pigs lying on top of another just thrown like a bunch of wheat grass. I don't seem to fathom how us Americans can eat and savor meat that has been processed much more than what is shown on television. With all the hormones and chemicals they put into the poultry, I cannot understand how people continue eating it. I feel the only way people will come to understanding how bad the McDonalds and other fast food joints are, is until they become so unhealthy physically, where there skin just hangs like a ornament on a Christmas tree. Pardon my words, but the reality is if people don't see how unhealthy the food can be to them, then maybe what they need is a doctor to say, "you're on the verge of getting a heart attack". In my opinion, those kinds of words can definitely make an impact!
One way of advertising appropriate meals is for people to show openly what happens to those who eat healthy food. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, and fish! Speaking from my own experience, I’ve been a vegetarian for almost a year, and I have never felt so healthy in my life. I feel good physically, the energy in my body doesn’t diminish, and my body digests very well. My recommendation to everyone is watch the movie super sizes me! That'll put some creepy vibes about McDonalds!
Leandro
I think in order to change the way we eat and see nutritional foods, we must change the way we live our lives. As a young adult who works, has a home and/or family and is going to school, it doesn’t leave much time to think about what healthy meal we can cook that night let alone having the time to go buy the ingredients to make it. We get so caught up in the daily rat race and forget about everything else. Given, that is no excuse not to eat healthy. We must all play a part in changing this, IF we really want to. I believe that the first thing we need to do is educate ourselves in what we are consuming, how we are consuming it, where it is being grown and how. Then we must make the effort to change our ways of living and where we purchase these goods. There are a hand full of places were you can go and get fresh, local grown products. The problem is that we must make the effort to have this change. Until them, not much, if anything, will change.
Fast food is a controversial topic because it has been fighting against healthly food for many years. even though we know that fast food is bad for our health, we eat it anyway. In America, we have the highest rate of obesity, but why? maybe because we are the kings of fast food. As the professor said, we consume fast food because it is faster than cook some brocolli or go to publix. it is like we have to eat it, we dont have another choice. i think it is not only fast food, but other products like corn, carrots, etc are made with pesticides, do we have another choice? i think organic food its a better options, but it is expensive. The government has to do something about the prices, so everybody can get those products, and start eating healthly.
Diego Delgado
In a report made by Nation Master on august 2010 obesity Statistic results shows that America is the leading country with 30.6% of obesity (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity). It is alarming to see this numbers because this is something we can avoid. In my opinion, fast food will always exist and I'm not saying that we should stop eating burgers and french fries because some people just love the taste and I think we should treat ourselves once in a while (If that’s what you like). However, we need to address the ongoing issues with modern farming. These animals are given hormones for faster growth, which is part of the reasons why these meats are less expensive. In addition, the amount of antibiotics that are given to these animals is becoming an issue. Every time these animals are given antibiotics, bacteria reacts to it and becomes more resistant to the antibiotic, making it harder for the farmer to keep these animals from getting sick. Although, these animals are being grown for food consumption, the animals living condition are a continuing problem. They are grown in over populated cages or holding areas, covered in their own waste and treated cruelly. As a result, we end up eating all this stuff that these animals are given which in the long run will give us diseases such as high blood pressure, heart problems, strokes and so on. Even if we are tired because of our full time job, school and kids, we should make time to prepare our meals and add some vegetables and fruits to our diet. These will safe us from an early death due to obesity or any kind of disease that these unhealthy and processed foods will give us. We will be able to see our kids grow and it will provide them a good foundation to teach the future generation how to take care of themselves in relation to their health.
Rebeca Furniss
To begin I have to say this has given me second thoughts about eating dinner tonight at McDonalds - or has it? Yes, I agree this is a cruel way of going about feeding the addictive needs of Americas meat lovers but I need so much more to believe it has a harmful effect on the human body. I moved to Downtown about six months ago and have been eating ritually at McDonalds, Burger king, or Checkers and have yet to notice any physical change in blood pressure, physical endurance, and/ or gastrointestinal activity. Though I’m Not to say that this method doesn’t have a harmful effect on people because it possible could but until I’m am presented with legitimate scientific proof that fast food has a long lasting negative effect on my body then the quality of the food seems ok to me; despite the physical cruelty done to the animals which seems like an issue of lacking founds. A possible solution could be what we do to the meat after the pigs are killed to tenderize it as appose to how we treat the pigs while they are alive so the meat remains tender. As far as water pollution, some sort of system could be developed to collect fetal matter from the pigs for sterilization for manure.
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