The lifestyle around here has changed in so many ways from when our parents were children. People prefer to go out to a McDonald’s or Wendy’s grab some food and eat that instead of eating a home cooked meal at the dinner table. In the United States ample people eat fast food as a daily meal, whether it is breakfast, lunch, dinner, or all three. It has become part of everyone’s daily routine. We drive by plenty fast food restaurants I kind of understand why it may be hard to not stop and just grab a fry. People know that fast food is not healthy for them but they continue to eat it. They carry on doing this people of their lack of time, the price, even taste. It is hard to pull yourself away from it. Look at how many are now blaming fast food as the cause of obesity in children, but it continues to increase.
Food is classified as either being healthy for us or unhealthy. You order a big mac meal and make it a large. Even with the nutrition facts on the boxes and wrappers now people still ignore what they are putting in their mouths. You could eat the daily calories recommended in one meal at one fast food restaurant, adding unneeded sugar, fat, and sodium that you didn’t need. After people started talking about fast food chains and Super Size Me came out healthier choices became an option. Some didn’t see it but some of the so called healthier selections weren’t so much healthier. Trying to find a well-balanced healthy meal out at a fast food restaurant may be difficult and take some time. You need to look closely at what you are ordering when out. It only brings on the calories that you shouldn’t eat all for one meal. Do you even know what you are eating? Fast food is dangerous both evident and concealed that the public is either unaware of or is choosing to ignore.
The consumption of fast food among Americans is increasing. There are countless reasons on why fast food is so popular. Some say that the taste of the delicious burgers draws them in. Others say that the cheap price to feed their family is more appealing and the convenience of being able to go to a drive through and have food made for you. Every corner you turn, every time you turn your head, every car ride you take you see a fast food chain there or an advertisement drawing you in. It never ends. But if only people really knew the chemicals being put into their “handy” dinners they are about to feed their children with. In this day and age time is so valuable. The convenience really keeps drawing you in or is it the double drive thru windows that can provide some extra speedy service for you? Don’t forget about the coupons you receive in the mail every week. It’s like you can never escape from fast food being a part of your lifestyle no matter how hard you try to avoid it.
Children love their chips, cookies, and weekly fast food. It never ends. They love eating it. Sweets, sugars, and all together fattening. But the kids love it so the parents don’t want to take that happiness away from them. It makes the kids happy. But do you ever wonder what is depicting the kids into these habits? It is just looking at it? What if they have never had it before? The toys in happy meals, I know when I was little I just wanted a happy meal so I can eat and at the end have a new toy. And I would keep going back because they had so many to collect. Then the toy theme would change and you would have to collect all of those toys too. I look at it as if these chains target children. They do this because they want to get them at a young age. Once they do this they begin to get attached and it becomes part of the way they live. They grow up and begin to keep eating what they ate as they grew up eating. Is that really fair though? Kids cannot stop this from happening to themselves.
Is obesity becoming a fast food epidemic? Is obesity becoming to new addiction behind tobacco? Part of the blame for the obesity problem is the greasy and grimy fast food. Much of the blame is being put on the fast food industries themselves. Look back at this shouldn’t the parents be the ones liable? Children don’t up and walk to McDonald’s with all the money they have an order themselves a happy meal, better yet the parents bring them and buy it for them and most often than they should. Parents do not realize that dinner does not call for a grilled up steak or make a fish fillet dinner, nonetheless a microwavable TV dinner is much healthier. There is less fat, calories, and sodium in them. If we were comparing Americans wealth to health we would be bankrupt because of the problems we are dealing with dealing with our health. Many do not control the amount they are eating. Parents are spoiling them because what parents want to deal with the sounds of a crying and whiny child because they want fast food as their lunch or dinner meal. Parents are supposed to keep their children healthy but they are interpreting “healthy” in a funny way now and days. I wasn’t quite aware that french fries, cheese hamburgers, and coke were healthy, nor was I aware that McDonald’s thought their food could qualify as healthy.
What about exercising? There is a huge lack of motivation amongst Americans. It is not only about the healthy eating and trying to avoid the unhealthy fast food but maintain a healthy workout schedule. Parents do need to focus on the amount of physical activity their children and themselves are involved in. Many people and children get easily distracted by the new episode of their favorite TV show, or they are sitting on their computers and video games. Children have even forgotten what it is like to run around outside and get all messy not because of food but because of how muddy it is outside. School seems to be the only type of physical activity they encounter.
People still do have the freedom to choose what they want to eat and they still continue to choose fast food as their main food sources. It is as if fast food is the silent killer. Not enough people try to plan out there meals in the beginning of the week. We live in such a hectic and fast paced society everything is always go go go. So at the end of the day who really wants to go home and preheat the oven and prepare a meal? Unfortunately the fast food epidemic goes with just how society is today. No one really takes that much time for themselves now a days and it’s a shame. We are the only ones who can find a solution to this problem. Until we take a few steps back put down our phones and realize there’s more to life than always being on the go we will still have this problem. So instead of going to go to get the kids chicken nuggets from McDonalds, take them to the store with you and buy some chicken breast and do it yourself. Instead of frying try baking there’s always an alternate choice to everything it just matters how much of an effort you want to put into it. There is always a better option.
