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Fast Food And Obesity In The United States

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According to fastfoodmarketing.org, “Despite the addition of some healthy kids' meal options, less than 1% of all kids' meal combinations - 33 out of 5,427 possible meals -- met recommended nutrition standards.” My purpose for writing this paper is to address the topic of fast food and to show how unhealthy it is and to propose alternative ways to prepare fast food and to keep the cost down. Nearly between fifty and one hundred million American’s purchase fast food every single day. That is roughly one sixth the population of the United States. Fast food restaurants are easily accessible and can be found on many streets. With the food being cheap, easy to obtain and very unhealthy, fast food is one of the leading causes of obesity in America. …show more content…

In 2010 McDonald’s heavily promoted their “all new healthy food for children”. Upon further research the truth about the new foods came out. Only 1% of children’s meals met nutrition standards. Also in 2010 fast food menus grew on average by almost 40%, but the additions to the already large menu hardly included healthy options. One of the main contributing factors in fast food being so healthy is the amount of sodium they use in their products. In one McDonald's cheeseburger there is 1.15 grams of salt. On average the daily intake of sodium for a healthy grown adult is suggested around 6 grams of salt. (recipes.howstuffworks.com) That is a very high amount of salt in a nutritionally lean cheeseburger that most likely will not fill your stomach up and it is highly likely a person will order more than that at one meal. High levels of salt in your diet is very negative on your health. High salt intake increases blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease. Salt is one of the most overused ingredients in fast food because it is very cheap to supply. Great amounts of salt can be bought for very little capital and fast food restaurants will try to find any way to save money. Another reason salt is used so often is it can preserve most any food to keep it fresh longer. Also sodium is a very simple, yet effective seasoning for foods. There are multiple reasons chains use sodium, but

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