Fast Food Is The Cause Of Obesity In The United States

Fast Food

For a long time, fast food restaurants have been a good place to get cheap and good food, but fast food is also one of the causes of the constant rise of obesity in the United States. Obesity rates in the United States are much higher than those in other countries with the U.S. having 34 percent of adults being obese. Food is also very cheap compared to many countries but also has a lot of calories and other unhealthy fats which is part of the reason why adults in the United States are overweight. Fast food is a billion dollar industry around the world and with thousands of fast food restaurants located everywhere in the United States it is relatively easy for many Americans to get obese or have an increased chance of getting heart

One reason is because fast foods have too many calories in them. A Whopper at Burger King is close to 700 calories and the average man needs about 2,500 calories a day. Americans also have too much sodium in their diet. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium should be eaten in a day. “More than 75 percent of the sodium Americans eat comes from some processed, prepackaged and restaurant foods” (Sodium Breakup). This includes fast food because one item at a fast food restaurant can have up to half the recommended amount of sodium needed per day. Another unhealthy thing found in a lot of fast foods is trans fat. “Trans fats have no known health benefits and that there is no safe level of consumption” (Harvard Medical School). Trans fat can increase the risk of heart disease and some fast foods have as much as 4 grams of trans fat. Fast food has a lot of unhealthy things in them and it has a big effect on Americans especially, and can lead to obesity, heart disease, and other problems. It may be true that it is someone’s choice to eat fast food, however regulations still need to be changed to make this food

The United States mass produces a lot of resources that can be easily made into fast food while healthy food like fruits and vegetables are in lower amounts and they can cost more money. “American corn production has tripled in the past 40 years, from 4 billion bu. in 1970 to 12 billion” (The Atlantic). There is a lot of cheap food like corn that is abundant in the United States and is part of the reason why fast food is so inexpensive in the United States. Many studies have shown that fast food restaurants also try to make their food available to families that have a low income by making their restaurants more prominent in those areas. Researchers at the University of North Carolina have found that there are more fast food locations in lower income areas (Fast Food Targets Low Income). More studies have been done to try to prove that fast food companies are purposely putting their restaurants in low income areas. “Fast food consumption went up dramatically when a fast food restaurant was located between 1 and 3 kilometers (.6 – 2 miles) away from the home of an adult” (Fast Food Targets Low Income). The research shows that this was particularly common in the low income neighborhoods, where they get most of their business. Fast Food places make their food too cheap which helps contribute to the obesity in the United States. Others may say that the point of fast food is for it to be