Fast Food Effects On the

Human BodyBy: Hodalis Rodriguez

What is fast food?● Fast Food is food that can be

prepared quickly and easily, then sold to the public in restaurants as a quick meal. But, nowadays restaurants as well as consumers take little to no consideration if the food meets sanitary conditions or, if its healthy. The definition has changed from food being quick, and easy to being quick, easy, and HARMFUL!

● Fast Foods are served in local restaurants we all know such as McDonald's, Burger King, Popeyes, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Subways, etc.

Why do people consume fast food?● Yes, fast food tastes amazing

but, the number one reasons why humans consume it is not mostly because of it's taste but, because of their stressful, time condensed environments, laziness, and inexpensive cost.

● These reasons provoke 1 in 4 Americans to visit a fast food restaurant daily.

● McDonald's feeds more than 46 million people a day which is more than Spain's population

Is it worth it?● Even though fast food is tasteful people

don't know the consequences of consuming it.

● Fast foods are loaded with extra calories, trans fats, sodium, and sugars.

● Consuming fast foods can lead to obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and even a heart attack.

● Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic, and the US has been rated the highest. It's now not only becoming common in adults but, also children. Obesity has been linked to many other health issues such as hypertension, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, breast, prostate and colon cancers, insulin resistance, asthma, reproductive hormone abnormalities, impaired fertility,body pains and much more.

Facts and Statistics● There are more than 300,000

fast food restaurants in the U.S. alone.

● Statistics indicate that of all the items on the McDonald’s menu, except for seven of them contain no sugar.

● Most children in North America are able to recognize McDonald’s before they even learn to speak.

● Non-Hispanic black adults consumed a higher percentage of calories from fast food than other races.

● 40% of American meals are eaten out.● McDonald's represents 43% of total U.S. fast food market.● French fries are the number 1 "vegetable" in America.● McDonald's distributes more toys per year then Toy's-R-Us.● To burn off the calories of a Big Mac, large coke, and fries you

would have to walk 3 mph for 6 hours.● The three most unhealthiest fries are Arby's curly fries, McDonald's

regular french fries, and Dairy Queen regular french fries.

Interview The best person to interview for the topic of fast food would be an employee at a local fast food restaurant. For my topic I interviewed our classmate Edwin.● Do you eat at McDonald's? Why or why not?

Only during breaks because of the fact that its free food but, edwin is sure to make the food himself so that he knows it's clean.● Would you consider the food good for you?

The prices at McDonald's are good but, the food not so much. As proof of the unhealthiness of McDonald's food Edwin went up 3 pants sizes in one month of employment. ● What type of sanitary conditions are there at

McDonald's? At work the other employees mostly only clean

when they are told to by the manager, and even then they treat it as whatever. Employees aren't really enforced into washing their hands. While getting food from the preparing station to the drive thru sometimes it falls, and is picked back up, and served to the customers. Also, there has been a dead cockroach in the ice machine.

Fast Food Article● An excellent theory was made by an unknown author of a

nonfiction article about fast food. The author's proven theory was that 43% of adults suffer from stress.

● Stress leads to laziness, and being tired, which then leads to making bad choices. Hence people choose to buy fast food over cooking a healthy home meal.

● High levels of Cortisol, the stress hormone, cause people to crave foods that are high in fat, sugar, and also salt.

http://teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/301318/Fast-Food/

Follow-Up ● Fast Food Nation is a nonfiction

book written by Eric Schlosser. In this book Schlosser reveals all the true facts about fast food such as the effects, profits, ways of advertisement, etc.

● Supersize Me is a documentary by Morgan Spurlock. For the course of 30 days Morgan puts himself to the test of consuming only McDonald's food. The end affects are astounding.

Questions

● What are 3 effects that fast food can cause to the human body?

● Why do people consume fast foods?

● Do you think a BigMc and fries today is worth severe health problems in the future?

● What percentage does McDonald's represent in the total U.S fast food market?

References● http://teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/301318/Fast-

Food/

● http://www.vivavegie.org/101book/text/nolink/social/supersizeme.htm

● http://chainoffools.org/fact_negeffect.html

● http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/fast-food-nutrition-junk-foods-effect-on-your-body.html#b