Should the fast food industry really be held at an ethical or moral standing for what they feed their customers? This has led to many abates and also many changes, but also it shows that the fast-food industry is operating on demand from the consumer. Right now the consumer doesn’t have a moral or ethical obligation to themselves, therefore the fast food industry should not. Over half of the food served in most of the fast food restaurants are highly processed, loaded with saturated fats, and empty calories.
The change that has happened in America over the last half century can also be attributed to more people eating take-out and turning to fast food for meals. A major reason fast food and take- UT is escalating seems to be that we are now living in a much faster paced economy which in turn leads us to live faster paced lives. Also, during the ass’s and ass’s being a stay at home mom was as common as the cold, now during the sass’s in order to get by most families require both parents working this in turn leads less time and energy to prepare healthy meals.
This in turn leads to ordering take-out or going through a drive-thru for the family meal, but should the responsibility lie solely on the fat-food industry, or is this a way for us to take away the guilt from ourselves for unhealthy dating habits and leading sedentary lifestyles? It is true almost all of the food seen on the menu is bad for a person’s health but, now many fast food restaurants now offer healthier options such as salad and fresh fruit. Although eating fast food does greatly contribute to America’s growing waistline we can’t place all the blame upon the fast food industry.
They never shoved it in our mouth or made us chew. Although we would like to believe that the Coo’s and owners and the “higher-ups” in the fast food industry develop their food with our well-being in mind it really is not true. They are n the business of making money and operate on consumer demand and right now the consumer is demanding the highly processed, saturated fat, and empty calorie foods served at such restaurants. It is time we see who is to blame and it starts with standing in front of the mirror.
The fast food industry is thriving, David Cenozoic makes this one of his points in his article “Don’t Blame the Eater” Zincked states “Drive down any thoroughfare in America, and I guarantee you’ll see one of our country’s more than 13,000 McDonald’s restaurants. Now, drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a rapture. ” (p. 392) This does certainly make the point that the fast food industry has taken over in make cities and towns of all sorts, but there are healthier fast food options. Not Just in McDonald’s but entire restaurants, like Subway for instance. ) Chris Moran wrote an article about his findings reading “USSR 50 report from USSR Magazine,” in his findings he has found that “According to the chart there were 25,549 Subways in the U. S. In 2012. To put that in perceptive that is 1. 8 times the fast food industry By sweetening_8389 almost double the amount of McDonald’s even. The point made earlier about the consumer wanting the fatty, unhealthy foods still stands as Moran also points out from the chart. Subway only brought in around one-third of the sales revenue that McDonald’s earned in 2012.. .” Why should the Coo’s of the fast food industry put America’s health in mind when American’s do not care to put their own health in mind? They are in the business for consumer demand, the consumer is obviously demanding this unhealthy food so much so that being obese and overweight is becoming more acceptable and in some cases glorified. Decades ago it was rare to see a plus size American with a lot of skin showing.
It was rare for clothing designers to make clothes for overweight or obese people that didn’t cover and conceal the fatness, it was also rare to be overweight. Now it is acceptable for a size 16 to wear a string bikini or mint-skirt. If it is only becoming more and more acceptable, so why change the way Americans are eating it is perfectly to okay to be fat and unhealthy. (This is not to say that not accepting a person for their appearance is okay. ) If we were maybe a little less tolerable about a at person picking up a candy bar as we are a smoker smoking maybe it would turn this epidemic around.
Obesity is not only affecting the adults in America it is also affecting our children and teens Debra Goldman points out the change in her article “on the front lines where the war on obesity meets fat acceptance” Goldman also points out “Fourteen percent of teens are overweight, three time the percentage of 20 years ago.. ” Fourteen percent may not seem like a lot but, after doing a little math it is compared to the 4. 6 percent twenty years ago at the time she wrote this article, which was ten years ago no doubt that number has risen again.
As the percentage of overweight American’s rises so does the acceptance. After all the negativity the fast food industry received especially after the lawsuit of the two teenage girls suing McDonald’s for making them fat it is now okay to be overweight and obese.. After this lawsuit many fast food restaurants put up the calories and fat content of their food and introduced more healthy options, but now being fat and eating that kind of food is okay. This is the point I have taken from Goldman article.
The transition of fat being okay leaves many marketers at a loss as to what to advertise Goldman explains this by “as the obesity crisis deepens, the challenge for marketers is to champion what consumers in their desire not to be fat and champion them again when they get fat anyway. ” Many of these changes have been brought on by the mentioned lawsuit which brought on all the changes. Goldman also found in her research “96 percent of respondents agreed that ” parents are responsible for ensuring their children have a healthy bodyweight”…. Likewise 94 percent believe “each adult is solely responsible for his/her bodyweight.
These questions of the survey bring light that American’s do feel responsible, but, on the other end of the spectrum they also said “88 percent of respondents to the same survey believe that fast food restaurants facilitate overeating with supervising, and 83 percent agree that too much food advertisement is aimed at children… 40 percent expect the food industry to do something about it. ” Not only are we fat but we are also hypocritical. We believe that it is the person’s responsibility yet we want the food industry to do something about it and put some of the blame on them.
It may be true that fast food also adult aimed commercials ads. Do we only take down the bad out of what we see and not give credit for the change that American’s outcry has caused? The fast food industry has changed so much over the last decade, they openly display the nutritional information and fat content of their products and they have added healthier options to the menu. With open nutritional information and healthier options at the consumers request over the years Americans should be taking this opportunity to start to concentrate on their health instead of relying on he fast food industry to.
