American Diet - Fat and Politics

American Diet

In the document, “Fat and Politics: Suing Fast Food Companies” by Michael Stephans, he explains why fast food restaurants such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Burger King should be sued. He also explains why the government should step in and attempt to regulate or put restrictions on how much nutritional value a food should have. In addition heart disease is America’s number one killer because of the desire for people to eat at fast food restaurants. Fast food restaurants are very unhealthy to the human body. Therefore the government should try to regulate the nutrition in these fast food restaurants and in junk foods. There are also other factors that goes into the obesity of America.

America is one of the most unhealthiest countries. Stephans states that, “32% of people are of Americans are overweight and about two thirds of these are obese(Stephans, 609).” This factor alone says that there is going to be a huge increase in diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. This was because the foods that makes up the typical Americans diet

Are not healthy enough and contain empty calories. Empty calories are foods that you eat which are high in calories but gives little or no vitamins and minerals. Stephans implies that, “80% of heart disease and cancer could be eliminated by simple changes in our eating habits(Stephans, 609).” This shows how important diet is to ones health. Change like eating more organic foods and less processed meat can change health tremendously.

Stephans argues that America’s diet is changed by industry, corporate franchising, and the media. Fast food franchises, super markets, and convenience foods has been spread across America due the creation of cars, super highways, and urbanization. The modern foods that children eat are created by the media such as the television. Eating cereal for breakfast has been created by the media. These foods contain a high amount of trans fat. Trans fats are added in these foods to make them last longer. Urban America could possibly have something to do with obesity.

They layout of suburban America also has factors in obesity as this layout forces one to drive. “Studies have shown that each hour spent in a car per is associated with a 6% increase in likelihood of obesity. While each kilometer walked per day had a 4.8% reduction in the likelihood of obesity(Frank, 2004).” The driving of a car is due to the layout of American cities and suburbs which doesn’t result in much bike riding. “Only 6% of urban travel is done by biking in America whereas over 45% of urban travel in European countries are on bike(Pucher).” This is another reason why America is the most obese country in the world along with the way they use there time.

An AmericanвЂ?s diet can also contribute to a poor diet. “An American’s work week on average is 10 hours more than that of Europeans(Robinson, 1999) .”