Fast food has come under criticism over concerns ranging from claimed negative health effects, alleged animal cruelty, cases of worker exploitation, and claims of cultural degradation via shifts in people's eating patterns away from traditional foods. Fast food chains have come under fire from consumer groups, such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a longtime fast food critic over issues such as caloric content, trans fats and portion sizes. Social scientists have highlighted how the prominence of fast food narratives in popular urban legendssuggests that modern consumers have an ambivalent relationship (characterized by guilt) with fast food, particularly in relation to children.[1]
This guilt is projected onto processed food, where bizarre tales of contamination and lax standards are widely believed. Some of the concerns have led to the rise of the slow food, or local food movements. These movements seek to preserve local cuisines and ingredients, and directly oppose laws and habits that favor fast food choices. Proponents of the slow food movement try to educate consumers about what its members considers the richer, more varied and more nourishing tastes of fresh, local ingredients that have been recently harvested.
Health based criticisms
According to the Massachusetts Medical Society Committee on Nutrition, fast food is especially high in fat content, and studies have found associations between fast food intake and increased body mass index (BMI) and weight gain.[2] A 2006 study[3] fed monkeys adiet consisting of a similar level of trans fats as what a person who ate fast food regularly would consume. Both diets contained the same overall number ofcalories. It was found that the monkeys who consumed higher level of trans fat developed more abdominal fat than those fed a diet rich in unsaturated fats. They also developed signs of insulin resistance, which is an early indicator of diabetes. After six years on the diet, the trans fat fed monkeys had gained 7.2% of their body weight, compared to just 1.8% in the unsaturated fat group.
The director of the obesity program for the Children's Hospital Boston,David Ludwig, claims that "fast food consumption has been shown to increase calorie intake, promote weight gain, and elevate risk for diabetes". Excessive calories are another issue with fast food. According to B. Lin and E. Frazao, from the Department of Agriculture, states the percentage of calories which attribute to fast-food consumption has increased from 3% to 12% of the total calories consumed in the United States.[2] A regular meal at McDonald's consists of a Big Mac, large fries, and a large Coca-Cola drink amounting to 1,430 calories. A diet of approximately 2,000 calories is considered a healthy amount of calories for an entire day (which is different depending on several factors such as age, weight, height, physical activity and gender). This number of calories was set in 1917.
Food poisoning risk
Besides the dangers of trans fats (which were only used after animal fats came under attack because of the cholesterol risk), high calories, and low fiber, there is another health risk: food poisoning. In his bookFast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser describes in gross detail the process of meatpacking. Meatpacking has become one of the most hazardous jobs in the USA, with the risk of injury being three times higher than any other factory work.[5] The meatpacking factories concentrate livestock into feedlots and herd them through processing assembly lines operated by employees of various levels of expertise, some of which may be poorly trained, increasing the risk of large-scale food poisoning.[6]
Manure on occasion gets mixed with meat, possibly contaminating it with salmonella and Escherichia coli 0157:H7. E. coli 0157:H7 is one of the worst forms of food poisoning. Usually spread through undercooked hamburgers, it is difficult to treat. Although antibiotics kill the bacteria, they release a toxin that produces harmful complications. About 4% of people infected with E. coli 0157:H7 develop hemolytic uremic syndrome, and about 5% of children who develop the syndrome die. The rate of developing HUS is 3 in 100,000 or 0.003%. E. coli 0157:H7 has become the leading cause of renal failure among American children.[7]These numbers include rates from all sources of poisoning, including lettuce; radish sprouts; alfalfa sprouts; unpasteurized apple juice/cider; cold cooked or undercooked meat; and unpasteurized animal milk. Additional environmental sources include fecal-contaminated lakes, nonchlorinated municipal water supply, petting farm animals and unhygienic person-to-person contact. [8] An average of sources leads to the number of 0.00000214% for undercooked beef.
Food-contact paper packaging
Fast food often comes in wrappers coated with polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters (PAPs) to prevent grease from leaking through them. These compounds are able to migrate from the wrappers into the packaged food.[9] Upon ingestion, PAPs are subsequently biotransformed into perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs), compounds which have long attracted attention due to their detrimental health effects in rodents and their unusually long half-life in humans. While epidemiological evidence has not demonstrated causal links between PFCAs and these health problems in humans, the compounds are consistently correlated with high levels of cholesterol and uric acid, and PAPs as found on fast food packaging may be a significant source of PFCA contamination in humans.
Fast food negative effects
On average, nearly one-third of U.S. children aged 4 to 19 eat fast food on a daily basis. Over the course of a year this is likely to result in a child gaining six extra pounds every year. [11] In a research experiment done by Pediatrics, 6,212 children and adolescents ages 4 to 19 years old were examined to find out some information about fast food. After interviewing the participants in the experiment, it was discovered that on a given day 30.3% of the total sample have reported to have eaten fast food. Fast-food consumption was prevalent in both males and females, in all racial/ethnic groups, and in all regions of the country.[12]
Children who ate fast food, compared to those who did not, tended to consume more total fat, carbohydrates, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Children who ate fast food also tended to eat less fiber, milk, fruits, and non-starchy vegetables. After reviewing these test results, the researchers concluded that consumption of fast food by children seems to have a negative effect on an individual's diet, in ways that could significantly increase the risk for obesity.[13] One of the top sellers in the fast food industry are beef hamburgers. The cows slaughtered for the meat are sick steroidal animals that are fed grain rather than grass. During this process, the cows are abused and put through factory farming. Factory farming is the practice of raising overcrowded livestock in a confined space (otherwise known as “confinement at high stocking density” or “CAFOs”). CAFOs are designed to produce the highest output for the lowest cost by relying on “economies of scale” (the cost advantages that a business obtains due to expansion), modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade (6, 9). A typical day for one of these livestock is sitting in their own manure on top of one another with no space to roam, while occasionally getting beat and forced to eat antibiotics. These antibiotics keep the livestock alive by killing intestinal bacteria long enough for them to be sent to the slaughterhouse (6). Cows are fed grain because it speeds up their developmental process, generally ready to be slaughtered and sold by twelve to fourteen months (9). This is a big convenience for the fast food companies purchasing these animals because it lowers their value. Growth hormones, antimicrobial agents, and breeding programs produce animals more suited to the confined conditions, but less suited for the dinner table (6). To save money on feed, some factory farmed livestock are trained early on to eat only genetically engineered (GMO) corn by locking them into pens and feeding them nothing else. Either they eat the GMO corn or they starve. Cattle do not have the genetic ability to digest corn which ferments in at least one of the four stomach compartments. GMO corn feed is one of the root causes of the bacteria, E. coli. Many scientists argue that mad cow disease also derives from the feeding of GMO corn to cattle (6). These inhumane conditions are used with many other animals such as pigs and chickens. Chickens are cooped up in cages for most of their short lives, while also being fed growth hormones, some chickens grow so large that their legs don’t keep up with their fast paced development so they break (2, 7). Pigs are also victims of abuse; newborns are neutered with no medication or proper tools. Premature babies who have no chance in being big enough for slaughter are killed brutally by workers taking them by their hind legs and slamming their heads on the ground (2).
Fast food effects on workers
Not only do these conditions affect the animals, but the workers who are working in these unsanitary conditions are suffering as well. The current stats of the employees working at factory farms are: 1 in 3 women will have cancer in their lifetime and 1 in 2 men in their lifetime. There is no other rational explanation for the increase in these statistics (6). During the winter season, nearly all of America’s tomatoes are grown in Florida. On these farms where there are toxic pesticides used frequently, workers have to through back breaking labor under blazing hot conditions while abused verbally and physically all for a mere salary of less than twelve thousand per year (10).== References== 1.Bill haw (1995-2012). "modern meat". Frontline. Retrieved october 22,2012. 2.NA (ND). [.http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming.aspx "factory farming"]. Peta. Retrieved October 22,2012.3.NA (ND). "Mercy for animals". NP. Retrieved Ocotber 22,2012.4."Mcdonald drops egg farm after undercover investigation". Huff post. November 12,2011. Retrieved ocotber 22,2012. 5.NA (ND). "NT". NP. Retrieved October 22,2012. 6.Mannie Barling and Ashley F. Brooks (January 10, 2011). [Does Your Fast Food Hamburger Come from Steroid-pumped, Caged Cattle, Knee-deep in Urine Soaked Manure? "Does Your Fast Food Hamburger Come from Steroid-pumped, Caged Cattle, Knee-deep in Urine Soaked Manure?"]. NP. Retrieved October 22,2012. 7.Shilo Urban (ND). [What's in Fast Food Chicken? (Hint: It’s NOT Chicken) "Whats in our chicken"]. NP. Retrieved October 22,2012.8.NA (ND). "facts from super size me". NP. Retrieved Ocotber 22,2012. 9.Meg (November 22,2011). [Grass versus Grain "where does fast food come from?"]. NP. Retrieved October 22,2012. 10.{{cite web |url= http://billmoyers.com/2012/07/20/do-you-know-where-your-tomatoes-come-from/ |title= where do our tomatoes come
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