| Obesity and fast foods - there's little doubt about | | | | storytelling ability, or the novelty of my arguments. |
| the link. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in | | | | "Had the same book been published a decade ago, |
| the United states. And it's an epidemic that has | | | | with the same words in the same order, it probably |
| grown side by side, step by step with the the fast | | | | wouldn't have attracted much attention. Not just in |
| food industry. | | | | the United States, but throughout western |
| Eric Schlosser in his brilliant and shocking book, Fast | | | | Europe,people are beginning to question the massive, |
| Food Nation, describes the US as "an empire of fat," | | | | homogenizing systems that produce, distribute, and |
| and he lays the blame for this clearly and convincingly | | | | market their food. The unexpected popularity of Fast |
| at the door of the fast food industry. | | | | Food Nation, I believe, has a simple yet profound |
| Obesity Fast Food Data | | | | explanation. The times are changing." |
| Twice as many American adults are obese today as | | | | What can we do about fast food and obesity? |
| in the 1960s. More than half of all adults and a quarter | | | | So what can we do to as consumers to tackle the |
| of all children are now obese. Over this same period, | | | | problem of obesity and fast foods? |
| fast food has become cheaper and easier to buy. | | | | First, we can stop supporting the traditional, |
| Further evidence for the link between obesity and | | | | unhealthy fast food chains. Let's rather buy from |
| fast food can be found outside the US. Since the | | | | outlets that sell healthy alternatives. More and more |
| early 1980s, American-style fast food culture has | | | | of these restaurants and delis are opening. There |
| spread like wildfire around the world... And obesity has | | | | should be at least one near you. Support it! |
| followed, accompanied by its many unwelcome side | | | | Another thing we can do is to lobby our |
| effects: heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and other ills. | | | | congressperson (or MP or some other political |
| As people in countries like Japan and China have | | | | representative if we're in a country outside the US) |
| abandoned traditional healthy diets in favour of fast | | | | to ban all advertisements that promote foods high in |
| food, the rates of obesity and associated diseases | | | | fat and sugar to children. |
| have soared. | | | | As Schlosser points out, prevention is far better than |
| In countries which have resisted the spread of fast | | | | cure. "A ban on advertising unhealthy foods to |
| food culture, like France, Italy and Spain, obesity is | | | | children would discourage eating habits that are not |
| far less of a problem. The good news is that there is | | | | only hard to break, but potentially life-threatening." |
| now more awareness about the ill effects of fast | | | | Such a ban may sound far-fetched, until you |
| food than ever before, thanks in part to books like | | | | remember that 35 years ago a ban on cigarette |
| Fast Food Nation and documentary movies like | | | | advertising sounded equally unlikely. Five years later |
| Morgan Spurlock's popular and punchy Super Size Me. | | | | Congress banned cigarette ads from television and |
| There also seems to be a genuine change in people's | | | | radio. And those ads were directed at adults, not |
| attituded to to food and how it is produced. As | | | | children. |
| Schlosser says modestly of his book: "its success | | | | Smoking has declined ever since. |
| should not be attributed to my literary style, my | | | | |