Analyzing Fast Food Nation

Judy Cordova

Professor ________ (Subject

2 May 2008

Analysis of Fast Food Nation : The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

When investigative journalist Eric Schlosser declared in his book , Fast Food Nation : The Dark Side of the All-American Meal that the fast food industry both feeds and feeds off the young (9o , he was driving home a point that mainstream media has perpetually touched on , but which parents continually cast a blind eye on - children falling prey to fast food . Although fast food has been carefully designed to taste good (Schlosser

9 , and has taken countries across the world by storm , it is generally devoid of nutrients . No less than the World Health Organization has featured in one of its online sites that energy-dense fast foods , carbonated soft drinks , sugary breakfast cereals , salty snacks and baked goods , tend to be high in fats , sugars and salt and nutrient-poor (Hawkes 1 . Knowing this , one cannot disregard the distress or slow agony that builds up over time when parents find their children , or their friends ' or family members ' children , being unwittingly swept away by the unstoppable fast food craze . Actually Fast Food Nation : The Dark Side of the All-American Meal presents many searing accounts of what goes on behind the ever-mushrooming fast food industry - how numerous young hires work-back-aching shifts for hours on end to earn a few bucks , the unsanitary tendencies that introduce E coli and other pathogens into restaurants , the meatpackers ' plight and conditions in slaughterhouses , the vigorous franchising and flavor industries , and so on . However , I have chosen to focus on fast food 's detrimental health impact on children , because it is a cold reality everyone , at a certain point in time , must contend with . Fastfood businesses may be flourishing , but at the expense of our children 's health

Although fleetingly touched on in the book , it grates like a pebble in a concerned parent 's shoe , demanding attention amidst the hubbub of myriad issues simultanteously tackled . Junk foods or chemically processed foods in today 's fastfood restaurant chains leave an indelible mark on youngsters very eager to partake of goodies they see on television and other forms of media . While doing so , fast food fosters poor eating habits that are hard to break , and impairs overall health of children in the long run . Rising diss of kids in the present age have been attributed by doctors to non-stop fast food consumption . Citing scientific studies , Dr . Kaneez Fatima Shad , a professor of molecular medicine and neuropsychology in Karachi , said food additives were decreasing the mental capacity of children by at least 16 percent (Husain , par . 3

Award-winning correspondent and social crusader Eric Schlosser cited among other well-researched facts incorporated in his book , that while there are undeniably harmful additives present in fast food items like the well-loved cheeseburger , french fries and sodas , The (US ) Food and Drug Administration does not require flavor companies to disclose the ingredients of their additives , so long as all chemicals are considered by the...