Quote 4

"Fast-food consumption has increased in the United States during the past three decades," said Pereira. "While there have been many discussions about fast-food's effects on obesity, this appears to be the first scientific, comprehensive long-term study to show a strong connection between fast-food consumption, obesity, and risk for type 2 diabetes."

Response: This quote comes from the article "15-Year Study Shows Strong Link Between Fast Food, Obesity And Insulin Resistance. In the article, a study that was conducted by Mark Pereira, Ph.D and David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., for 15 years showed that there was a correlation between fast-food, obesity, and insulin resistance. In the study, there were people who ate fast food twice a week, and then people who ate fast food once a week or less. The people that ate fast food twice a week gained on average 10 pounds more over the period than the people who at fast food once a week or less. This shows that fast food is unhealthy and is causing people to gain more weight than what they would if they just ate at home. Since the article was just an overview of the whole experiment, there were no details provided about how eating fast food affected a person's insulin resistance. Also there were not very many details provided about the health of the people who participated in the study.  The article alone however has enough evidence to show that fast-food is a factor in the reason why the obsity rate is climbing in the United States. Gaining ten pounds here, and ten pounds there can easily result in becoming obese over the years.

Quote 3

"Today the French fry is the dominant form of potato and America's favorite vegatable."

In the "Journal of Economic Perspectives- Volume 17" there is a section called "What have Americans Become More Obese?" The section brings up reasons why the obesity rate has climbed over the decades, linking it to fast-food, packaged foods, and lack of exercise and movement. To decribe the change in eating patterens of Americans, the authors David M. Cutler, Edward L. Glaeser, and Jesse M. Sharpiro used the potato as an example. Before World War II the potato was the most popular vegatable. They were usually either boiled, mashed, or baked. French fries were not popular because they required a large time of peeling, cutting, and cooking. Since there was not high technological machinery, this process would take a very long time. Fast forward to today's society. Many machines are around now that can peel, cut, cook, and then freeze the french fry to later be distributed and quickly deep fried at fast food restaurants, or even in the oven at home. It is common knowledge that boiling food is healthier than frying food. Frying food adds extra fat and calories to the food which results in weight gain, and clogging of the arteries. Taking a simple vegatable that is supposed to be good for the body, and then frying it and turning it into a fattening food is the reason why the obesity rate is steady climbing.  Fast food restaurants serve a large amount of fries everday, and this is another reason why the fast-food industry can be linked to the obesity rate climbing.

Quote 2

"The simple fact that fast food restaurants and obsity have both increased over time is insufficient proof of this link, as are studies that rely on differences in fast food consumption across individuals, since people who eat more fast foodmay be prone to other behaviors that affect obesity."

Response: Many people have noticed that over the years, the obesity rate has grown, and the fast food industry has grown. With fast food restaurants making improvements to their stores, and adding new food products to attract more and more customers, many can agree that fast-food is more prominent in today's society than it was decades ago. With obesity rates climbing at the same time, it is easy to assume that the fast-food industry is part of the reason why the obesity rate is climbing. This quote comes from the article "Do Fast Food Restaurants Contribute to Obesity?" In the article, researchers conducted a study that looked at whether being in a close proximeity of a fast-food restaurant increased the risk of obesity. The answer was yes. The study found that if a fast-food restaurant was within 0.5 miles away from a school, the risk of the school children being obese was raised by 5.2%. The study also found that the chance of a pregnant women gaining 20 kilos during her pregnancy was raised 2.2% if she lived with 0.1 miles of a fast-food restaurant. This study does not directly link fast-food restaurants to obesity, but it shows that the fast-food industry does have an effect on weight gain and obesity.

Quote 1

"You can't link our food to these kids being sick, you can't link our food to these kids being obese, our food is nutritious, its part of a balanced diet, it is good for you" -representatives of McDonald's.

Response:

This quote came from the article "Hardly Happy Meals," by John Clark. The article talked about the documentary "Super Size Me" which was about a man named Morgan Spurlock who ate McDonald's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 21 days. This experiment was supposed to go on for 30 days but all six of his doctors agreed that he had to stop or else he was going to put serious and permanant damage on his body. Throughout the 21 days, Spurlock gained more than 10 pounds, his cholesterol shot up more than 65 points, he had asthma, chest pains, heart palpitations, and sexual dysfunction. This sounds like McDonald's food is unhealthy and damaging to the body. I do not believe that all of McDonald's food is nutrtious and part of a balanced diet. If this were the case, then Spurlock would not have experianced all of these health problems that he did not have before he started the experiment. Also, if the food was so nutrtious and good for the body, why did all six of Spurlock's doctors tell him that he needed to stop the diet before the 30 days was up? This quote is basically a lie to the consumers in the United States. They only care about covering themselves and making money. Telling a lie like this is just going to damage even more people’s bodies because there are people out there that are gullible enough to believe this statement and to keep polluting their bodies with this unhealthy food.

Source 4

Jon Swaine addresses the issue that maybe fast food is not to blame for obesity in the United States in his article “Fast Food Restaurants ‘not to blame’ for American Obesity.” Swaine talks about a study conducted by people at the University of California and Northwestern University who say that “the casual like between the consumption of restaurant foods and obesity is minimal at best” (Swaine). The study found that living closer to restaurants had no effect on the likely-hood of someone becoming obese. The study also concluded that people that consume a large amount of calories at restaurants tend to consume a large amount of calories at home also. The authors of this study believe that putting a tax on restaurant food will not make a difference in the obesity rate because if the people do not over eat at the restaurants, they will over eat at home.

            Looking through Google, I found “The Telegraph”, a United Kingdom based newspaper. The newspaper however, has articles about different events going on all over the world. One of the articles in the world section was called “Fast Food Restaurants ‘not to blame’ for American Obesity.” I decided to read the article even though it went against my argument that fast food is to blame for the rising obesity in the United States. It was published in October 2010 in New York, and discussed why putting a tax on restaurant food would not help with the obesity crisis. A study was conducted and it showed that people who consume a large amount of calories at a restaurant are likely to consume large amounts of calories at home, and people that eat small amounts of calories at restaurants are more likely to eat small amounts of calories at home. Also some statistics about obesity was put in to strengthen the argument. The government estimates that about 1/3 of the population of the United States is obese, and around $150-$175 billion is spent in medical costs a year related to obesity The researchers then said that by the government putting a tax on restaurant foods, the obesity would not decline because if a person does not consume a large amount of calories at a restaurant, they will just consume a large amount of calories at home. After reading the article however, I want to know what people were observed. I know people who are on a diet and watch what they eat, but when they go to restaurants, they consume large amounts of food that is high in calories.

Swaine, Jon. "Fast Food Restaurants ‘not to blame’ for American Obesity." The Telegraph
                        24 Oct 2010. Print.

Source 3

Summary:            In the article “15-Year Study Shows Strong Link Between Fast Food, Obesity and Insulin Resistance,” the correlation between fast food, weight gain, and insulin resistance is discussed. In a long-term study conducted by Mark Pereira, Ph.D, and David Ludwig called the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) found that fast food increases the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. According to the study, participants that ate fast food twice a week gained around 10 pounds more than people who at fast food less than once a week during the 15 year period. The study also found that African American women had a higher frequency in eating fast food compared to white women: a 2:1.3 ratio.

Response:          After searching around Google, I found the Science Daily website. This website is a science news source and reports science and health-related stories daily. The article “15-Year Study Shows Strong Link Between Fast Food, Obesity and Insulin Resistance” was published back on January 11, 2005 from Minnesota and talked about the link between fast food, obesity, and insulin resistance. The article was meant for people who are fast food eaters, and people who care about health. The article relied on results found from the study called the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) conducted by Mark Pereira, Ph.D, and David Ludwig M.D, Ph.D, for all of its information. The article reported that there was a correlation between fast food, obesity, and diabetes, and discussed the ending results of the participants of the study. The participants that ate fast food twice a week or more were found to have gained around 10 more pounds than the participants that ate fast food once a week or less over the fifteen year period. The topic of African American women being more likely than any other women of different racial backgrounds to eat fast food was brought up. The article failed to talk about what kinds of food the participants ate at the establishments. These people could have been eating large meals, or just a hamburger and small fries. The difference between these two ‘meals’ could also be a difference in the amount of weight gained. After reading the article, I would like to know if men are more likely to eat fast-food than women.

"15 Year Study Shows Strong Link Between Fast Food, Obesity and Insulin Resistance."
              ScienceDaily.ScienceDaily LLC., 11 Jan. 2005. Web. 7 Jun. 2012.

Source #2

Summary:        In the article “Do Fast Food Restaurants Contribute to Obesity?” the study that Janet Currie, Stefano DellaVigna, Enrico Moretti, and Vikram Pathania conducted is discussed. This group of people decided to conduct a study to see the effect of fast food restaurants on obesity of the 3 million children and 1 million pregnant women. The researchers of this study kept an eye on 9^th grade students in the year of 1999 and through the years 2001-2007 and looked to see if having a fast food restaurant located within 0.50 miles from the school had any effect on the obesity of the children. After conducting the study authors found that having a fast-food establishment within 0.5 miles of the school resulted in a 5.2% increase in the probability of obesity. The same study was ran on pregnant women and the results showed that the probability of them gaining 20 kilos during their pregnancy was 2.5% higher in women who lived 0.10 miles away from a fast-food restaurant. Overall, the study found that living in a close proximity to a fast-food establishment increases the risk for that person to be obese.

Evaluation:      After being on Google for a short period of time, I stumbled upon a website founded by the National Bureau of Economic Research. One of the articles on the website was called “Do Fast Food Restaurants Contribute to Obesity.” The article relied on the observations a group of four people had made during the year of 1999, and between the years of 2001-2007, and was intended for parents to read. Throughout the article, the topic of whether the geographic location of a restaurant has any effect on a person and if they are more likely to eat unhealthy amounts of their food and become obese. The article discussed how the researchers found the children who had fast-food establishments within 0.5 miles away from their school had a 5.5% increase in the probability of becoming obese, and pregnant women were 2.2% more likely to gain 22 kilos by living within 0.10 miles away from a fast food establishment. The author also added in that polices restricting access to fast food near schools could be significant in the effects of decreasing obesity among school children. The article never brought up the statistics of average men and women living near fast-food restaurants. After reading the article, I question if the students were walking to these restaurants and eating the unhealthy food, or were their parents taking them there?

"Do Fast Food Restaurants Contribute to Obesity." NBER. National Bureau of Economic Research., n.d.        Web. 07 Jun. 2012