My Experience as a Fast Food Consumer

I am originally from Singapore and only came to New York in June last year. The culture from my country is mainly about food, meaning that people in our country love to eat and we take food, as in quality of food, very seriously. People in Singapore are willing to travel miles, wait in line for sometimes over an hour just to buy a plate of “chicken rice”. For those who do not know what “chicken rice” is, it is just chicken with fragrant white rice (just mentioning it makes me hungry). Although the ingredient sounds simple but to be able to cook it till perfection is a challenge for many.

Back home, we associate fast food as “special treats” for the family especially with my nieces and nephews and after the construction of play lands in Macdonald’s, our visits to the restaurants were a little more frequent, about twice a month at the most. I briefly remember my husband insist that I watch the film Fast Food Nation, which was on one of the television channels when I first arrive in new York last year, I did but did not take the contents of it seriously, after all it was just a film. And since the day he watched that film, we only shop at “Whole Foods” supermarket, organic meat and produce to me then was just food. But today, after reading the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and my lessons from Eng101, I truly understand the importance why we should all only eat organic produce. The reality of the fast food industry from the people working in restaurants and factories to how the animals are kept and raised and how big corporations are able to manipulate the laws arevery disturbing and unbelievable. To continue to visit fast food restaurants and purchasing food from huge corporations, we are indirectly supporting their acts of inhumanity, at the same time, we are putting our health at stake.        

The End of Overeating

In the book, The End of Overeating, by David A. Kessler, highlighted that the main reason people get fat is due to overeating. In the past, many scientists presume that our body’s homeostasis is suppose to be regulated by the process of eating only when we are hungry and to stop when we are full. Unfortunately, our homeostasis system is unable to do that. Many of us are stimulated by the sight of palatable food (food containing sugar, fat and salt). Food activates the pleasure response in people’s reward centre. The “pleasure response” motivates people to desire foods that gives satisfaction, joy and happiness when one consumes them. Most of the time, people eat palatable food to feel happy and not to ease hunger. The reason why people are unable to resist these type of food is because the neurons in our brains are stimulated by taste and highly palatable food, which are part of the opioid circuitry; the body’s pleasure system. The “opioid” are chemicals produced in the brain that have a rewarding effect similar to those of drugs, e.g. morphine and heroin. Thus, simulating the opioid circuitry with food drives us to eat. One can now understand why many people flock to fast food restaurants as the food in those restaurants are high in sugar, fat and salt and consuming them frequently in large amounts make people fat.

The Reason for Child Obesity

After watching the film, Food Inc by Eric Schlosser, I am able to see why many children these days are getting obese at a very young age. One of the scenes that caught my attention was when the narrator, Ms Maria Andrea Gonzalez and her family were shopping at the supermarket for their weekly groceries. The shopping started at the fresh fruits and vegetables area, one of her daughters wanted to purchase some pears at $1 a pound but found out that she could only get 2 pears for a pound, thus gave up the idea of having the fruit since those 2 pears will not be able to replace a meal for fill her tummy. Fresh fruits and vegetables has become a luxurious item for their family and I find this really disturbing as taken for granted, fresh fruits and a vegetables are suppose to be the most important part of our daily lives and now for them are not the case. Instead to save on the cost of food they have to opt for the unhealthy snacks like chips, soda and candies which are all pumped full of corn syrup. Any food that contains corn syrup is very affordable as they are heavily subsidized by the Government. Although the taste is great but unhealthy, leading to early signs of child obesity.

Sources:

Food Inc. Dir Eric Schlosser. Narr. Maria Andrea Gonzalez. 2008. Film.

Cost and Profits

After reading the book Fast Food Nations, the author Eric Schlosser, reveals how big corporation, e.g. meat, poultry and potatoes suppliers in the United States operates. The main driver for them is “cost and profit” hence; they will do anything to keep cost low and profits high. Two of the most disturbing issues that were raised by the Eric Schlosser in order to reduce cost were that cattle were fed with waste products due to the high cost of grains. These cattle were in turn slaughtered and sold to the fast food restaurants, which have been consumed by many. Secondly, the exploiting of women immigrants workers, working in the meat factories, most of them have been sexually abused by males workers, particularly the managers or supervisors of the plant but were unable to complain as they were afraid of losing their jobs. Most of these workers are illegal immigrants and will therefore be sent back to their home country if they lose their jobs.