SHOULD FAMILIES EVER EAT FAST FOOD ?

In the olden days,but not too far from today, people generally ate all their meals at home
and going out for a dinner was a seldom activity. However ,by 1950s , famous chain fast food
restaurantsstarted to establish in the United State .They spread and grew day by day. As they
offer tasty meals, habits completely changed and people started to eat less at home but go out
more .At least one quarter of Americans adult consumpt some type of fast food everyday.
(Schlosser 2).There are several reasons for why people choose to eat fast food ; its
convenient,easy and cheap but fast foods are also loaded with fat, sugar , salt and chemical
additives which not only makes the food delicious but also addictive, and as a result over
300,000 Americans now die of obesity-related diseases (Schlosser 3)Thats why 98 out of 100
nutritionist surveyed by Morgan Spurlock, said people shouldnt eat fast food anymore.
However, for millions of low income people fast food invaluable opportunity.Ill argue that
wherever possible , people need to eat healthy family dinners in order to take care of their
both spiritual and physical health and they should avoid eating fast food wherever possible.
One of the reason why people choose to eat fast food is because it is such a
convenient choice for women who have time-poor. Today, as most of the women are involved
in working life. Some of them work to their financial independence , some others work to
feed their families but they have one common point, they are also time poor. They dont have
20 hours a week to prepare home cooked meals as Tara Parker-Pope says in her article.
Therefore, working mother generally order fast food in order to speed up or totally eliminate
the preparation process and take their time for the housework or for their children, which they
do not have possibility to speed up.
In addition to convenience of fast food, another reason for eating fast food is
because thank to cheap ingredients, fast food restaurants can give larger potions with cheap
price.For instace , Energy-dense munchies cost on average $ 1.76 per 1000 calories,
compared with $18,16 per 1000 calories for low-energy but nutritious foods (Parker-Pope 2)
and furthermore, it is an another fact that prices of junk foods are less pronely to affect from
inflation as Parker-pope says low-calorie foods were more likely to increase in price, surging
19.5 percent over the two-year study period. High-calorie foods remained a relative bargain,
dropping in price by 1.8 percent So, this makes it clear that people who have low level of
income may tend to choose the cheap ones instead of healthier ones which costs more. This

truth shows that eating healthy becomes expensive day by day and directs people to eat junk
and fast food.
However, people pay the real coast with their health .This cheapness contains several
hidden dangers which may cause health problems. First of all, fast food generally has high
fat as they are fried and include chemical additives ,eating them could couse serious illnesses
like obesity , and high cholesterol which leads heart diseases. It has been argued that about
300,000 people die each year from being obese or overweight (Schlosser 4). The fried foods
and empty calories arent the only thing that make fast food bad for human being. In addition
to high fat ratios, fast food companies use countless chemicals like dimethylpoly, silicone or
TBHQ to keep their products fresh but these additives harm peples bodies and organs. For
instance, as Eric Schlosser say even McNugget ,which is introduce as chicken,contains beef
extract and some 40 other additives (Spurlocksdocumentary). Moreover, eating fast food
could result in several other illnesses other than obesity and cholesterol such as diabetes type
2 or PCO which are obvious. According to National Diabetes Statistics Report ;In 2012,an
estimated that 15 millions of death were directly coused by diabetes type 2and healthy diet
and maintain a normal body weight can prevent this situation. There are other numerous
illnesses that fast food might cause due to vitamin deficiency.As people consume non
nutritious food and do not consume the food which have high in vitamins like fruits, they are
likely to be vulnerable to number of illnesses. According to Bensons article children who eat
at home tend to eat more fruit and vegetables.These reveals that eating fast food damages
humans health more than anything else.
Supplementary to the health problems that fast food could lead; there is another
significant problem which is not physical but emotional. As people started to eat their meals at
outside, they started to share less with their family.As benson says familiee are losing
invaluable opportunities to connect with their kids on many levels.Each family member has
an independent life; each of them has their own environment and a different routine. A dinner
table could be the only thing which brings family members together and let everyone share
their daily experiences. If people do not live this unique moments; what distinguishes their
family from their friends? Furthermore, in addition to sharing moments together, a family
needs to share the same food. They need to eat the same meal cooked at home and thus it
would spiritually strengthen their family bones. As Hilary Benson says; There can be a very
positive synergy that happens when family members gather around a table together. Think of
those wooden charging centers sold by Pottery Barn and others where all family members
can deposit their various electronic devices in one space for powering their batteries (Benson

3). Furthermore , as Simone Misra says family meals are unique places where children can be
thought things without knowing that they are learning. It is a fact that eating fast food is
cheaper but families need to understand that sharing things with each other has no price and
the value of this cannot be measured.
As I have shown, there are excellent reasons for families to eat fast food, such as its
cheap and convenient .However ,people should not eat fast food firstly for their physical
health. Fast food causes numbers of illnesses which are obesity, high cholesterol and
deficiency diseases. Secondly, it harms the notion of family. Eating fast food at outside results
in lack of communication between family members which would weaken family bones.
Therefore, people need to be motivated to eat healthy and they should be kept away from
eating fast food by government actions and contribution of chain grocery stores. Even today,
Thousands of restaurants and grocery stores, most notably the Whole Foods chain, have
thrived by answering the call to reject industrialized foods in favor of a return to natural,
simple, non-industrializedlets call them wholesomefoods (Freedman 3). This
behavior should spread. The key is to make healthy food attractive and affordable, at least as
much as the chain fast food restaurants do, especially to the children in order to shape their
eating habits in the right way.
Works Cited:
Benson, Hilary. "Family Dinners: Are They Important?" Parent Magazine 29 Aug. 2011.
Freedman, David H. Atlantic Monthly 1 June 2013.
Parker-Pope, Tara. "A High Price for Healthy Food." The New York Times 5 Dec. 2007.
Schlosser, Eric. "Americans Are Obsessed with Fast Food: The Dark Side of the All

American Meal." CBS HealthWatch. 11 Feb. 2009.

Spurlock, Morgan Super Size Me Documentary.
Anonymus Statistics About Diabetes National Diabetes Statistics Report, June 10, 2014
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/?
referrer=https://www.google.com.tr/#sthash.18FyqyzS.dpuf