Reyn's Hypertext Proposal: Fast Food

Fast food is an addiction of the American society which must be stopped. People know how unhealthy fast food is, yet they still eat it. People, including me, knowingly poison and ruin their bodies for five minutes of pleasure and I’m going to find out why.

I’ve read the book Fast Food Nation and it had a big influence on my decision concerning fast food. I used to eat fast food three times as much prior to reading Fast Food Nation, but I still eat fast food every now and then even though I know it is unhealthy. When I go to fast food restaurants I stay away from hamburgers because of what I read in Fast Food Nation, and I try to justify eating fast food by ordering a chicken sandwich, which is supposedly healthier. However, the plain and simple truth is that fast food period is not healthy. It doesn’t matter if it is chicken or beef, fast food should never be a replacement for a healthy meal. I, like many people, know this yet still give in to the cravings, and through this paper, I’m going to explore why different groups of people make this choice.
The first significant group is the group which I belong to. I’m talking about the people who try to break the addiction with fast food but just cant. We know all the unhealthy facts about fast food and we can go weeks without eating it. However, when we see a juicy burger or crispy fries on an advertisement, we get a craving which can’t be ignored and thus give in to temptation. We justify it by ordering a “healthy” meal from the menu because the advertisements say it is low fat. I also go to the gym, run, and stay in shape and so shouldn’t I be able to indulge once in a while? This is the view of the people in this group.

The second significant group is the group of people who just don’t have any time to do anything but work. Take for example a single mother of three holding two jobs. She has no time to cook a good meal, let alone sit down for one, and so she must rely on fast food because it is exactly that, fast food. In her life, fast food is a necessity rather than a desire as she just has no other choice.

The third group includes obese people. Many of these people have given up on their bodies and eat fast food on a daily basis. Many believe they have reached a point where it doesn’t matter what they eat and so might as well eat what tastes good. This is the reason they continue to consume fast food.

The last group is the suppliers of fast food. They are in this business for one reason only, profit. They don’t care about the health of their consumers. As long as they have consumers, they could care less.

I plan to explore many of issues mentioned above, such as the convenience of fast food, the efficiency of it, but mostly focusing on the health issue concerning fast food. Hopefully by doing so, I will be able to convince myself, along with other readers, to stop eating fast food completely and start eating healthy.