Fast Food Nation

“On any given day in the United States about one-quarter of the adult population visits a fast-food restaurant (3).” This is outrageous, things need to change in the near future or there will be big consequences in the future. Recently in my English class, we read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Schlosser comes up with very interesting points. He has such an engaging writing style that captivates the reader’s attention. The topics and information brought up in this book is just incredible. He blows us away with fascinating, humane facts. This book is very important to our society; it shows us the important issues and the problems that we can still change.

Schlosser claimed in his introduction “people don’t think too much about what they eat as long as it tastes good.” I think this statement is 100% true. The definition of “taste good” varies among all humans. But for the most part, people do tend to eat food that is comforting and delicious. Every time we go eat at restaurants, we don’t think about the quality and where the food products came from. We eat the food since it looks delicious and our taste buds crave for it. Do we really think about healthy products? In the first place, if we don’t like the taste of something, I’m pretty sure that most people will avoid those foods. It is just human nature to eat things that taste good to us.

Couple days ago in class, we got sheets of paper with a quote from Fast Food Nation. I thought that the one I got was very interesting yet shocking. “In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2001, they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars (3).” When I first read this I couldn’t think, I was speechless. Americans should be shameful in spending this much money on fast food. It is killing our bodies daily and wasting our money on unhealthy products. This is an innocuous choice but in the long run, there are big consequences to our bodies. Schlosser states that fast food has changed the way Americans eat, no one denies the fact that fast food is delicious. To some extent fast food is also to blame for diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and deaths from E-coli bacteria. With this many problems there has to be a change in the diet of Americans or our future is going to end ugly. The addiction to fast food is harming not only adults but also children.

I never thought about it this way until Schlosser brought these points up. “Fast food is heavily marketed to children and prepared by people who are barely older than children. This is an industry that both feeds and feeds off the young (9).” This statement is so true, every time I go to McDonalds, which is not that often, the workers are all generally young. Most of the consumers are high school and college students. College students need to save on money and fast food is the best option to save money and to be satisfied. Fast food places also attract children with the toys in the Kids Menu.

Schlosser loved eating burgers and fries but after investigating and learning the cons of the food products, he stopped eating at fast food places completely. He constantly admits that fast food tastes good but he also tells us all of the downside to this industry. What I really admire about Schlosser is the honesty he has with his readers and he genuinely wants us to learn the truth and problems of this industry.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

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