The Effects of Fast Food.

Topic: The effects of Fast Food

In the last few years, most Asians have been eating more fast food, especially young people, who prefer to eat fast food such as hamburgers, pizza and fried food. Fast food shops such as McDonalds and KFC are standard all over the world, and young people prefer to go fast food shops with friends because of attractive advertisements and these shops allow people to stay for a long time. Sifferlin found that nearly thirty-four percent of young people from ages 2 to 19 prefer to eat junk food (2015). There are few reasons why fast food has become popular, it is quick, cheap and convenient. People claim that the main reason of eating fast food is busy life. Eating fast food can save time because people usually do not have time to cook at home. and the small package design allows people to consume it on the road. However, it is necessary that people know the negative effects as well as the benefits of eating fast food, especially on society, physical health and the environment.

The first effect of eating fast food is that it can affect family relationships. Eating together is the best way of keeping family connected, it allows families to talk in a relaxed way, but in the last few years, many families do not sit together for eating because eating at fast food shops is more convenient, and most young people claim that fast food is more delicious and they prefer to eat with friends outside. According to a survey, one-sixth of adolescents eat fast food every two days, with one-eighth of adults eating it normally (One in six young people eat fast food ‘twice a day’, 2016). If family members do not usually eat together, the relationship may be more alienated.

Another effect is that eating fast food is harmful to people’s health. Fast food contains more sugar and oil than traditional food, eating these foods which contain high sugar and high oil over a long time can cause chronic diseases such as heart diseases, obesity and rarefaction of bones. Studies show that children consume 55% more calories outside than eating at home (Mandal, 2017). Among these illnesses, obesity is the most serious problem. For example, in China eating habits have changed in the past 30 years, fast food now seems more popular than in the past. KFC planned to open 600 new shops in China in 2016, and McDonald’s plan is 1000. It is found that about 20% young people are obese in China (NG, 2017). Another health problem is about meat which we eat at fast food shops. The speed of normal farmed chickens and cattle have already not satisfied the growth of demand for meat in the fast food industry. How could they solve the demand problem? Drugs are the key, the fast food industry began to add hormones, antibiotics and other medicines to chicken feeds to made chickens could grow faster and bigger. A hundred years ago, a chicken needed four months to grow up, but now it takes only two months to grow up, and bigger than before (Get Up To Speed on Fast Growing Chickens, 2016). If people eat this kind of meat for a long time, the medicines in the meat will harm the people’s health.

The third effect is about environment, Deforestation and plastic pollution are two serious issues. The fast food industry is one of the main factors that destroy the environment. With the increase of human demand for meat, the existing ground is no longer enough to plant animal feeds, after that some fast food companies have turned their attention to the forests. They cut down trees in the forests to obtain more land for farming soya beans, and at the same time the loggings can make packaging boxes. In Bolivia, there were more than 3000 square kilometers’ forest disappeared in 2016 (Perrone, 2017). Another effect of the environment is plastic pollution. A large number of plastic packing, disposable chopsticks, straws and so on have seriously polluted the earth. People can often see that rivers and oceans are filled with plastic rubbish, and wild animals died because they ate plastic waste by mistake. Fast food is one of the key factors of pollution. For example, The UK generates over 170 tones’ of rubbish per year, most of it is food packaging (Hall, 2017). It is found that plastics are the biggest threat to seabirds, whether it is an individual or a species, this threat has been increasing (Balance, 2015).