Fast Food Obesity : The Addiction Habit
Since fast food began in 1960’s America has steadily gotten heavier, and fast food obesity becomes a common case. Today 60% of us are overweight and a full 25% are obese. Alarmingly it seems our children are not escaping the trap either. Today there has been a 40% rise in type II diabetes in children, a disease that was once known as adult onset because it did not strike until around age 50. In addition, let’s not be misled obesity causes type II diabetes.
Nevertheless maybe these are all just strange coincidences. Let us look at the Mcdonald’s happy meal although the calories are not given for the meal on their menu we can take the individual parts and add it our self.
Cheesburger-300
Small Fry- 230
Small Coke - 110 (we all know they are not drinking juice)
That totals 690 calories or nearly half the recommended daily allowance! Keep in mind this is just the basic no frills small meal, get them the big kid’s meal or a regular big mac meal and the totals jump even higher. If you think that is bad check out the calorie count for the double whopper, 920 calories, and that is just the burger no cheese! Maybe it is not such a coincidence after all. There is strong evidence that fast food is an obesity cause.
So exactly what is the big deal? What if a few people and their children get fast food obesity? This is a free country we should be able to do what we like right. Maybe so however we need to be informed on what impact this will have on our health. People who are fast food obese have a great health risk. The diseases associated with obesity include type II diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease and stroke. Any one of these diseases can be at best debilitating and at worst deadly. The danger increases with amount of weight and age as well as other bad habits such as smoking or alcohol use. America’s obesity causes are a problem we desperately need to solve; it is a ticking time bomb. Just imagine if over half the people in the country were disabled. That leaves 40% of the nation working and trying to cover disability payments and health care. That is a serious risk to our nation but more than that, we have a population at risk of dying far too young all because of fast food obesity.
Posted at April 11, 2009, Filed Under
