Fast food is a real scourge of the contemporary world. Not only does it lead to obesity, but it also causes a number of illnesses, indigestion, and self-destruction. Dieticians, nutritionists, and doctors have been screaming and shouting about the problem world is facing nowadays, let alone the United States of America. Fast food industry has literally bulked into the contemporary society, making people first and foremost addicted to it. Fast food is ruthless to everyone, irrespective of his/ her age, nationality, social status, profession, etc. The world has turned into a huge fast food customer, where the only ones who benefit are the producers. However, despite the fact that everyone is aware of the scourge, at the same time it turns out that little do we know why exactly fast food is so dangerous. The article ‘Why You Should Avoid Fast Food at All Costs’ by Richard Stossel is shedding light on the process of fast food production. He is opening to the reader all the pros and cons of fast food, all the nuts and bolts, which, by the end of the story, will never leave one indifferent.
The article itself was written a year ago after Richard conducted a huge research to understand why people should steer clear of fast food. The author is a network engineer with deep knowledge in Chinese material arts, medicine and chi-gung. He is specialised in many Chinese health and healing arts, what enabled him help many people lose weight and overcome various health ailments. Richard is spreading his knowledge in nutrition, meditation, physics, and supplements through the web, seminars, and articles. His main goal is to open people’s eyes, to fight with ignorance about what we are actually eating.
The topic, which was chosen by Richard for this article is more than timely. There have already been a number of articles devoted to fast food; however, the majority of them are more focused on the figures: the percentage of obese people, the number of illnesses, the geographical aspect of the problem, etc. Nonetheless, this particular article is ‘harder’ than the others, as it is revealing the process of production, describing even slightest details in all the colours. There is a feeling that throughout the article Richard is simply trying to disgust the reader to fast food, and he is doing it perfectly.
Richard Stossel structured his article, dividing it into several main topics, which are finally tightly connected with each other, and finally lead to the same conclusion – unhealthy. In his first part ‘the Processing Line’ Richard is revealing the secrets of the production industry, conditions and sources of labor. The second part ‘Animal Cruelty’ is devoted to the quality of meat people consume. The third and fourth parts tell the reader about chemicals, which are used to add taste or color to food. And finally, the fifth part is more scientific one, as it describes what happens with our body if we consume such food.
If one compares the number of cattle processed per hour twenty years ago and contemporary volumes, he will be shocked – 175 compared to 400 cattle per hour respectively. The process has become like an assembly line – people are standing close to each other performing the same motions with a knife. No doubt, when the process is so incessant, percentage of mistake is incredibly high: for example, they can cut off the wrong parts of the carcass. According to Stossel, such pace of work has even lead to a number of deaths, either caused by machine injures, or accidental falling into machine itself. Even though the second theory sounds a bit exaggerated, Richard claims that such accidents did happen.
If some reader may not believe in the abovementioned, as these are single instance facts, but the way animals are bred has been proved many times before. First and foremost, cattle are usually kept in abominable conditions, where they are standing close to each other, irrespective of their health condition. Not only do animals receive hormones and cramped feedlots, but they are finally slaughtered even if they are in poor health. The reason of their health problems is surely feed. Up to 1997 almost 75% of the US cattle were fed with livestock wastes, which remain of dead sheep and cattle. Even though later it was banned by the FDA due to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as ‘mad cow disease’, current FDA regulations actually allow turning dead cattle and poultry into feed. Well, indeed, if one thinks this statement over, he will understand that meat we consume is frankly bred on carrion. Such a statement not only does disgust, but also explains such a huge number of poisoned people.
However, unfortunately, these factors are not the only ones which cause the abundance of problems. Flavor and color chemicals also do their job perfectly. If somebody bought food relying on its color and flavor, he/ she would never do it again, as this article reveals all the truth about such chemicals as Ethyl-2-methyl butyrate, methyl-2-peridylketone, or Ethyl-3- hydroxybutanoate. One will never understand that he is eating some methyl-2-peridylketone, as it has a perfect taste of popcorn. All the taste as well as color chemicals are widely used in food production. Not only do they help to attract more customers, but also convince a consumer that he is buying health and fresh food. Here lies deception! Almost all the products we may find in a shop are soaked through with these ‘frauds’.
Taking a look at a more medical side of the story, it is important to mention that every person should consume digestive enzymes to ensure proper digestion. As it has been already proved, all the above mentioned products lack enzymes, nutritional and energy elements; the body is consuming its own digestive enzymes to digest food. Contrary to dead food, natural raw food is rich with its own natural enzymes, which help the body process food. It is extremely important to get these natural enzymes, as it is common knowledge that not only is this element a part of immune system, but they are also responsible for every process in the human body, including heart beating.
Throughout this article Richard is not trying to scare the reader, he is not convincing to give up fast food; he is simply trying to help people think. Unfortunately, people are too ignorant about the problem – our country is one of the ‘fattest’ countries in the world, it is widely spread among children and adults, irrespective of their nationality. The real problem is that if we do not stop and think right now, the population will be degenerating, and after this process starts it would be hard to turn back.
Works cited
Stossel, Richard. “Why you should avoid fast food at all costs.” Natural News, 6 Jan. 2009. Web. 4 Feb. 2011.
