Personal responsibility is often cited as the best way for consumers to reduce their waistlines. But fast food companies have engineered their food to circumvent usual satiety cues and target vulnerable populations, like the poor and the young. This paper argues that personal responsibility is not enough of a weapon in the nation's war against obesity.
¶ … Fast food: Placing the blame
In Morgan Spurlock's documentary Supersize Me, the fast food corporation of McDonald's is portrayed as making food that is particularly damaging to human health. On a month-long diet of McDonald's cuisine, Spurlock's weight balloons and his health rapidly deteriorates. Of course, he consistently consumed more calories than he burned, even when not feeling hungry. He also reduced his activity level. But while Spurlock's one-man experiment may not have been perfectly 'controlled' and the effects on his body may have been exaggerated, his anecdotal experience, reinforced by the experiences of other fast food consumers underlines what many people have observed about fast food: its addictive properties. The carefully-constructed blending of salty and sweet is designed to encourage consumers not to merely eat, but to over-eat.
Although it may seem that only the consumer is to blame for over-eating fast food, much like cigarette companies must bear some of the blame for promoting an inherently addictive product, so much fast food companies. According to Dr. David Kessler, a pediatrician and former dean of the medical school at Yale University, the hyper-processing of the American diet has created what he calls: "hyperpalatable food, like a Burger King bacon double-cheese burger or a McDonald's flavoured milkshake. These foods produce increased levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which, among other functions, produces in us a sense of reward" (Tweedie 2010). Rather than satiating hunger, the more the subject eats, the more he or she desires to eat, much like drinking causes an alcoholic to crave more liquor. The stimulation of our brains circumvents the usual cues to stop eating. The neurological stimulus created by fast food "drives us to eat long after our calorific and nutritional needs have been satisfied. Old-fashioned hunger simply doesn't come into it. And neither does greed, in the traditional sense of the word" (Tweedie 2010).
Fast food is also convenient, which makes it easy to overeat. Preparing French fries is a labor-intensive process, while ordering them from a McDonald's drive-through is not. The cheapness of fast food attracts the most vulnerable, obesity-prone populations, specifically the poor and those living in urban communities. The largest fast food meals can be purchased for only a few extra cents more than the smallest meals, and most of the major chains have dollar menus. When people are 'food insecure' they are more inclined to overeat when presented with larger portions of food, and almost everyone overeats based upon the serving size, given the delayed nature of satiation cues, particularly when consuming highly processed foods. Filling fast food costs more than less filling fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. "Lower-income neighborhoods also tend to have a higher proportion of fast-food restaurants" and higher obesity rates (Why are U.S. kids obese? Just look around them, 2007, Impact Lab).
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