"In toy stores, children can become accustomed to food brands early by buying a Hostess bake set, Barbie's Pizza Hut play set or Fisher-Price's Oreo Matchin' Middles game. and, for budding math whizzes, there is a series of books from Hershey's Kisses on addition, subtraction and fractions" (Barboza, 2002).
Of course, the most notorious innovation in fast food, even more so than the Happy Meal, targeted at children, is the Supersized Meal. For people without children, for people for whom taste is not much of an issue, the issue of value often trumps everything. Supersizing means increasing the size of the cheapest parts of the traditional combo meal, the potatoes (starch) and the soda (high fructose corn syrup, cheaper even than real sugar). For only pennies more, people can get much larger portions, but because people tend to eat more food when more food is placed before them, this causes an increase in consumption. Of course, some nutritionists might tsk-tsk and add that the can of tuna and salad is even cheaper than an Extra Value Meal. But fast food is not simply food -- it is, even for adults, a kind of cheap entertainment, and evening out, or a chance to be served rather than to serve. Hence its deadly appeal.
Studies have shown that portions in the U.S. are about twice as big as they were 20 years ago, and that when people are served more food, most of them eat more food.... The super-size Extra Value Meal at MacDonald's gets you a Quarter Pounder with cheese, super-size fries, and a super-size soda pop for a whopping 1,550 calories!" (White, 2007) on a certain basic level, the supersizing of the American waistline is simple math -- more calories are...
Weight gain contributes to a person's risk of heart disease, Type II Diabetes, and all of America pays for the addition strain upon the already overburdened health care system. Even for people who do not become obese from eating fast food, one could argue that the beloved family institution of a home cooked meal, eaten slowly around a dinner table rather than quickly in the back of the car on the way to yet another soccer practice is a loss to the next generation of children. People are becoming more distanced from their traditional foods, and cuisine is becoming bland, standardized and devoid of loving home-cooked rituals of preparation. Not something to make a hungry American smack his or her lips and declare "I'm lovin' it."
Works Cited
Barboza, David. (5 Aug 2003). "Fast Food Industry Zeroes in on Children
International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 3 Apr 2007 at http://www.rense.com/general39/fast.htm
Schlosser, Eric. (3 Sept 1998). "Fast-Food Nation: The True Cost of America's Diet."
Rolling Stone. Issue 794. Retrieved 3 Apr 2007 at http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/rollingstone1.html
Supersize Me." (2005). Directed by Morgan Spurlock.
White, Sarah. (2006). "Fast Food: is Bigger Better? Retrieved 3 Apr 2007 at http://googolplex.cuna.org/21373/ajsmall/story.html?doc_id=691
