The Fast Food Industry
Do They Have a
Responsibility in the War on
Obesity?
Fast Food Industry
• Over the past 30 years, fast food companies have spread to
every corner of the nation.
• Fast food is now served at drive-thru’s, stadiums, airports,
zoos, schools, universities, cruise ships, trains, airplanes, Kmarts, Walmarts, gas stations and even in hospitals!
• 1970 – Americans spent $6 billion on fast food
• 2001 – Americans spent more than $110 billion
• 2005 – Americans spent more than $134 billion
• Americans now spend more money on fast food than on
higher education, personal computers, computer software,
and new cars
• They spend more on fast food than movies, books,
magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music
combined.
• Fast food calories in the American diet has increased from
3% to 12% over the past 20 years.
Fast Food
• According to Eric Schlosser, Fast Food
Nation, fast food has proven to be a
revolutionary force in American life.
• On any given day in the U. S. about
one-quarter of the adult population
visits a fast food restaurant.
• During a short amount of time, the fast
food industry has helped to transform
not only our diets, but also our
landscape, economy, workforce, and
popular culture.
Changes in American Society
• Hourly wage of the U.S. worker peaked in 1973 and
then steadily declined. Thus more women entered
the workforce to help pay bills.
• 1975 – About 1/3 of American mothers with young
children worked outside the home.
• Today – About 2/3 of American mothers are
employed.
• The demand for services such as cooking, cleaning
and child care has increased.
• A generation ago – ¾ of $ was used to buy food for
meals at home.
• Today about ½ of the $ is used to buy food at
restaurants – mainly fast food restaurants!
Food Industry
• Every year the food industry spends $33
billion convincing us that we are hungry!
• The power of suggestion works!
• Every waking moment we are bombarded
by advertising, all telling us to consume!
• The line between personal responsibility
and corporate responsibility gets more
blurred!
• Does corporate advertising and marketing
manipulate our desires, wants and what
we think we need?
• What about personal responsibility?
• Is it coincidence that the explosion of
obesity happened at exactly the same time
as the explosion of the fast food industry?
How Did It All Start?
• It began in October, 1885, near
Seymour, Wisconsin.
• 15 yr. old Charlie Nagreen began
earning extra money by selling
meatballs at the county fair.
• Noticing that people had a hard time
eating the meatballs while strolling
the fair, he decided to squish them
between two slices of bread – thus
the hamburger was born!
What happened next?
• For a long time hamburger meat had
a bad reputation, as it was assumed
that ground beef was dirty or unsafe
to eat.
• But, Walt Anderson who loved
burgers opened a small restaurant in
Wichita, Kansas where he grilled the
burgers right in front of the
customers so they could see it was
safe to eat.
Next. . . .
• Walt was very successful and
started opening more
hamburger restaurants built in
the shape of small white
medieval forts.
• What did he call them????
White Castles!
1930’s
• California was booming with
people and LA became the city
of the future with over a million
cars.
• Thus, the “drive-in” was born
where people could sit in their
cars and be served by “carhops”
McDonald Brothers
• 1937 Richard and Mac decided to
open their own drive-in. First sales
were mainly hot dogs, but later it
became a burger drive-in.
• It was located across from a H.S.
and made them rich.
• But, after a few years they were
tired of hiring cooks and carhops.
They got rid of silverware and
plates, fired most of the staff and
came up with a new system of
preparing food.
McDonald Brothers
• They started using paper cups and
plates and served only finger foods,
mainly hamburgers and cheeseburgers.
• They started the assembly line cooking
method to put together burgers.
• People were easier to hire and fire and it
was cheaper to prepare food.
• Customers got out of their car and
waited in line for their food.
Success
• The first McDonald’s was so
successful, others drove to
California to see how it was done.
• Carl Katcher then started Carl’s
Jr.
• Keith Cramer started Burger
King.
• Glen W. Bell, Jr. started Taco Bell.
McDonald’s
• 1954: Entrepreneur and milkshake-mixer salesman Ray
Kroc became interested in the McDonald's restaurant
when he learned of its extraordinary capacity. After
seeing the restaurant in operation, he approached the
McDonald brothers with a proposition to open new
McDonald's restaurants, with himself as the first
franchisee. Kroc worked hard to sell McDonald's. He even
attempted to prevail on his wartime acquaintance with
Walt Disney, in the failed hope of opening a McDonald's at
the soon-to-be-opened Disneyland.
• 1955: Ray Kroc opened the Des Plaines restaurant. Their
first day's revenues were $366.12. Kroc founds
"McDonald's Systems Inc.", on March 2.
• 1960: The company was renamed "McDonald's
Corporation".
McDonald’s
• We will discuss McDonald’s as it has become the
leader of the fast food industry.
• In 1968, McDonald’s operated about 1,000
restaurants.
• Today, it has 31,000 restaurants worldwide and
opens almost 2,000 new ones each year.
• Estimated that one out of every eight workers in
the U.S. has at some point been employed by
McDonald’s.
• Annually, McDonald’s hires about 1 million people,
more than any other American organization, public
or private.
McDonald’s
• Every day about 1 out of 10
Americans eats at a
McDonald’s.
• Every month about 9 out of 10
American children visit one.
• McDonald’s has become the
most powerful fast food chain.
McDonald’s
• They are the nation’s largest purchaser of beef,
pork, and potatoes – and the second largest
purchaser of chicken.
• McDonald’s Corporation is the largest owner of
retail property in the world. They earn the
majority of its profits from collecting rent, not from
selling food.
• McDonald’s spends more money on advertising and
marketing than any other brand.
• They operate more playgrounds than any other
private entity.
• They have the nation’s bestselling line of children’s
clothing (McKid’s).
McDonald’s
• 96% of American schoolchildren
could identify Ronald McDonald.
The only fictional character
with more recognition was
Santa Claus!
• The Golden Arches are now
more widely recognized than
the Christian cross.
McDonald’s
• Worldwide they serve 46 million people/day.
• Almost half of Mc. Daily global patronage is in
the U.S.
• Every day 1 in 4 Americans eat fast food and
43% of them at McDonald’s, which translates
to one out of every ten fast food purchases in
America being made at the Golden Arches.
(Morgan Spurlock)
McDonald’s
• 1973 - First McDonald’s in NYC.
• Now there are over 80 of them in Manhattan alone,
including the country’s largest.
• McDonald’s is in every continent except Antarctica.
• There are McDonald’s at the Eiffel Tower, next to
the Great Pyramids in Egypt, and near the Taj
Mahal.
• One of the first things the U.S. did after invading
Afghanistan was to welcome McDonald’s.
• McDonald’s put a restaurant near the Dachau
concentration camp and where 30,000 people were
exterminated during WWII.
South Africa
• 1995 – McDonald’s opened their first restaurant in
South Africa. 30 more were opened by 1997.
Today there are 90 restaurants (One of their most
successful international markets).
• In South Africa eating habits have changed from
traditional plant-based foods to high-fat, high-sugar,
energy-dense, low-fiber fast food. Thus, obesity is
spreading rapidly.
• World Health Organization says 29% of men and
56% of women in South Africa are overweight, with
the highest rates in the areas with the largest
number of fast-food joints. Is there a correlation??
China
• There are over 600 McDonald’s in China
and they plan on opening 400 more by
2008 (Beijing Olympics)
• November, 2004 – News Target Network
reported the rapid spread of obesity in
China.
• They blamed importing the typical
American diet of red meat, processed food,
soda, fried snacks, and white flour as to
their increase in diabetes, heart disease,
cancer and obesity in just a few years.
China
• 200 million citizens are now judged
overweight
• More than 160 million have high blood
pressure
• 20 million have diabetes
• Other obesity related conditions are on the
rise also.
• Since 1992, in China, the proportion of
adults who are overweight has risen by 1/3
to 23%: obesity rate has nearly doubled to
60 million.
McDonald’s
• Other countries such as Japan and the Asian
countries are reporting similar problems!
• England – opened their first McDonald’s in 1974.
Since then the rate of obesity has tripled!
Currently around 50% of adults in the UK are
overweight or obese.
• Can a single corporation reshape an entire culture?
Can it change its eating habits?
• In the U.S. we have more McDonald’s than public
libraries and hospitals.
• McDonald’s feeds nearly 17 billion people a year,
most of whom are classified as “Heavy Users”
• The typical American now eats about 3 hamburgers
and 4 orders of fries every week.
So What Are We Eating?
• Fast food is loaded with fat (saturated and trans),
sugar, and sodium.
• It’s packed with chemicals to make it taste and
smell like real food.
• Fast food lacks vitamins, minerals, fibers,
antioxidants
• Recommended that no more than 30% of our
calories are from fat, and no more than 10% of that
from saturated fat.
• Many fast food items are loaded with fat – burgers,
French fries, fried chicken, pizza, shakes, ice
cream, cookies
Big Mac
• A big Mac has 560 calories, 30 grams of
fat. Each gram of fat has 9 calories or 270
total calories from fat.
• So, about 50% of the calories are fat
calories, and 16% come from saturated fat!
• If you add a large French fry and a large
coke (32 oz.)– that is another 830 calories
and 25 grams of fat, plus all the sugar from
the soda.
• Your total caloric intake would be 1390
calories or about 14 miles of running!
The Big Mac
Heart Attack Grill
Tempe, Arizona
• Estimated at over 8,000 calories and
that is before the “Flatliner Fries”
About the fries. . .
• Just about everyone loves the taste
of McD fries. It is not due to the
type of potato, the technology the
processes them or the fryers that fry
them.
• It is largely determined by the
cooking oil.
• For years, it was 7% soybean oil and
93% beef fat.
• After much criticism, they switched
to vegetable oil and “natural flavor”.
The fries
• That ‘natural flavor” is made out of beef.
• French Fries: Potatoes, partially hydrogenated
soybean oil, natural flavor (beef source), dextrose,
sodium acid pyrophosphate (to preserve natural
color). Cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable
oils (may contain partially hydrogenated soybean
oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil and/or
partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed
oil and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil). TBHQ and
citric acid added to help preserve freshness.
Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an anti-foaming
agent. (McDonald’s website)
• For years, McDonald’s did not disclose there was
beef in the fries.
Where’s the beef?
• McDonald’s is America’s largest
purchaser of beef.
• Due to demands by fast food
companies, beef slaughterhouses feed
cattle grains and hormones to “fatten”
them up 3 months before slaughter.
• 100,000 cattle may be crammed into a
feedlot to mass produce cattle for
slaughter.
• In 1970’s there were thousands of
slaughterhouses in U.S. Today, there
are 13 who supply all the beef eaten
by 300 million Americans.
About the beef. . .
• Risk of contamination is high. Cattle in
feedlots become ill, get little exercise
and live in manure.
• E coli can survive for 90 days and can
be passed to slaughterhouses and
hamburger grinders.
• Meat packing companies are able to
avoid strict food safety laws due to
close ties to members of Congress
• A single fast food burger now contains
meat from hundreds of different cattle.
• Always cook ground beef to well done!
Is Fast Food Fat Food?
Fat
• New Scientist indicated that “early
exposure to fatty food could reconfigure
children’s bodies so that they always
choose fatty foods.”
• Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are
also used which are trans fats.
• Trans fats are as damaging as saturated
fats. They raise LDL and lower HDL levels,
increasing the chances of heart attack and
diabetes and clogging the arteries!
Chicken McNugget Ingredients
•
Chicken McNuggets® Made with White Meat:
Boneless chicken breast, water, modified cornstarch, salt,
chicken flavor (yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural
flavoring (animal source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid,
rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (natural extractives of
rosemary, canola and/or soybean oil, mono-and diglycerides, and
lecithin). Battered and Breaded with: Water, enriched bleached
wheat flour (flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate,
riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour,
modified corn starch, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid
pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium
phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn
starch. Breading set in vegetable oil. Cooked in partially
hydrogenated vegetable oils, (may contain partially
hydrogenated soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil
and/or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil
and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil).
“Supersize Me”
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Some scientists believe that high fat, high sugar food is
physiologically addictive, like a form of a drug.
In the “Supersize Me” movie, Spurlock after a week of
eating McDonald’s became addicted to the food. He felt
sluggish, had headaches and would crave more fast food.
In one month he gained 25 lb., ate 30 pounds of sugar, his
body fat increased 7% His cholesterol jumped 65 points
and his liver turned to a cirrhosis type of liver.
A meal high in fat may dull the hormonal signals your
body usually sends itself to let you know you’re full.
On the McDonald’s menu only four items contain no sugar
– unsweetened ice tea, coffee, diet soda and sausage!
There is sugar in the fries, hash browns and salads!
An article in the July 14, 2005, issue of The New York
Times reported that the Center for Science in the Public
Interest petitioned the FDA that soft drink labeling should
include a warning to alert consumers that soft drinks
may cause obesity and other health problems. Do you
agree or disagree with adding warning labels to soft
drink packaging?
Hand tossed- 1
slice (1/8 pizza)
• Super Supreme
• 280 calories, 13
grams fat
• Meat Lover’s
• 330 calories, 17
grams fat (46%
fat)
• Pepperoni
• 240 calories, 9
grams fat
Roast Turkey, Ranch &
Bacon Wrap
Chicken Fingers with
Curly Fries
Lone Star
• Typical Meal
• How many
portions?
Portion Sizes
• 1 tsp margarine = the tip of your thumb
• 1 oz. cheese = your thumb, four dice
stacked together
• 3 oz. chicken or meat = deck of cards
• 1 c. pasta = tennis ball
• 2 T. peanut butter = large marshmallow
• 1 medium potato = computer mouse
• 1 medium fruit = baseball
• ¼ c. nuts = golf ball
• 2 oz. bagel = yo-yo or hockey puck
• Small cookie or cracker = poker chip
How many apples can you eat for the
same amount of calories in one slice
of apple pie?
Choices
One slice of apple pie = 350-450
calories.
You could eat about 8 ½ apples
for the same amount of
calories.
We are what we eat!
• What we eat not
only changes
what we are on
the outside, but
what we are on
the inside.
• Every dollar you
spend on
“unhealthy” food
is a vote.
• You do have
control over what
you eat!
Answers?
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Bad food in – bad health out!
Change starts with each of us.
Become aware, active and educated!
Read labels and make healthy choices!
Who is ultimately responsible??