In the nonfiction text, Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food, Eric Schlosser, the author, explains the effects of fast food restaurants on the small town of Martinsburg, West Virginia. Surprisingly, some effects were good, but others were not so good. The new fast food restaurants made Martinsburg turn from a quiet town, into a large, busy town. Though fast food restaurants provide a lot of jobs, it does not pay much. Fast food restaurants often mistreat their animals, but they do use real meat, sometimes.
McNuggets from McDonald’s are approximately 50% real meat, and 50% fats, preservatives, sugar, sodium, and carbohydrates, but fast food products are starting to get healthier. These arguments show the upsides and the downsides of fast food restaurants. The amount of jobs it provides, the amount of unhealthy food, the new, healthier foods, and the mistreatment of animals shows the upsides and downsides of fast food restaurants. To begin with, fast food restaurants provide many jobs. Fast food restaurants have provided around 3,729,653 jobs this year (http://www. tatista. com), which is a lot.
According to https://www. ukessays. com: “Fast food industry offers more job opportunities to the people in local areas… The demand for McDonald’s product increases and many people, especially young people can work in McDonald’s franchises. This shows that fast food companies successfully make a contribution in solving social unemployment issues. Other studies also show that university students work temporarily in fast food outlets so that their salary may cover their expenses during their study.
This suggests that, to a certain extent, fast food industry has some positive effects on people’s life. ” If fast food restaurants suddenly shut down, millions of people would not have jobs. This is important because if millions of people did not have a job, more people would be poor, and there would be more people on the streets. We do not want this to happen because then the economy could collapse. Also, for teens, working at a fast food restaurant is a good way to make money for college and to gain experience before working at a more advanced job.
They can earn some money this way from the $1,200 the average American pays each year for fast food, which is equal fast food twice a week. Another positive effect of fast food restaurants is that it is starting to get healthier, and you can make healthier choices: “A positive aspect of fast-food chains compared to some other more formal eateries is the availability of nutritional information. It’s typically posted on menu boards as well as available on in-store flyers. Knowing the nutrition of the foods you’re about to order can help you make more informed and healthier choices.
Another positive change in the fast-food world is the availability of foods prepared using healthier cooking methods. Some changes are only a small step in the right direction, such as using vegetable oil instead of lard to fry foods, while other changes result in a significantly healthier food such as grilled chicken breast or broiled fish rather than just deep-fried choices. In addition to foods prepared in ways to lower the fat, healthier items are often available on fast food menus.
Look for fresh salads, low-fat yogurt, fruit cups and wheat buns replace some of the higher fat and lower fiber menu options… ,” wrote Larissa Gedney, “Positive Facts for Fast Food. ” Gedney shows how you can swap the low-fiber, salty, sugary, fatty, and high-calorie fast foods for healthier items like low-fat milk, soups, salads, and fruit cups. Nutrition labels are also available in plain sight, so you can make healthier choices based on the content of the food. Cooking methods are also getting healthier, like broiling and grilling instead of frying foods.
Despite these healthier choices, the food is still extremely unhealthy. According to Frank Carson, “7 Unappetizing Truths About America’s Favorite Fast Food”, “We should also probably point out that only 50 percent of the chicken nugget is actually chicken, and the rest of the nuggets consist of sugar, preservatives, baking soda, and chemicals with unrecognizable names. ” Carson is talking about McDonald’s McNuggets. They might taste good, but they contain only 50% real chicken with added substances to make it taste better.
The other 50% contains unrecognizable names which are not good because they are usually chemicals that are not good for your body. They could give you diseases and make you sick. Lastly, fast food farms mistreat their animals according to Frank Carson, 7 Unappetizing Truths About America’s Favorite Fast Food: “In October of 2013, McDonald’s ceased business with two egg suppliers after a secretly recorded video of the farm’s employees abusing chickens — which were already being confined to inhumanely small spaces — was exposed.
Another video from a California meat supplier’s slaughterhouse exposed abuse that lead to the suspension of the entire operation. Though gestation crates (small cages) used to confine pregnant sows are being phased out by many fast food chains, they are still widely used. ” This is not good for the animals that provide meat for the restaurants. It stresses the animals and mistreats them. We should not be doing anything to animals that we would not do to another human. The confinement of the animals is not fair to the animal.
These four facts show the good and bad sides of fast food, and how fast food restaurants are affecting society. The fast food restaurants that are in almost every crowded city have a good side and a bad side, especially in the United States. All the fast food restaurants in Martinsburg, Virginia transformed the city into a more populated, “normal” American town. Fast food restaurants, settled along Interstate 81 in Martinsburg, and soon brought more and more houses and people to spread out along what used to be farmland.
Also, fast food restaurants provide many jobs for the growing population, and for teens nearby. Food served there is unhealthy, but it is starting to get healthier. Another bad side about fast food is their mistreatment of animals. They are often confined in small cages and are mistreated. These arguments show some of the effects of fast food restaurants, and are often debated on. What do you think about fast food restaurants? Should there be fast food restaurants in modern day society?
