Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Fast Food Restaurants Junk Food - 1,523 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

WHAT IS JUNK FOOD? Junk food is defined in Elook org as food that tastes good. Yet it is high in calories and there are very few nutrients. Junk food is something that has no importance to our everyday lives.

Some examples of junk food as cited in Answers com are soft drinks, hamburgers, pastas and other sweets. These foods are high on calories. Somehow, calories are not bad for the health according to an article reviewed by Dr Mary L Gavin. She cites for example that our bodies need calories for energy. You will only gain weight when you do not burn enough calories. Therefore, high calorie content of junk food is not bad for the health.

It is only when you do not exercise to burn these calories that you will be affected through weight gain (Answers. com). Junk food is also portrayed as food that contains very little nutrients beneficial to the body. It is a fact that we should eat different types of food to sustain nutrition in our body.

As written in Coolnurse. com, the nutrients have different job specifications. In order for one to stay healthy, he / she must eat as wide a variety of foods as possible. (Coolnurse. com).

For example, in a big country as the United States, the changing environment makes all the alternatives to food consumption an ordinary thing. The fast-food restaurants are just around the corner and all the foods that one craves are accessible. These foods are the ones that are high in fat and sugar content. It is evident that one just needs to be more discriminating and critical in choosing the foods one eats.

The junk foods are all around and conveniently-packaged. How else can one escape its lure? Obesity is certainly a problem that should be taken seriously. According to the Media Awareness Network, in the United States, obesity is second only to smoking as a cause of death. The explosion in obesity, especially in children, will likely cut life expectancy, reversing two centuries of uninterrupted progress. According to researchers who published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the excess weight problems and obesity now affecting almost two-thirds of Americans is increasing heart attack, cancer and diabetes risk (Media Awareness Network.

Food Facts) There are notions that people are enticed to eat more when they eat nowadays because of the practice of giving larger portions to diners in restaurants. This results in increased calorie consumption. For example, an average soft drink increased from 13 ounces and 144 calories to nearly 20 fluid ounces and 193 calories, while the average cheeseburger grew from 5. 8 ounces and 397 calories to 7. 3 ounces and 533 calories. Salty snacks grew from 1 ounce to 1. 6 ounces, and calories from 132 to 225. If the body does not burn off the extra calories consumed from larger portions, fast food, or soft drinks, weight gain can occur (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, n. p).

In a 1998 article on the causes of obesity, an American nutrition expert squarely blamed the fast food industry for using advertising and promotion to constantly pressure us to eat (Brownell, n. p). The combination of a phenomenal access to a poor diet- to high-calorie foods that are widely available, low in cost, heavily promoted, and good-tasting- and a culture that discourages people from being physically active, has lead to the creation of a "toxic food environment. This is hazardous to health.

Foods that are upside servings already encourage consumers to eat more than what they are comfortably capable. They try to squeeze in all those foods because they could argue that they spent a good deal of money for them. Marketing also comes in as it succeeds in making consumers buy more and consume more. (Brownell, n. p).

People find it enticing to consume large portions because they believe they are getting better value for their money. Have you ever noticed how Starbucks's males-size coffee is called "tall, " not "small?" Even when servings aren't that large, they are labeled to make consumers feel that they " re getting added value. These up sized foods make people eat more than they usually need (Brownell, Kelly, 1998). Researchers have found that when we order larger portions of food, we eat more than we " re actually hungry for. Super-sizing tempts the consumer to spend more money that is not needed. These extra calories may make Americans feel like they are getting a value for their money but in reality, they are just contributing to the country's 66 percent rate of adult obesity.

Whether snacks, sandwiches or full restaurant meals, recent experiments have shown that we eat more when we are given more and that large portions may be contributing to the obesity epidemic. (McCrory, M. A 1999). People say that it is possible to accumulate 10 pounds in strategic places of ones body within a year just by consuming an additional 100 calories a day. Thus, it is essential that one controls portion size in order to control weight. Brownell maintains that the larger portions offered by fast food restaurants which are often a better deal economically makes people resistant to change their habits. (Brownell, Kelly, 1998). Modernization, urbanization and changing occupational structures are creating societies in which physical activity is low and the availability of high fat, high sugar, energy-dense foods have increased.

Populations now live in environments that inadvertently promote sedentary lifestyles and over-consumption of energy dense foods. Maintaining a healthy weight and optimal fat stores requires considerable effort, which is difficult to maintain in an un supportive environment. Action is urgently needed to first to halt and then reverse the increase in overweight and obesity. There is a need to prevent people from becoming obese and to manage those people who are already obese (Lin B. H, Frazao, E. , Guthrie, J 1999).

Many personal, family, social and environmental factors influence food choice and eating habits (Maskill, et. al. , p. 1). Over the years, it has been observed that more and more people eat outside to save on time in cooking home foods. Almost half of the foods being purchased are eaten outside the homes now. But few are conscious about what they order. Most probably, these are fancy foods, with all the lard and fat trimmings not removed in order to make the consumer come back again and again to that food eatery.

As stated earlier, it is difficult for consumers to limit their intake of junk food at restaurants, given the limited availability of nutrition information, as well as the popular practice by many restaurants of providing foods in larger-than-standard servings and very big portions. Studies show that people eat greater quantities of food when they are served more. Hence, it is highly crucial to tap the food industry in the prevention of obesity. The food industry certainly plays an immense role in preventing obesity because they influence food composition and marketing.

Thus, they must be encouraged to support the consumption of healthy, low fat meals and snacks and work to remove fat and sugar. By doing so, the way to obesity prevention is not as bumpy as it seems. Indeed, we always want to have our food taste good. Companies are trying to discover different ingredients so that our food will taste not just better but really be good to the body in the long run. Defining junk food as palatable connotes that people enjoy eating this food. It is fair enough to conclude that junk food is just that: food that tastes good, high in calories, but of little nutritional value.

No food is junk when eaten in the right amount. It is our responsibility to discipline ourselves. The problem here is not the food but how much we eat. WORKS CITED Answers. com... Junk Food. 1999 - 2005.

web Elook. org. Junk Food. < web > Gavin, Mary L. (Reviewer) Learning About Calories. Accessed 2 November 2005 at. < web > Coolnurse. Com. Nutrition Know How. 2000 - 2005.

web Brownell, Kelly. The Pressure to Eat. July-August 1998. 2 November 2005. < web > Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Overweight and Obesity: Contributing Factors. 29 April 2005. 2 November 2005. < web > Lin B-H, Frazao, E. , Guthrie, J. (Jan. 1999. ) Away from home foods increasingly important to Americans. Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 749 Maskill, C. , Jones, S. , Willie, A. , and Casswell, S. Influences on the Eating Patterns and Food Choices of New Zealand Pakeha Adolescents: An overview.

University of Auckland: Alcohol and Public Health Research Unit, 1996. McCrory, M. A. , Fuss, P. J. , Hays, N. P. , Vincent, A. G. , Greenberg, A.

S. , and Roberts, S. B. Overeating in America: association between restaurant food consumption and body fatness in healthy adult men and women ages 19 to 80. Obesity Research 7: 564 - 571 (1999).

Media Awareness Network. Food Facts. 2005. 2 November 2005. < web > North American Association for the Study of Obesity. 1999. 3 November 2005. < web >.


Free research essays on topics related to: weight gain, extra calories, soft drinks, junk food, fast food restaurants

Research essay sample on Fast Food Restaurants Junk Food

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com