[Opinion] Hamburger Fear

Primont High School in California had a cultural war with its students in May. The battle began when young students began to buy hamburgers from nearby fast food stores instead of using the school cafeteria. “My favorite is hamburger and our school doesn’t have it,” students complained.

The school authorities, determined to protect the young people from obesity and diabetes, had earlier decided not to sell “junk foods” in the school. But its students grew too addicted to do without hamburgers.

▷ According to recent surveys on school food services in the U.S., 30% of public schools have fast food restaurants in their premises. One out of four children and teenagers in the country is overweight and one out of eight is obese, and experts cited addiction to hamburgers as a main culprit.

One fourth of adults, who were first hooked up with the fast food by free offers of toys, go to fast food restaurants to consume 3 hamburgers and 4 packs of French fries a week. A book titled ‘Fast Food Nation’ reveals the fact that more money is spent on hamburgers than high education, computers and cars.

▷ Americans would not be so concerned about eating hamburgers, if they enjoyed them as one of favorites. But the problem is that fast food companies are using lures to increase their sales volumes. They continue to increase the size of their hamburgers to a super big size.

The temptation of delicious foods is, in fact, hard to resist. Then adult Americans, who require 2,200 to 2,500㎉ everyday, get fatter by having as much as 3800㎉, deplored Marion Nestle, a professor at New York State University in her book “Politics of Food.”

Just look at the name “fast food.” People eat those foods fast – eat them even before their brains perceive stomachs are full. That’s why people get obese and suffer other serious health problems.

▷ An obese American man recently sued four fast food chains, claiming they contributed to his obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The companies are reportedly countering the claim, saying something about personal responsibility. Given the sheer amounts of money they have spent for marketing, they should acknowledge their contribution to the degrading public health.

Speaking about the public health, we are not an exception. Our children love to eat hamburgers at the fancily decorated fast food restaurants. We can’t just stop them from going there. Then, do the fast food chains ever think about making more nutritionally healthy foods or is it mothers’ job to keep children away from the restaurants by serving more delicious foods.

yuri@donga.com