What do you think is America’s most dangerous export? Is it nuclear technology? Is it weapons? Well, the answer is fast food! Yes fast food is America’s deadliest export in terms of the number of lives it threatens all across the globe. Obesity, especially among children is on the rise anywhere American fast food has penetrated. In Britain, for example, the number of fast food restaurants doubled between 1984 and 1993 and so did obesity among adults. The British eat the most fast food of any western European nation and have the highest obesity rate in the region. In Japan where obesity was unheard of before 1970 the obesity rates have climbed steadily since the introduction of fast food in 1971. In the 80’s the sale of fast food in Japan doubled and so did the obesity rates. India and China suffer the same fate now. Before the 90’s where people ate mostly whole wheat, rice, vegetables and unprocessed meat, they now eat, thanks to fast food, increasing amounts of processed flour, additive laden meats, sugary drinks and hardly any vegetables. This is true mostly of the younger generation in the metropolitan cities that love eating at a McDonalds or a Pizza hut. The result: a steady increase in the obesity rates, especially among children. According to a recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, China has about 92 million (5% of overall population) people with type II diabetes and India has about 51 million (7% of the overall population). Compare that to America which has about 27 million people with type II diabetes (12%). In fact it’s predicted that India and China will soon overtake the west in obesity and type II diabetes rates (in terms of overall percentages). So watch out for the big epidemic of heart disease in these regions by the time we reach our retirement age.
So why is fast food so bad? Simple! Like any other business, the fast food industry is motivated by profit. In order to make a healthy (pun intended) margin they need to use the cheapest ingredients that can last a long time without going bad. The end result is preservative laden fries (instead of freshly cut potatoes), refined flour (instead of whole flour), Margarine (instead of butter) and corn syrup (instead of plain sugar). The result is that the company’s bottom line gets fatter and so does your bottom (no pun intended).
