In the past, I never stopped and thought about how my food was made, or even how nutrious my food was (well, to an extent) until reading this book. Chew on This, a nonfiction book I decided to pick up off my parents bookshelf at the 5th week of school this year. This 318 page book took me around a week and a half to finish, although only reading to page 265 due to notes and sources at the end of the book. Averaging about 25 pages a day, I never ate fast food while reading this book due to a loss of my appetite. After reading the first few chapters, I had already learned about the history of many famous fast food chains, how these chains boosted a new family lifestyle, and the invention of the fast food chain. These interesting and endless facts caused me to continue to read this book nonstop, until I was forced to stop each day.
Fast food chains really don't care how they earn money just as long as their earning it, even if it effects their customers. Many slaughterhouses described in the book use as most people would say "gross" and "nasty" techniques to slaughter animals. These animals (chickens and cows) often have many diseases instilled in them that cause many Americans to get food poisoning or diseases such as E. coli "The construction of huge feedlots, slaughterhouses, and hamburger grinders has made it easier for E. coli and other nasty germs to spread through the nation's food supply(Schlosser/Wilson194)." This statement showed me how severe these slaughterhouses are. New and more efficient ways of producing meat, have caused diseases to come a quality to beef and chicken shipped to fast food chains around the US. After reading this section of the book I firmly thought, Should our health really be put into danger just so fast food chains can make a profit faster? Another unhealthy thing about fast food is that is has caused many Americans to become obeise and "fat". Many fast food meals are low in fiber, nutrients, and high in salt, which are all bad for our bodies. Obesity has been linked to cause many Americans health problems such as heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer, asthma, high blood pressure, and strokes. None of these are good which I hope everyone reading this knows! Although fast food seems like the cheapest and most efficient way to buy food these days, it also comes with a greater cost. Many fast food users are becoming so obeise that they must have Gastric-Bypass surgery, which can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000. So is it really worth it to take the cheap and easy way out? Many fast food chains are trying to add healthier items to there menus that could solve this problem. " The most successful new item on the Burger King menu isn't the Veggie Burger. It's the Enormous Omelet breakfast sandwich, which contains more calories (740) and more grans of fat (46) than a Whopper (Schlosser/Wilson244)." This shows that these healthy items, really might not be healthy after all. So should Americans just stop eating fast food overall? This is question many of us should ask ourselves.
Connecting this book to the real world is quite easy, since so many of us Americans are fast food consumers. This last summer, I had an incident of food poisoning at one of the famous fast food restaurants mentioned in this book, Taco Bell. I had awful symptoms, that I'd much rather not mention, that caused me to be in bed for three days. I then decided to limit my fast food consumption, due to Chew on This, and my food poisoning incident. I found by searching on the internet, I wasn't wrong about my decision. Many articles online have long lists of how fast food restaurants are often serving food that is unsanitary and uncooked, which leads to food poisoning. The article I found, "Food Processing and Handling: Done by American Stuides Class of 2013", shows many aspects of Food Processing and Handling. An interesting statement I found in the article, "However, instead of dealing with overcrowding of cows, poor sanitation in the meat packing plants, underpaid and poorly skilled labor, excessive line speeds, poor government oversight, the meat industry wants to employ irradiation to control a preventable problem. (2)" This statement shows the same point as me, showing that many workers are providing customers with poor products that can cause them to get food poisoning. As mentioned in the last paragraph Chew on This uncovers many diseases that are linked through fast food that can cause food poisoning. "Every day in the United States, roughly 200,000 people are sickened by something they ate, 900 are hospitalized, and 14 die (Schlosser/Wilson193)." This statement made by Schlosser, shows the vast effect on this problem. I also can connect in another way, as I actually work in the Food and Beverage industry. I am a Hostess and Servers Assistant at California Pizza Kitchen and help run out dishes, fill and re-fill drinks, and seat people to their tables. I make sure to oversee all food is up to it's standards and make sure it isn't "fast food" quality. Meeting this standard is very tough, but is very important. Many fast food chains just aren't doing the same, which is why many of us need to cut down our fast food consumption.
Overall, I think Chew on This was a great read! I would recommend this to anyone who really wants to know the secrets of fast food. I uncovered a lot of information in this book that has changed my view on fast food in an unfortunately negative way. One day I hope these facts will be false, and that I can once again enjoy fast food.
Citations:
American Studies Class of 2013. “Food Processing and Handling.” The Truth about the Food Industry, fastfoodnationhonorsproject.weebly.com/food-processing-and-handling.html.
Schlosser, Eric, and Charles Wilson. Chew on This. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006
