The Global Siren Call of Fast Food

Ironically, as the world embraces America's fast food, I, living n NYC, eschew fast food places, opting instead for the readily available cuisines of the world here in NY. You can find just about every country's cuisine here. Tasty, usually inexpensive and generally, but not always, healthier.

Fast food restaurants are a leading cause for obesity in the United States. Now fast food restaurants are taking advantage of people living in poverty stricken countries. Instead of being food deprived, children will soon face the same issues of obesity. Restaurants such as KFC and Mcdonalds make millions of dollars by selling non-nutrient rich food to families all over the world. They certainly do not need to make more profit by worsening the lives of families who do not have many options for food. Families in places such as Ghana do not yet realize the health impacts of eating fast food frequently, but they will mostly likely lean towards the low prices that fast food restaurants offer. Fast food corporations could use some of their profits to aid struggling countries and bring in healthier options. Why should we allow corporations to bring health issues such as the disease of obesity to other countries like they have done with the United States?

There is a solution to the craving we have for fast food. It is caused by our need for real nutrition and our inability to obtain it.

For many thousands of years people prized eating wheat. Then in 1915 in something called the bleached bread decision our Supreme Court allowed flour to be contaminated and destroyed. Now we eat a shadow of what was once a perfect food and we pay the price.

The solution is to return to grinding our own flour from organic wheat berries and making our own bread. A bread machine helps here..

The result is a much reduced craving for fast food and many health advantages.

“You become addicted to the spices,” he said. “That’s why everybody wants to have it.” According to the article, "Obesity was rising as Ghana embraces fast food, then come KFC. The issue with fast food is a debatable topic, people sees things from different perspectives. I grew up eating fast food, such as, Popeyes, McDonalds, etc. I was uneducated then and didn't know much about the effects of fast food and processed foods; the harmful and toxic effects on our immune system. Nobody is putting a gun to your head and forces you to eat fast food, but if it's all around you, it has a domino effect "Monkey sees, Monkey does.'' We must try it, everyone else is doing it. Being cautious about what we put in our body is essential to our survival in the unforeseeable future. Africa is the poorest continent in the world, the introduction of fast food chains to the slowly developing countries in the region will lead to an exponential increase in death rates--people dying of obesity, heart disease, diabetes. The western world are currently dealing with these issues--Africa do not have the resources, doctors and technologies to deal with the catastrophic effect of rising fast food chains and processed foods, unlike the western world--which is currently dealing with the issue.

It shouldn't be a surprise that "easy", "fast", "delicious (yes, it is)", should not be goals exclusive to Americans. Similarly, America won't deserve the blame for obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. They're all the consequences of free choices, and it's tough to see how we turn the tide. Unfortunately I'm not betting we can.

Not sure what you are trying to say apart for hipping fast food which has got people fat and unhealthy! I lived in Dakar and what I remember was sensational large shrimps and tuna that I could eat gladly twice a day with shredded boiled eggs. I never ate chicken in Dakar once. I don't know why it would be a plus! Their fish is the best. Why would someone wants to eat cheaply prepared American food in Dakar anyway??

Well why not, the fast food industry was allowed to conquer the Americas why not make the rest of the world unhealthy?

Anecdotal, but relevant. My childhood evenings were mostly spent munching on a small(ish) bowl of rice krispies, batter fried vegetables ( usually a coupla slices of taters or chopped onions in chickpea flour batter ) , all washed down with a milky tea. Thats it. College was the same. It was a snack, topped off at 50 grams thereabouts. And then , the cavalry rode into town with its fancy menu and shiny tables n such. Almost overnight, 50g changed into 200g. I was working by then, young and apparently indestructible. For 4-5 years, almost everyday had the same mammoth portion of meat patty, pasty white bread and the same stupid veg; lettuce, cucumbers, onions. Fast forward 5 years further. I have quit fast food entirely. I have lost weight. I find it far more enjoyable to work, exercise and have home-cooked fare. I sleep much better for the most part. But my friends havent been so lucky. And that's the fundamental problem with putting on weight as you age. The effort that goes into cutting down the accumulated fat, both mental and physical, increases exponentially. The body literally lets go. This next generation in my country will have to fight its own health problems , as well as care for those afflicted from the previous generation. Thats just plain unfair on them, on both counts.

This is a critically important series. However, more work needs to be done to explain how these fast food companies have invaded markets around the world as part of the regime of corporate globalization imposed through neoliberal free trade treaties over the past few decades. To say simply that "Fast food arrived in Ghana in recent years" puts it too passively, as though it just happened as the natural course of things, rather than a deliberate outcome of trade and investment policy designs. Research shows very clearly that liberalization of markets and free trade - especially with the United States - ushers in a wave of non-communicable diseases (or, shall we call them diseases of corporate globalization instead?). See for example: Manufacturing Epidemics: The Role of Global Producers in Increased Consumption of Unhealthy Commodities Including Processed Foods, Alcohol, and Tobacco (http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.10.... "...we investigated whether LMICs that entered into free-trade agreements with the United States had higher levels of consumption of soft drinks than those that did not, after correcting for the country's level of GDP per capita and urbanization. The table in Text S7 shows that such free-trade agreement is associated with about a 63.4% higher level of soft drink consumption per capita".

Whatever one might think of American cultural domination spreading around the world, the spread of American fast food is a dubious addition. What a shame not to eat the domestic foods of the places you're visiting, and that includes not only foreign countries but also the different regions of the USA. Going into a local restaurant serving local food might mean Americans would have to mingle with local folks. Can't have that happen. We are, after all, the greatest country on earth with the greatest values and products. No need to experience a foreign culture even when you're in one. Big American corporations will make sure you don't have to.

That's one lucky goat. Eat more chicken :-)

Time to buy !Yum stock.

Africa has long had a tradition viewing heavy people as attractive -- not surprising in a countries where malnutrition and therefore thinness among poor is common. Look at the leaders of most states -- people generally want to emulate cultural elites. Blaming fast food is likely inaccurate. More to the point, wealth (GDP/capita) has shot up in both Ghana and Nigeria since 2000 and, not surprisingly, people are showing off that newfound wealth by looking like the rich (fat) and not the poor (thin). Anyone who has eaten "mafe" (try La Baobab on W. 116th) knows, that it is not a low-fat food (Senegalese, but similar). Blaming American companies is just missing the point.

We eat to live and happy people live to eat. We pity the show biz types who have to maintain abnormal body sizes. As for weight, I learned as a child to respect the Rubenesque figure, plump and healthy. Cholesterol, sodium and sugar may take years off our lifespan, but the years left are sweeter. This is the least painful population control we'll ever see. When I was young, I could have pizza or burgers everyday and lose weight. I was active and gregarious. I'm older, more docile and enjoying privacy. I don't miss fast food since I've learned to cook for myself but wouldn't dream of depriving others of the pleasures I've known.

The traditional diet in most places was heavy with unhealthy fats, salt, sugar and simple carbohydrates. In America, breakfast was pancakes with syrup. Other meals were meat with potatoes and other starches, and only small quantities of vegetables. Dessert was cake or cookies---sugar and margarine, mostly. Coffee and tea were heavily sweetened, and sweet "soft drinks" were abundant (though in smaller quantities than today). Yet obesity was rare 60 years ago. We are doing something different, and wrong, but it's not obvious what it is.

When bringing Kraft Macaroni and Cheese back in your suitcase, it's easiest to just bring back the cheese pouch. You can get macaroni in most places, and the box and macaroni take up a lot of room. Sad that I know this.

Fast Food may be all welcoming of different country's appetites...but it may be a 'plague' when considering that it may contribute to their ruin health-wise. I confess to indulging in the taste of these popular places, especially when short of time, and not much money in the pocket, but fully cognizant (as I was when smoking, eons ago) of the dangers (diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disease, stroke and cancer, among others) if allowed to continue on it's addictive course (salt, fat, and, even worse, refined sugar). Although we ought to continue to enjoy food (and its nutrients) freely, this freedom must encompass the discipline to know its consequences. Not only for our own health but for our influence in perpetuating a harmful product in the hands of others less fortunate by ignoring the results. I know no one wants to listen to governmental agencies ((FSIS, FDA, CDC), but you may lose nothing by educating yourself about their mission(s), and act accordingly. Its your life, after all.

Shake Shack all the way

Some years ago, I was eating a delicious lunch at a small Middle Eastern restaurant in a Los Angeles strip mall. A car pulled into the parking lot right where I was eating, and a family of 4 got out. The father and the two young kids headed for the Subway restaurant next door. The mother came into the restaurant where I was. I caught her eye, and said with a smile, "can't get the kids to eat this delicious food?" She said "there is no way to compete with the advertising the kids see everywhere."

The corporation wins again. Profits above all. We now gleefully give our bodies to this big scam. Even the poor are sucked in. Especially the poor. It reminds me of John Steinbeck's monster. The monster has to have profits all the time. It can’t wait. It’ll die. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can’t stay one size. Men made the monster, but they can't control it.

Very interesting personal look at what led to the writing of the excellent story this accompanies--many thanks for sharing! Re the broader issues here--we humans just seem so vulnerable to craving things that aren't good for us, and our current economic system just seems so exquisitely tailored to provide incentives for people to make & sell those very things... Not that I know of a better economic system, that's the problem!

I enjoyed reading Dionne Searcey's article because it paints a picture of a detail of life in Dakar. There must be *something* universal about fast food. I think that it's the salt, fat and plentiful carbohydrates. I don't eat fast food anymore, but it was prevalent when I was growing up here in the East. And whereas Americans are trying (unsuccessfully) to kick the habit, it looks like fast food is being introduced into Dakar. It's too bad. They're in for increased health problems. It's too bad because one could imagine "fast food" from healthy ingredients. But somehow it never works out that way. Anything that a company can economically grind up into a patty and lace with scientifically determined flavor enhancers, sells. Well, I was watching Anthony Bourdain on CNN the other evening while he sampled various open-air market treats in Laos and Vietnam. I didn't see a lot of artificial flavorings or reliance on salt, fat or overabundance of carbs. All the food looked natural to me. And it looked naturally flavorful. One might not go for tripe and other unusual organs (well, they're not unusual to the animal or fish, or to the native diner) but they have the natural flavor sans the chemical additives that we all consume from fast food. And they were fast food, too. Reading Dionne's engrossing article, I have come to the conclusion that it is hopeless to instill healthy living into much of the world. But maybe we can encourage fast food to be made better.