Fast Food's Double-Edged Sword

Since my “biggest fan” (aka, my mom) brought it up, I might as well go with it. There are two basic ways in which fast food restaurants have significantly contributed to not only the loosening of Americans’ belts but also to the ballooning of societies all over the world. The first is the most obvious: extraordinarily fatty (not to mention high in sodium) foods. This is what happens when you try to mass-produce large quantities of food in the shortest possible amount of time at the cheapest cost imaginable. Here’s how it works: In its basic form, fast food is nothing but a bland imposter of “slow” food; so, to get people to eat it, producers must add incredible amounts of fat and salt. Unfortunately for us, those are two very irresistible flavors to most humans. And it doesn’t hurt (from a fast food restaurant’s point of view) that we don’t really expect to get good, much less decent, quality food from a place where a hamburger costs a buck and is handed to us a few seconds after paying. We are okay with mediocrity, and it has been slowing killing us for years.

On top of the unhealthy food, the portion sizes have spiraled out of control (and this goes for “slow” food restaurants as well). There have been several high-profile books and films in the not too distant past (“Fast Food Nation;” “Supersize Me”) that have attested to the fact that what we now know as the small drink and small fries are actually larger than the original larges of each. We don’t really pay much more for them, but we get a ridiculous 30-some-odd percent more calories. This is all due to the joining of a trick of modern economics with basic human psychology. Products can be offered for almost free, and yet the companies that offer those products can make significantly more cash. Even when McDonalds is offering 30% more calories for $0.25 more, it is now so cheap to mass produce those calories that they are gaining a $0.245 extra profit. Why do we allow them to do this?

Brian Wansink, a Cornell food researcher, thinks it is because, when it comes to food, we have no clue when we are being duped. He conducted several experiments (including one where he rigged up a soup bowl to refill slowly from its bottom) to test how well people were aware of how much they ate. He found that participants ate more when they dined from larger dishware, and participants were prone to eating all of the food in front of them (even if it was being refilled without their knowledge). The most amazing part of his research is that when participants were told that they had eaten 400 more calories than the person across from them (the control), the participants emphatically denied it. Even when shown the rigged soup bowl, they still denied it. Fast food and other restaurants make gobs of money off of our denial (which they have known about for years); meanwhile, our health is paying for it.

The second way that fast food is making us fat is the way in which most of these restaurants are designed. Think about it… what is the most stereotypical feature of a fast food restaurant (hint: this is how most frequenters receive their food)? Drive-through windows are as much a part of American culture as the food that is served through them. They are meant to serve as a convenience to encourage people to drive to the restaurant; and this is exactly what people do. I don’t really blame these people, because there is absolutely nothing to encourage pedestrians to walk there. Walking across a busy fast food parking lot and competing with cars is uncomfortable at best. If you are in a hurry and want to go through the drive-through on foot (or even on bike), you will most likely be denied food. It is one more way in which suburbia has diminished the importance of all forms of transportation other than automobiles.

I have less of a problem with fast food joints that are located in downtown mixed-use buildings or high rises. There are no drive-through windows. A good portion of customers actually expel some calories before and after eating the food. They are still guilty of “calorie gouging” (my term), but it is a much less problematic situation when cars are taken out of the equation. I’ll write about this tomorrow when I discuss Christopher Steiner’s new book, “$20 Per Gallon.” Until then, “slow” it down, be conscious of what and how much you are eating, and, for heaven’s sake, have some standards!