Fast Food in Retrospect

Fast food has changed the way the world feeds itself forever. You can’t drive too far without seeing a McDonalds, Subway, or a Starbucks. They seem to have taken over the country — and the world.

McDonald's feeds 1% of the world’s population a day. That’s roughly 77 million people a day. Or 3.2 million an hour.

It’s a huge part of the American diet. Kids, teenagers, adults, and the elderly indulge in McDonald's and other fast food options every day. The obesity rate in America is skyrocketing. Health problems are rising. There are very little positive health benefits when it comes to fast food. So how did we get here?

Whose Responsible for Getting Fast Food this Popular?

Let’s take it back to 1940 in San Bernardino, California. Two brothers — Richard and Maurice McDonald founded the world’s biggest fast-food chain today — McDonald's. They invented the “Speedee Service System”, a way to make the process of making a meal and serving it- to under thirty seconds. They kept things simple. Simple menu. Simple process. Simple job.

It started as a drive in — a place where during that time, people could pull up in their vehicles and be waited on by a carhop. It was a place for teenagers to hang out, and a quick and easy meal. However, it wasn’t quick enough for them.

Soon enough, they created a way to get the food out faster. They got rid of the carhops and the drive-in atmosphere and made it into a walk-up window instead. It took a while for people to catch on as most restaurants during this time were drive-ins. They sold hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes. They made them quickly using their “Speedee Service System” and created a fast food chain like no other.

They only had a few locations at the time but partnered with Ray Kroc in 1954. This was the year that changed it all. Ray Kroc had big ambitions for the company. He wanted to franchise out McDonald's statewide and nationwide. Kroc believed he could do it. So, he did.

Ray Kroc bought out the McDonalds brothers after having many conflicting issues with them. The brothers didn’t want change to their original restaurants, menu, and plans. Kroc wanted change and expansion. They settled on a deal with each brother taking $1.35 million dollars each.

“The Founder” is a great film at showcasing the growth of fast food and the relationship between Ray Kroc and the McDonald’s brothers.

Why Did It Stay Popular?

Even today, fast food is still just as relevant as it was then. Except now — there’s a lot more options to choose from. Fast food is popular still for a few reasons, it’s cheap, it’s fast, and it tastes good.

Nowhere else can you go and get a meal for under $5. Almost every fast food joint has a dollar menu, or at least a deal menu. Combos are popular now, where you can get an entrée, side, and drink for under $7.

It’s fast too. Who wants to go home after a long day at work and cook an entire meal that could take over an hour? It’s much easier to just stop on the way home from work, go through the drive-thru and have your meal in minutes. There’s also a lot of choices. If you want a hamburger you can go to McDonald's, Burger King, or Sonic. If you want chicken, KFC, Chick Fil A, and Popeye’s. There’s also Taco Bell, Arby’s, Dunkin’, and more if you crave something else.

And it all tastes good! Fast food chains have perfected their food to keep consumers coming back. They remain consistent amongst all locations, so you can get the same meal anywhere in the country. There’s so much sugar, heavy carbohydrates, and calorie-dense foods on a menu that triggers the brain into wanting more. It's science.

It Isn’t All in the Taste: It’s Also in the Marketing

Fast food primarily markets to children. It’s no wonder why childhood obesity rates are growing. When a restaurant is able to get the kid, they get the parents too. They market to kids through fun commercials, enticing kid’s meal toys, and fun play areas at the restaurants. Every day, kids watch about 10 commercials toward food advertising.

Kids are also attracted to the sugary meals and drinks that come with fast food, and the domino effect starts once they have their first few meals.

Companies also know how to appeal to the brain. Looking at the psychology of color, red makes us hungry and alert. Yellow is happiness and joy. When you look around, almost every restaurant has one or the other in their logo. Sometimes both.

Not only are these in the logos, but they’re painted on the outsides of restaurants and promoted inside as well. McDonald's is known for its red and yellow colors, which might have helped them grow to #1. Other restaurants that use red and yellow are Wendy’s, Sonic, In-N-Out, Burger King, and Hardees. These all can attract the attention from off the roadway easily, and coerce you into coming to eat at their establishment.

The Future of Fast Food

It doesn’t look like fast food is going anywhere. More and more restaurants are opening every single day around the world. It hasn’t got any healthier though.

Even with provided nutritional information and required calorie counts on menus, fast food chains are not cutting back when it comes to sugars, fats, and carbohydrates. Along with nutrition, the fast food industry is also killing the planet.

Many restaurants use Styrofoam cups, paper bags, straws, plastic cups and utensils, and waste just as much behind the scenes. These cups and utensils end up in landfills and in the ocean, killing our planet and our wildlife.

Starbucks has moved forward with replacing some of their drinks with lids to sip from, instead of using a straw. It’s a small step in the right direction, but the plastic is still going to take hundreds of years to decompose.

Not only is the waste killing the environment, but the greenhouse gases and the toxicity of factory farming are harming the planet — and our health.

Factory Farming is the highlight of animal cruelty. Hundreds of animals are packed into small, indoor places only to be slaughtered for human consumption. Some chickens become so overweight in these places that they cannot support their body weight, and stop walking. This leads to a higher death rate amongst these animals, even before they are slaughtered.

These animals are also not given proper nutrition, but rather a diet that grows them big, and quickly. Often this leads to health conditions within the animals, which can transfer over into the meat that we consume. With the animals also being kept in poor conditions, it leads them to disease more often than not. Why should we continue to consume meat from animals who are abused and sick?

Outside of the factory farm, people who live near these places complain of health issues, especially respiratory ones. The waste from these animals is close to their homes and in large amounts. This pollutes the air and water from which these people live. The air gives off harmful fumes which also contribute to global warming.

To Sum It Up

Hopefully, in the future of fast food, healthier options will prevail. Perhaps deep fried food won’t take the trophy for fast foods most prized meals.

We can only hope to lessen the number of calories that we intake, and the fats that we consume. However, as long as fast food is around (and it’ll be around for a long time), I do not see the health of Americans to positively increase anytime soon. Perhaps the marketing could be cut down, but there will always be a McDonalds or Subway right around the corner.