Fast Food Nation

Fast Food Nation
Originally uploaded by **~Donna~**

In my small"ish" SE Texas college town we have too many fast food places to count. We even have double of several of them. In the last year there's been at least 4 new ones crop up. You can smell the grease in the air as you drive by.

I'm not immune to the draw... in fact this photo was taken at the local Jack In the Box drive thru. By me. >.> The kids got out of school early and I thought it would a fun "treat". We tried the Burger king first, but the line was so long (hmm) that we turned around and went to the JITB.

I've had periods where I am completely anti- fast food. Then, eventually, I come around again and dive in.

I have to admit the thought of french fries nowadays totally turns me off. But I do like a good burger!

We are trying to eat healthier more "whole" foods these days. But darn these fast food places everywhere you turn! The good news is the prices are getting so high these days it's easier to pass on them. For the four of us it can go up to almost 30 dollars depending on what we get. Far too much for "fast food" junk IMO!

I found some interesting things on the internet:

Did You Know?

*At many fast-food restaurants, a single meal gives a disproportionate share—sometimes more than 100 percent—of the recommended daily intake of fat, cholesterol, salt, and sugar.

*In the United States, an estimated 65 percent of adults are overweight or obese, leading to an annual loss of 300,000 lives and to at least $117 billion in health care costs in 1999.

*A recent study showed that children who drink sodas and other sugar-sweetened drinks are more often obese and that this risk increases another 60 percent with each additional beverage consumed.

*McDonald's, which operates 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries and serves 46 million customers each day, earned $15.4 billion in revenues in 2002. On opening day in Kuwait City, the line for the McDonald's drive-thru was more than 10 kilometers long.

*India's fast-food industry is growing by 40 percent a year and is expected to generate over a billion dollars in sales by 2005. Meanwhile, a quarter of India's population remains under-nourished—a number virtually unchanged over the past decade.

*China is now home to 800 KFCs and 100 Pizza Huts.

*Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, the world's two largest soft drink companies, are the thirteenth and twentieth largest advertisers in the world; together, they spent $2.4 billion on ads in 2001.

*Coca-Cola sells more than 300 drink brands in over 200 countries and employs 60,000 people in Africa alone. Its net revenues reached $19.6 billion in 2002—with more than 70 percent of its income originating outside of the United States.

More information here:
www.worldwatch.org/node/1489