Custom «Meal: Fast Food in America» Essay Paper

Fast food as it known to many Americans consists of a series of meals that are mainly prepared at McDonalds and taken mostly in moving cars. The meal is originally produced from corn majorly in a cornfield in the Iowa State. The harvested corn after being processed amid a series of procedures converges into all types of meals ranging from meat to vegetables. Notably, industrially produced meals are all over the globe and accessible to almost everybody in the entire world (Schlosser, pp.15, 2002). Apparently, the meals are generated from ingredients common to mankind and following a food chain that almost everybody eats all the time.

Formerly, fast food was famous in most parts of the world and mostly in America. Among children, it was the favorite. However, it is quite evident that nowadays there has been a drastic decrease in the total number of children that consume fast food. Additionally, the frequency at which fast food is being consumed has also reduced significantly from thrice a day to once or never in a single day (Schlosser, pp.15, 2002). This follows the fact that most people think it’s a shame or out of order to take fast food instead of the real and/or normal meal. The belief has rendered fast food useless to most citizens of America. This paper will critically discuss and analyze the origin of fast food, its consumption and the general effect it has had on American citizens since it first consumed. To arrive at the conclusions statistical analysis was carried out in relation to the same topic of discussion

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The meal as it is known to many is originally produced at McDonalds. The corn used in the whole process is harvested from a farm in Iowa, a state in America. More often, the meal is substituted for the normal meal and sometimes taken at different times of the day. This could extend to being taken in a moving car. The corn at McDonalds goes through various processes to come up with different types of meals that assume the normal food chain and consisting of the very common ingredients known to mankind. Although fast food seems of great significance, it does not hold water among American citizens nowadays (Schlosser, pp.125, 2009). It was a threat sometime back especially to children. However, the trend has changed significantly and children have reduced the frequency at which they consumed fast food. Some have gone ahead to assert that it is a shame to take fast food in place of the normal meal (known to many as the real meal).

Researchers conclude that fast food contains salads that are essential and healthy to the body (Schlosser, pp.08, 2002). In fact, they term it as a way in which children can get their parents to get them the fast food. Specifically, they use the term ‘denying the denier’. Compared to other meals, fast food is considered to be cheaper than the normal meal and it may save parents the hustle of buying expensive foodstuffs. The fact that consumers are rational brings in the issue that because all individuals are no the same they will end up ordering for different meals or different ingredients. This creates a hallmark of the industrial food chain which, consequentially, breaks the market separately from each other and families into various demographics.

Study shows that nineteen percent of America’s meals are taken in the cars (Schlosser, pp.100, 2009). The cars are modified in such a way that they can accommodate cups and plates that carry foods. This is the perfect place for taking fast food. As a matter of fact, the fast food producers have considered this as a challenge and is currently designing their meals to suit being taken in cars without much effort and without dirtying the whole place. However, the challenge still remains for those cars which cannot accommodate space for cups or sauce plates for meals. To counter this problem is sometimes difficult as the car makers have no slight idea on which type of food might be consumed in the vehicles they produce. Study shows that corn doubles as food for cars as part of it is sometimes used in the production of gasoline which is used in car engines.

The hamburgers and chicken nuggets produced at McDonalds are flavored and wrapped as little presents which are the ideal prize for children. For a business to prosper there must be an idyllic strategy to attract consumers and maintain consumer loyalty. This has led McDonalds to produce different types of meals in different forms ranging from French fries to chicken McNuggets. All these come in special forms that are the perfect gift to families going for treats, children and to everyone as a whole (to be taken instead of the normal meal). Scientists have to a conclusion that fast foods have a nudge of fat and carbohydrates which relieve stress clean the brain in elements that make it feel faultless (Schlosser, pp.250, 2009). Currently, there has been reformulation which has occurred due to some criticism on the previous form of nuggets. There was allegation that the chicken nugget contained more calories and fats than a common cheeseburger. Nowadays, the nuggets they produce have ten fewer calories and the level of fats has also reduced than the original one.

The question as to whether the nugget tasted like the former or if tasted like chicken was not substantial as the nugget constitutes its own sort of food and ingredients for American citizens. It is estimated that the nugget takes a total of thirty eight ingredients all different from each other and with different flavors. Many ask the question as to how corn can be converted into a tasty piece of nugget; the answer is simple, most of the ingredients are originated from corn and others related to corn. Moreover, others have been modified to produce the ideal nugget for family consumption.

Generally, fast foods including nuggets consist of synthetic ingredients and other edible substances that are best for human consumption and provide the intended flavor. Additionally, preservatives such as citric acid are used and one could store the food in a refrigerator for months without it going bad. Chemicals are used in the process of production and sometimes pose as major challenges as part or whole of it may be mixed in the fast foods (Schlosser, pp.50, 2009). Chemicals such as the TBHQ which is an antioxidant and is sprayed either directly on the nugget or in the wrapping to help preservation is a form of butane and maybe harmful if consumed (it may lead to nausea, ringing in the ears, vomiting, delirium, collapsing and a sense of suffocation).

The nugget is the main reason as to why most Americans prefer chicken to beef. The way the ingredients have been organized and the flavoring fill up families and especially children inexpensively. A comparison between the cheeseburger and the chicken burger puts the chicken nugget several steps ahead of the cheeseburger. The notion in the minds of most consumers that they are eating animals is taken away by the fact that chicken nuggets are originally processed from corn. This is considered as to what the industrial food chain does best when it comes to meal provision. ‘They obscure the histories of foods it produces by processing them to such an extent that they appear as pure products of culture rather than nature (things made from plants and animals)’

Most consumers think that it is hard to estimate the actual size or number of corn that they have consumed since they started taking fast foods in their childhood. They assume that it is hard to tell how many ounces of chicken meat are placed in each nugget or he actual size of the meat that goes in each nugget. The calculations are hard to compute with respect to the lengthy ingredients and due to the fact that corn is everywhere in the fast food (Schlosser, pp.32, 2002). Despite all this, many people have continued to take fast foods and especially those produced at McDonalds.

Those who try to calculate the total amount of corn used in the production process of fast foods reach to the final conclusion that corn is used allover in the production process and that most ingredients were synthetic or were modified from edible sources.

‘What in the eyes of the omnivore looks like a meal of impressive variety turns out ,when viewed through the eyes of the mass spectrometer, to be the meal of far more specialized kind or eater. But then, this is what the industrial eater has become: corn’s koala’.

Therefore, eating corn in fast food is either bad or good depending on ones position. Those in the McDonalds business (agribusiness i.e. processing corn into fast foods) find this a remarkable accomplishment. It is one way of presenting a solution to contradictions in agribusiness such as capitalism and the major challenge of escalating food production as fast as possible in relation to the ever increasing population of consumers in America.

In conclusion, if ones position is the lower class, or if they assume they are in the lower class, then he ultimate kind of food is the fast foods. To save costs and minimize spending, those who sand at the lowest end of the world’s economic ladder need to choose fast foods as the only way out of the mystery they face. The world is at a brink and there is major competition for energy that is detained by plants and stored in form of carbohydrates. Therefore, using corn as the main ingredient of producing fast foods is a significant step in improving the health of human beings and generally boosting the economy. Other than taking the corn directly, it is preferred that it undergoes some refining such as mixing it with some chicken meat to come up with the best fast food available to all human beings and the cheapest cost (with comparison to other forms and types of meals).