Defining Fast Food

What is fast food:
Inexpensive food, such as hamburgers and fried chicken, prepared and served quickly.

Fast foods are convenience foods that can be prepared and served very quickly. On average, one-fifth of the population of the USA (45 million people) eat in a fast-food restaurant each day. Although it is possible to eat nutritious fast foods, menus tend to be stacked with items high on most dietitians' ‘Avoid!’ lists.

Fast foods include salty french fries, beefburgers, fried chicken, and pizzas with a thick cheese covering. These appeal to the Western palate by being fatty, low in fibre and nutrients, but high in salt (one beefburger can contain more than 1000 milligrams of sodium). To make matters worse, they are often served with sugar-laden soft drinks or creamy milkshakes full of empty calories or fat.

Those who regularly eat fast foods should be particularly selective, moderating the intake of unhealthy options and choosing healthy options, such as salads with low-fat dressings, wholegrain buns, and skimmed milk. See also junk food.

Origin:
The pace of modern life is fast, and nowhere is it faster than in America. We want fast transportation, fast communication, fast computers, fast photos, fast music, fast repairs, and fast service from the businesses we patronize. It is from the last of these that we got fast food.

At first, it was a matter of fast service. Fountain and Fast Food Service was the title of a trade magazine, which published statements like this from 1951: "The partners have become old hands at spotting the type of conventioneer that will patronize their fast food service." Gradually service disappeared, and in 1954 we find fast food by itself in the title "Fountain and Fast Food." Incidentally, the trade magazine renamed itself Fast Food by 1960. In February of that year, the magazine noted, "Delicate scallops are really fast food...because they come ready to cook." And in July it remarked, "Fast food type restaurants do the lion's share of business for breakfast and noon meals eaten out."

The fast food revolution was a quick success throughout the land, and two decades later it was conquering the world. "The U.S. outcry against infiltration from the south is matched in vehemence by our neighbors' outcry against fast-food imperialism and the gradual Americanization of their own societies." noted the Christian Science Monitor in 1982.

Thanks to fast food, families that formerly ate home cooking now eat out or bring back take-home fast food in record numbers. Its virtue is speed, not quality. Its less than ideal nutritional value may have influenced the coining of another term twenty years later, one that also puts a four-letter epithet in front of food: junk food (1973).

Junk Food:
A high-calorie food that is low in nutritional value.

A pejorative term for food high in calories, low in nutrients and usually quick to prepare. Pasta, burgers, pizzas, fish and chips, crisps, and sweets have all at some time been classified as junk foods. Some nutritionists condemn all such foods with a zeal bordering on fanaticism; but most nutritionists believe that there are no bad foods, only bad diets. So-called junk foods can provide valuable nutrients and, if taken in moderation as part of a balanced diet, do little harm and can be of psychological benefit. Fish and chips, for example, if prepared properly to minimize the fat content, provides a nutritionally rich meal high in vitamins D and B12 as well as some minerals. There is no doubt, however, that it would be extremely difficult to design a balanced diet based exclusively on junk food since most have a high fat and salt content.

Factors contributing to labeling as junk food are:
high levels of refined sugar,
white flour,
trans fat and
saturated fat, salt, and
additives such as preservatives and coloring agents.
Others include lack of proteins, vitamins, fiber and other nutrients

Obesity
Obesity is an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual's ideal body weight. Obesity is associated with increased risk of illness, disability, and death.

Obesity traditionally has been defined as a weight at least 20% above the weight corresponding to the lowest death rate for individuals of a specific height, gender, and age (ideal weight). Twenty to forty percent over ideal weight is considered mildly obese; 40–100% over ideal weight is considered moderately obese; and 100% over ideal weight is considered severely, or morbidly, obese. More recent guidelines for obesity use a measurment called BMI (body mass index) which is the individual's weight multiplied by 703 and then divided by twice the height in inches. BMI of 25.9–29 is considered overweight; BMI over 30 is considered obese. Measurements and comparisons of waist and hip circumference can also provide some information regarding risk factors associated with weight. The higher the ratio, the greater the chance for weight-associated complications. Calipers can be used to measure skin-fold thickness to determine whether tissue is muscle (lean) or adipose tissue (fat).

Much concern has been generated about the increasing incidence of obesity among Americans. Some studies have noted an increase from 12% to 18% occurring between 1991 and 1998. Other studies have actually estimated that a full 50% of all Americans are overweight. The World Health Organization terms obesity a worldwide epidemic, and the diseases which can occur due to obesity are becoming increasingly prevalent.

Excessive weight can result in many serious, potentially life-threatening health problems, including hypertension, Type II diabetes mellitus (non-insulin dependent diabetes), increased risk for coronary disease, increased unexplained heart attack, hyperlipidemia, infertility, and a higher prevalence of colon, prostate, endometrial, and, possibly, breast cancer. Approximately 300, 000 deaths a year are attributed to obesity, prompting leaders in public health, such as former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D., to label obesity "the second leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States."

— Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt

Heart disease:
Heart disease is the narrowing or blockage of the arteries and vessels that provide oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the heart. It is caused by atherosclerosis, an accumulation of fatty materials on the inner linings of arteries that restricts blood flow. When the blood flow to the heart is completely cut off, the result is a heart attack because the heart is starved of oxygen.

Diabetes 2:
Diabetes mellitus type 2 or Type 2 Diabetes (formerly called non - insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), or adult-onset diabetes) is a metabolic disorder that is characterized by high blood glucose in the context of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. [1] While it is often initially managed by increasing exercise and dietary modification, medications are typically needed as the disease progresses. There are currently 23.6 million people in the U.S. (8% of the population) diagnosed with diabetes[2], 90% of which are type 2.[3] With prevalence rates doubling between 1990 and 2005, CDC has characterized the increase as an epidemic.[4] Traditionally considered a disease of adults, type 2 diabetes is increasingly diagnosed in children in parallel to rising obesity rates.[5]

Unlike type 1 diabetes, there is little tendency toward ketoacidosis in type 2 diabetes, though it is not unknown. One effect that can occur is nonketonic hyperglycemia which also is quite dangerous, though it must be treated very differently. Complex and multifactorial metabolic changes very often lead to damage and function impairment of many organs, most importantly the cardiovascular system in both types. This leads to substantially increased morbidity and mortality in both Type 1 and Type 2 patients, but the two have quite different origins and treatments despite the similarity in complications.

http://www.answers.com/topic/fast-food

Children vs. Obesity: Ban Ads or Tax Junk Food?

Recent research has shown that British (and American) children are getting fatter, suggested there is a link between childhood obesity and a slew of adult ailments, and revealed that 95% of food ads aimed at children promote brands that contain unhealthy levels of fat, salt and sugar.

Therefore, argue a number of food lobbying groups, by restricting unhealthy foods advertising to children we will reduce their consumption and thus improve the health of future generations.

Heady stuff. Charlie Powell from Sustain, an alliance of campaigners for better food, claims: "Advertising is designed to exploit children's vulnerabilities." Meanwhile, Kath Dalmeny from the Food Commission says: "Junk food advertisers know that children are especially susceptible to marketing messages. They target children as young as two with toys, cartoon characters, gimmicky packaging and interactive web sites to ensure they pester their parents for the products."

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2008/10/children-vs-obesity-ban-ads-or-tax-junk-food.html

David Ogilvy On 'A Good Advertisement'

“What is a good advertisement? There are three schools of thought. The cynics hold that a good advertisement is an advertisement with a client’s OK on it. Another school accepts Raymond Rubicam’s definition, ‘The best identification of a great advertisement is that its public is not only strongly sold by it, but that both the public and the advertising world remember it for a long time as an admirable piece of work … ‘ I have produced my share of advertisements which have been remembered by the advertising world as “admirable pieces of work,” but I belong to the third school, which holds that a good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself. It should rivet the reader’s attention on the product. Instead of saying, ‘What a clever advertisement,” the reader says, ‘I never knew that before. I must try this product.’

12 Causes of Bad Brand Advertising

The following will likely result in bad brand advertising:

1. Design by committee
2. Opinionated reviewers and approvers who don’t understand marketing
3. Writing ads that appeal to you rather than the target consumer
4. Using flowery language that sounds good but that means nothing. (This is a common ailment of neophyte copywriters. Substance is good. Using an economy of words is good. Simple, persuasive copy is good. Fluff and filler are bad.)
5. Squeezing as many features and benefits into the ad as possible (unsophisticated advertising clients often request this)
6. Revising an emotional or metaphorical ad to make it more literal (another common ailment of unsophisticated advertising clients)
7. Focusing on reach versus frequency.
8. Assuming that business-to-business advertising is significantly different from consumer advertising (“It needs to be factual and informative, not emotional.”). Don’t forget, business decision-makers are people too. And people are ruled as much by their hearts as by their heads. Harding’s 1996 study of buyers in ten corporations demonstrated that corporate buyers overwhelmingly rely on personal and emotional reasons over rational ones in their purchase choice.
9. Jingles. Unless they are very, very good (and most are not very, very good), they will distract from the brand message.
10. Celebrity endorsements tend not to be believable
11. Making claims that your brand can’t support

And, while this may not result in bad advertising, for consistency’s sake, the following is not a good idea:
12. A new marketing manager, feeling the need to “make his or her mark” on the brand, hires a new advertising agency and creates a totally new advertising campaign (whether the old campaign was working or not)

Sponsored By: Brand Aid


http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/advertising/

Fast Food Restaurant
# Arby's
# Taco Casa
# McDonald's
# Hardees
# Sonic
# Chick Fil-A
# Wendy's
# Jacks
# Taco Bell
# Willy T's
# Dari Delite
# Checkers
# KFC
# Zaxby's
# Krystal
# Burger King
# Guthrie's
# Church's Chicken
# Captain D's
# Long John Silver's