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WhyEmbracing the Drive Through Can Make People Healthier
Therelationship between processed foods and non-communicable diseases(such as obesity) has been controversial for many years. The debateis heightened by the stakeholders, especially the health careprofessionals, who try to popularize the idea that processed or fastfoods have played the most significant role in the exponentialincrease in the prevalence of obesity (Graft 506). This notion hasforced innocent members of the society to believe that theconsumption of food products that have been processed and packaged bythe big companies or sold by the drive through restaurants haveexcess calories, salts, and fats that put the health of the consumersat the risk. This paper will support the idea that embracing the ideaof drive through would make the society healthy, which is consistentwith the article “How junk food can end obesity” that wasauthored by David Freedman.
Thelarge food processing companies and established fast food restaurantsare continually proving the minority elites wrong by producingproducts that are healthier and palatable than what consumers canfind elsewhere. There is enough evidence to show that the bigcompanies have adequate resources and the technical knowledge thatwill help them supply their customers will food products with lowcalories, which will be healthier than what is offered by the “wholefood” outlets (Weaver 1525). The food processing companies thathave historically been accused of offering consumers with junky mealsare able to retail the original appeal of different products andenhance their palatability more than what is achieved by the wholefood outlets. It is estimated that these companies will be able toproduce healthy foods that are accessible to all consumers within aperiod of five years (Weaver 1525).
Therapid growth of the drive through restaurants is based on the changesthat the society has been going through. The economic conditions haveforced people to become busy, where most of them work for long hoursor take more than one job in order to maintain their families(Bassford 2). The drive-through restaurants provide the busy membersof the society with the quick access to foods. Initially, the drivethrough restaurants used to focus more on the palatability of thefoods, while taking less care about the ingredients. Consequently,they ended up providing their consumers with foods with excesscalories. Therefore, they address the need for fast foods, butneglected the issue of consumers’ health. However, this trend haschanged and studies confirm that the drive through restaurants isable to provide healthy foods with the same speed as they used tosupply the junk meals. The contemporary drive through restaurant hasincreased their capacity to resolve the challenges of time constraintand unhealthy eating habits at a go.
ItIs the Content As Well As the Quantity and Not the Process ThatMatters
Thesociety has been fed with the wrong information that has resulted inthe establishment of the link between the words “fast” and“processed” with poor health. In reality, the processed andunprocessed types of food contain similar ingredients, but indifferent quantities or ratios. Studies have shown that foods thatare considered as being healthy on the mere grounds that they arewhole could be dangerous than the processed and fast foods offered bythe drive through restaurants. It has been confirmed that some of thewhole foods offered by emerging outlets could contain three times theamount of fat that the processed products have, which suggests thatthey could as well be dangerous to human health (Hari 1). The notionthat the quantity of food consumed could harm human health,irrespective whether the food is whole or processed is confirmed bythe data showing that class difference in the prevalence of obesityexisted, even in the 1960s when the fast foods had not become popular(Graft 518). This trend was explained by the fact that the richpeople were able to access large quantities of whole food than thepoor, which subjected them to the risk of suffering from obesity.
EmpoweringPeople to Make Healthy Choices
Thefree society should empower people by giving them the rightinformation and letting them make decisions without being coerced ormisguided. From this perspective, it is evident that the minorityelites have misguided the society by trying to convince people thateating whole products is an automatic approach to living healthy. Thefast food restaurants (such as McDonald’s), on the other hand, havestarted providing healthy foods that taste good. The aspect of tastegives them an advantage over the whole food outlets that deliver foodto consumers as it came from the farm. The poor taste associated withthe whole food will keep away many people who are vulnerable to therisk of obesity. Therefore, the fast food serves as a betteralternative since it will give them a taste and proper compositionthat will minimize the risk of obesity (Bassford 2). Providingconsumers with the right information about the fact that fast foodcan as well be healthy will empower them to make the right choicesand avoid the fallacy of the whole food that is tasteless andsometimes riskier than the processed products.
Counterarguments
Theassociation between the processed food and the risk of obesity is oneof the key factors that are used to oppose the increase in the numberof the drive through restaurants and food products that are sold inthe supermarkets. However, this claim has not been confirmedempirically. It has been reported that there exists no scientificevidence that storage and processing make food products uniquelyunhealthy as the opponents of the drive through restaurants claims(Bassford 2). This is confirmed by the fact that the U.S. has thepopulation that consumes the largest proportion of the processed andfast foods, but it does not suffer from the lack of nutrients. Inmost cases, Americans are requested by the health care professionalsto increase the consumption of magnesium, calcium, potassium, andvitamins A, E, and C, but all of them are available in the fast foodsas well as the processed products (Graft 516). Therefore, embracingthe drive through will continue playing a critical role in addressingthe nutritional issues affecting the society.
Conclusion
Thesociety can reduce the risk of diseases (such as obesity) byembracing the concept of drive through. The fast food sector has gonethrough tremendous reforms and it has the capacity to supplyconsumers with healthy foods that have a better taste than what isoffered by the whole food outlets. These fast food restaurantsaddress the issue of time constraint and unhealthy diet at the sametime. Although many people believe that eating whole foods is themost viable solution to the issues of obesity, some of these productshave excess fat and calories that could also subject consumers to therisk of suffering from different diseases. Therefore, members of thecontemporary society should be provided with the right informationabout the fact that the content of the food is important,irrespective of whether it is classified as fast, processed or whole.The drive restaurants are able to include a good taste as one of thekey features of their foods, which implies that they have thecapacity to reduce the prevalence of obesity by attracting morepeople to eat healthier and palatable products.
WorksCited
Bassford,N., Gilliam, L., Flynn, G. and Morrison, B. Fastfood restaurant report: Promoting healthy dining in South LosAngeles.Los Angeles, CA: Community Health Councils, 2012. Print.
Graft,G. Birkentein, C. and Craine, T. Theysay, I say: The moves that matter in academic writing.Hampshire: Your Coach in A Box.
Hari,V. Food babe investigates: What to watch out at whole foods. Dayof the Real Food.2016. Web. 12 December 2016.
Weaver,M., Dwyer, J., Fulgoni, L., King, C., Leveille, A., MacDonald, S.,Ordovas, J. and Schnakenberg, D. “Processed foods: Contributions tonutrition”. TheAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition99 (2014): 1525-1542. Print.
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