How many people eat fast food
More than 50,000,000 people in U.S. depend on fast food. Americans alone spend over 110 billion dollars for different types of fast food that is over a quarter of Americans.
ABOUT FAST FOOD STATISTICS
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Monday, 9 March 2009
Fast food statistics and obesity
Fast food statistics and obesity
The relationship between a nation's fast food consumption and its rate of obesity has not been definitively established through any long-term epidemiological study. However, it seems wherever America's fast food chains go, waistlines inevitably start expanding.
The United States has the highest obesity rate of any industrialized nation. More than half of all American adults and about one-quarter of all American children are now obese or overweight. Those proportions have soared during the last few decades, along with the consumption of fast food, with the rate of obesity among US children twice as high as in the late 1970s.
An obese person is someone with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher. Today about 44 million American adults are obese and an additional 6 million are super-obese i.e. they weigh about a hundred pounds more than they should. Schlosser comments that "No other nation in history has gotten so fat so fast". In simple terms, when people eat more and move less, they get fat. In the US, people have become increasingly sedentary and consume more restaurant meals,
including fast food. As people eat more food outside the home, they consume more calories, less fiber and more fat.
"The obesity epidemic that began in the US during the late 1970s is now spreading to the rest of the world, with fast food as one of its vectors. To demonstrate this claim, Schlosser includes the following information:
* Between 1984-1993, the number of fast food restaurants in the UK roughly doubled - and so did the obesity rate among adults. The British now eat more fast food than any other nationality in Western Europe. They also have the highest obesity rate.
* In Japan, eating hamburgers and french fries has made people fatter. The nation's traditional diet of rice, fish, vegetables and soy products was one of the healthiest in the world. And yet, according to Schlosser, the Japanese are rapidly abandoning this diet. The arrival of McDonald's in 1971 accelerated the nation's eating habits towards an increase in red meat consumption. During the 1980s, the sale of fast food in Japan more than doubled, and the rate of obesity amongst children also doubled.
Today, about 1/3 of all Japanese men in their 30s - members of the nation's first generation raised on Happy Meals and "Bi-gu Ma-kus" - are overweight, increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and breast cancer (the principal 'diseases of affluence').
Fast food statistics...
how-many-people-eat-fast-food.
The relationship between a nation's fast food consumption and its rate of obesity has not been definitively established through any long-term epidemiological study. However, it seems wherever America's fast food chains go, waistlines inevitably start expanding.
The United States has the highest obesity rate of any industrialized nation. More than half of all American adults and about one-quarter of all American children are now obese or overweight. Those proportions have soared during the last few decades, along with the consumption of fast food, with the rate of obesity among US children twice as high as in the late 1970s.
An obese person is someone with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher. Today about 44 million American adults are obese and an additional 6 million are super-obese i.e. they weigh about a hundred pounds more than they should. Schlosser comments that "No other nation in history has gotten so fat so fast". In simple terms, when people eat more and move less, they get fat. In the US, people have become increasingly sedentary and consume more restaurant meals,
including fast food. As people eat more food outside the home, they consume more calories, less fiber and more fat.
"The obesity epidemic that began in the US during the late 1970s is now spreading to the rest of the world, with fast food as one of its vectors. To demonstrate this claim, Schlosser includes the following information:
* Between 1984-1993, the number of fast food restaurants in the UK roughly doubled - and so did the obesity rate among adults. The British now eat more fast food than any other nationality in Western Europe. They also have the highest obesity rate.
* In Japan, eating hamburgers and french fries has made people fatter. The nation's traditional diet of rice, fish, vegetables and soy products was one of the healthiest in the world. And yet, according to Schlosser, the Japanese are rapidly abandoning this diet. The arrival of McDonald's in 1971 accelerated the nation's eating habits towards an increase in red meat consumption. During the 1980s, the sale of fast food in Japan more than doubled, and the rate of obesity amongst children also doubled.
Today, about 1/3 of all Japanese men in their 30s - members of the nation's first generation raised on Happy Meals and "Bi-gu Ma-kus" - are overweight, increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and breast cancer (the principal 'diseases of affluence').
Fast food statistics...
how-many-people-eat-fast-food.
Marketing Fast Food
Marketing Fast Food
Schlosser takes a critical look at what he claims is a deliberate targeting of children by fast food and soft drinks companies. He describes an explosion in advertising to children that occurred in
the 1980s. Schlosser describes how many working parents felt guilty about spending less time with their kids, and started to spend more money on them. One marketing expert has called the 1980s "the decade of the child consumer." The majority of advertising directed at children today aims to achieve the immediate goal of a purchase. As one marketer explained in Selling to Kids, "It's not just getting kids to whine, it's giving them a specific reason to ask for a product." The sociologist Vance Packard described children as "surrogate salesmen" who had to persuade other people, usually their parents, to buy what they wanted. The aim of children's advertising, as Schlosser points out, is straight forward: get kids to nag their parents for consumer goods.
This competition for young customers has led fast food chains to form marketing partnerships with toy companies, sports leagues and Hollywood studios. McDonald's has staged promotions with the NBA and the Olympics. Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC signed a three year deal with the NCAA. Burger King, Nickelodeon, McDonald's and the Fox Kids Network have formed partnerships that mix advertisements for fast food with children's entertainment. Burger King has sold chicken nuggets shaped like Teletubbies.
Soft drinks companies
The three largest US soft drinks companies, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Cadbury-Schweppes spend large sums including on school funding programmes to increase the amount of their products consumed by American children. Americans drink soft drinks at an annual rate of about 56 gallons per person (approx. 600 twelve ounce cans of soda).
Coca-Cola has set its goal of raising this consumption of its products by at least 25%. As the adult market is stagnant, selling more soft drinks to children has become the easiest way to meet
sales projections." Influencing elementary school students is very important to soft drinks marketers," an article in the Jan. 1999 issue of Beverage Industry explained, "because children are still establishing their tastes and habits ... eight year olds are considered ideal customers as they have about sixty-five years of purchasing in front of them. "Entering the schools makes perfect sense," the trade journal concludes."
"Liquid Candy" report
A 1999 study by the Centre for Science in the Public Interest describes how US children are affected by the beverage industry.
Some of the main points are:
* In 1978, the typical teenage boy in the US drank about seven ounces of soft drinks daily. Today he drinks nearly three times that amount, deriving 9% of his daily calorific intake from soft drinks.
* Soft drinks consumption amongst teenage girls has doubled within the same period, reaching an average of 12oz. a day.
* A significant number of boys are now drinking five or more cans of soft drinks a day - each can contains the equivalent of about 10 teaspoons of sugar.
* Soft drinks like Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper provide empty calories and have replaced far more nutritious beverages in the American diet. Excessive soft drinks consumption in childhood can lead to calcium deficiency and a great likelihood of bone fractures.
* 20 years ago, US teenage boys drank twice as much milk as soft drinks; now they drink twice as many soft drinks as milk.
* About one-fifth of the US's 1 and 2 year olds now drink soft drinks. Michael Jacobson, the report's author, describes the marketing practice of licensing manufacturers' logos to Munchkin
Bottling Inc., a major manufacturer of baby bottles. A 1997 study, published in the Journal of Dentistry for Children, found that many infants were being fed soft drinks in those bottles.
The fast food chains run advertisements on Channel One, the commercial television network whose programming is shown in classrooms in almost every school, to eight million US middle,
junior and high school students. Schlosser further points out that the chains promote their products by selling school lunches, accepting a lower profit margin in order to create brand loyalty.
* At least twenty school districts in the US have their own Subway franchises; an additional fifteen hundred districts have Subway contracts; and nine operate Subway sandwich carts.
* Taco Bell sells products in about 4,500 school cafeterias.
Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza and McDonald's are now selling food in US schools. The American School Food Service estimates that about 30% of the public high schools in the US offer branded fast food.
* Elementary schools in Fort Collins, Colorado now serve food from Pizza Hut, McDonald's and Subway on special lunch days. "We try to be more like the fast food places where these kids are hanging out" a Colorado school administrator told the Denver Post. "We want kids to think school lunch is a cool thing, the cafeteria a cool place, that we're with it."
Global expansion
In the United States, the fast food companies have targeted their worldwide advertising and promotion at a group of consumers with fewest attachments to tradition: young children.
It reveals that:
* In Australia, where the number of fast food restaurants roughly tripled during the 1990s, a survey found that half of the nation's 9 and 10 year olds thought that Ronald McDonald knew what kids should eat.
* At a primary school in Beijing, it was found that all of the children recognised the image of Ronald McDonald, saying that '... he understood children's hearts'. Coca-Cola is now the favourite
drink amongst Chinese children, and McDonald's serves their favourite food.
* Germany is now one of McDonald's most profitable overseas markets, with more than a thousand restaurants. "The Golden Arches have become so commonplace in Germany that they seem almost invisible," Schlosser notes. McDonald's Deutschland has put restaurants in new Wal-Mart stores because the latter expects the kiddie factor to create an upsurge in customers.
Fastfood statistics...
fast-food-statistics-and-obesity
Schlosser takes a critical look at what he claims is a deliberate targeting of children by fast food and soft drinks companies. He describes an explosion in advertising to children that occurred in
the 1980s. Schlosser describes how many working parents felt guilty about spending less time with their kids, and started to spend more money on them. One marketing expert has called the 1980s "the decade of the child consumer." The majority of advertising directed at children today aims to achieve the immediate goal of a purchase. As one marketer explained in Selling to Kids, "It's not just getting kids to whine, it's giving them a specific reason to ask for a product." The sociologist Vance Packard described children as "surrogate salesmen" who had to persuade other people, usually their parents, to buy what they wanted. The aim of children's advertising, as Schlosser points out, is straight forward: get kids to nag their parents for consumer goods.
This competition for young customers has led fast food chains to form marketing partnerships with toy companies, sports leagues and Hollywood studios. McDonald's has staged promotions with the NBA and the Olympics. Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC signed a three year deal with the NCAA. Burger King, Nickelodeon, McDonald's and the Fox Kids Network have formed partnerships that mix advertisements for fast food with children's entertainment. Burger King has sold chicken nuggets shaped like Teletubbies.
Soft drinks companies
The three largest US soft drinks companies, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Cadbury-Schweppes spend large sums including on school funding programmes to increase the amount of their products consumed by American children. Americans drink soft drinks at an annual rate of about 56 gallons per person (approx. 600 twelve ounce cans of soda).
Coca-Cola has set its goal of raising this consumption of its products by at least 25%. As the adult market is stagnant, selling more soft drinks to children has become the easiest way to meet
sales projections." Influencing elementary school students is very important to soft drinks marketers," an article in the Jan. 1999 issue of Beverage Industry explained, "because children are still establishing their tastes and habits ... eight year olds are considered ideal customers as they have about sixty-five years of purchasing in front of them. "Entering the schools makes perfect sense," the trade journal concludes."
"Liquid Candy" report
A 1999 study by the Centre for Science in the Public Interest describes how US children are affected by the beverage industry.
Some of the main points are:
* In 1978, the typical teenage boy in the US drank about seven ounces of soft drinks daily. Today he drinks nearly three times that amount, deriving 9% of his daily calorific intake from soft drinks.
* Soft drinks consumption amongst teenage girls has doubled within the same period, reaching an average of 12oz. a day.
* A significant number of boys are now drinking five or more cans of soft drinks a day - each can contains the equivalent of about 10 teaspoons of sugar.
* Soft drinks like Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper provide empty calories and have replaced far more nutritious beverages in the American diet. Excessive soft drinks consumption in childhood can lead to calcium deficiency and a great likelihood of bone fractures.
* 20 years ago, US teenage boys drank twice as much milk as soft drinks; now they drink twice as many soft drinks as milk.
* About one-fifth of the US's 1 and 2 year olds now drink soft drinks. Michael Jacobson, the report's author, describes the marketing practice of licensing manufacturers' logos to Munchkin
Bottling Inc., a major manufacturer of baby bottles. A 1997 study, published in the Journal of Dentistry for Children, found that many infants were being fed soft drinks in those bottles.
The fast food chains run advertisements on Channel One, the commercial television network whose programming is shown in classrooms in almost every school, to eight million US middle,
junior and high school students. Schlosser further points out that the chains promote their products by selling school lunches, accepting a lower profit margin in order to create brand loyalty.
* At least twenty school districts in the US have their own Subway franchises; an additional fifteen hundred districts have Subway contracts; and nine operate Subway sandwich carts.
* Taco Bell sells products in about 4,500 school cafeterias.
Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza and McDonald's are now selling food in US schools. The American School Food Service estimates that about 30% of the public high schools in the US offer branded fast food.
* Elementary schools in Fort Collins, Colorado now serve food from Pizza Hut, McDonald's and Subway on special lunch days. "We try to be more like the fast food places where these kids are hanging out" a Colorado school administrator told the Denver Post. "We want kids to think school lunch is a cool thing, the cafeteria a cool place, that we're with it."
Global expansion
In the United States, the fast food companies have targeted their worldwide advertising and promotion at a group of consumers with fewest attachments to tradition: young children.
It reveals that:
* In Australia, where the number of fast food restaurants roughly tripled during the 1990s, a survey found that half of the nation's 9 and 10 year olds thought that Ronald McDonald knew what kids should eat.
* At a primary school in Beijing, it was found that all of the children recognised the image of Ronald McDonald, saying that '... he understood children's hearts'. Coca-Cola is now the favourite
drink amongst Chinese children, and McDonald's serves their favourite food.
* Germany is now one of McDonald's most profitable overseas markets, with more than a thousand restaurants. "The Golden Arches have become so commonplace in Germany that they seem almost invisible," Schlosser notes. McDonald's Deutschland has put restaurants in new Wal-Mart stores because the latter expects the kiddie factor to create an upsurge in customers.
Fastfood statistics...
fast-food-statistics-and-obesity
Growth of the fast food industry
Growth of the fast food industry
The fast food industry is being driven by fundamental changes in American society. Since the 1970s there has been a steady decline in the hourly wage (adjusted for inflation) of the average US worker. Additionally more and more American mothers were working outside the home. In 1975, about 1/3 of US mothers with young children held jobs. That ratio has risen to 2/3 at the beginning of the 21st century. A generation ago, three-quarters of the money used to buy food in the US was spent to prepare meals at home. Today, about half of that same money is spent in restaurants - mainly fast food restaurants. In 1968, McDonald's had 1,000 restaurants - today it has about 30,000, and 2,000 new ones are opening each year.
McDonald's Corporation:
- an estimated one in every ten workers in the US has, at some point worked at a McDonald's restaurant.
- it is the nation's largest purchaser of beef, pork and potatoes and largest of chicken (KFC is number two);
- it has replaced Coca Cola as the world's most famous brand, but serves it in its establishments;
- it operates more playgrounds - designed to attract children and their parents to its restaurants - than any other private entity in the US;
- the Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross.
- Ronald McDonald is more widely recognized by American children than Jesus.
Schlosser quotes of "the McDonaldization of America": He viewed the emerging fast food industry as a threat to independent business, as a step toward a food economy dominated by giant corporations, and as a homogenizing influence on American life. In Eat Your Heart Out
(1975), he argued that "bigger is not better". Much of what Hightower feared has become a reality. He believes that the centralized purchasing decisions of the large restaurant chains e.g.
McDonald's, KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut now have an unprecedented degree of power over the nation's food supply, as well as "wiping out small businesses, obliterating regional differences, and spreading identical stores throughout the country like a self-replicating code.
Fastfood statistics
The fast food industry is being driven by fundamental changes in American society. Since the 1970s there has been a steady decline in the hourly wage (adjusted for inflation) of the average US worker. Additionally more and more American mothers were working outside the home. In 1975, about 1/3 of US mothers with young children held jobs. That ratio has risen to 2/3 at the beginning of the 21st century. A generation ago, three-quarters of the money used to buy food in the US was spent to prepare meals at home. Today, about half of that same money is spent in restaurants - mainly fast food restaurants. In 1968, McDonald's had 1,000 restaurants - today it has about 30,000, and 2,000 new ones are opening each year.
McDonald's Corporation:
- an estimated one in every ten workers in the US has, at some point worked at a McDonald's restaurant.
- it is the nation's largest purchaser of beef, pork and potatoes and largest of chicken (KFC is number two);
- it has replaced Coca Cola as the world's most famous brand, but serves it in its establishments;
- it operates more playgrounds - designed to attract children and their parents to its restaurants - than any other private entity in the US;
- the Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross.
- Ronald McDonald is more widely recognized by American children than Jesus.
Schlosser quotes of "the McDonaldization of America": He viewed the emerging fast food industry as a threat to independent business, as a step toward a food economy dominated by giant corporations, and as a homogenizing influence on American life. In Eat Your Heart Out
(1975), he argued that "bigger is not better". Much of what Hightower feared has become a reality. He believes that the centralized purchasing decisions of the large restaurant chains e.g.
McDonald's, KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut now have an unprecedented degree of power over the nation's food supply, as well as "wiping out small businesses, obliterating regional differences, and spreading identical stores throughout the country like a self-replicating code.
Fastfood statistics
Fast Food And Obesity Statistics
Fast Food And Obesity Statistics
When looking at fast food statistics, there are some fascinating conclusions to be drawn. Consumption of fast food by children has increased dramatically since the 1970’s - partly due to the fact that there are now upwards of 4 times as many outlets in existence.
Furthermore, massive advertising campaigns, cleverly aimed at children, obviously do a very good job and succeed in their objective. Some startling fast food and obesity statistics suggest that children now get 10% of their total energy intake from fast foods! In addition, fast food encompasses virtually every segment of society, including public schools and hospitals, and this is another of the fast food statistics that is linked to the current rise in of childhood and adolescent obesity. Another of the fast food and obesity statistics focuses on the workforce at fast food restaurants. As they are largely composed of adolescents who may receive discounted or free food as part of their remuneration package, is it little wonder that the problem continues to grow.
There are several consideration in studies of fast food statistics. Those that are inherent in fast foods are known to cause excessive weight gains, for example: huge portion sizes and high energy density; palatability (appealing to rudimentary taste preferences for fats, sugar, and salt); plus high content of saturated and trans fats and low fibre content. A supplementary problem when analysing fast food and obesity statistics is that fast food may compromise diet quality by displacing more healthy foodstuff. In particular, research of fast food and obesity statistics has identified that children's odds of becoming obese are heightened if milk is replaced with sugar-sweetened soft drinks in daily diets. A further explanation in the fast food statistics is the significant and totally relevant trend of increased availability of fast food in school cafeterias, couple that with improved spending power of present day children and there lies a potential obesity time-bomb!
When looking at fast food statistics, there are some fascinating conclusions to be drawn. Consumption of fast food by children has increased dramatically since the 1970’s - partly due to the fact that there are now upwards of 4 times as many outlets in existence.
Furthermore, massive advertising campaigns, cleverly aimed at children, obviously do a very good job and succeed in their objective. Some startling fast food and obesity statistics suggest that children now get 10% of their total energy intake from fast foods! In addition, fast food encompasses virtually every segment of society, including public schools and hospitals, and this is another of the fast food statistics that is linked to the current rise in of childhood and adolescent obesity. Another of the fast food and obesity statistics focuses on the workforce at fast food restaurants. As they are largely composed of adolescents who may receive discounted or free food as part of their remuneration package, is it little wonder that the problem continues to grow.
There are several consideration in studies of fast food statistics. Those that are inherent in fast foods are known to cause excessive weight gains, for example: huge portion sizes and high energy density; palatability (appealing to rudimentary taste preferences for fats, sugar, and salt); plus high content of saturated and trans fats and low fibre content. A supplementary problem when analysing fast food and obesity statistics is that fast food may compromise diet quality by displacing more healthy foodstuff. In particular, research of fast food and obesity statistics has identified that children's odds of becoming obese are heightened if milk is replaced with sugar-sweetened soft drinks in daily diets. A further explanation in the fast food statistics is the significant and totally relevant trend of increased availability of fast food in school cafeterias, couple that with improved spending power of present day children and there lies a potential obesity time-bomb!
Fast Food And Obesity Statistics
Fast Food And Obesity Statistics
When looking at fast food statistics, there are some fascinating conclusions to be drawn. Consumption of fast food by children has increased dramatically since the 1970’s - partly due to the fact that there are now upwards of 4 times as many outlets in existence.
Furthermore, massive advertising campaigns, cleverly aimed at children, obviously do a very good job and succeed in their objective. Some startling fast food and obesity statistics suggest
that children now get 10% of their total energy intake from fast foods! In addition, fast food encompasses virtually every segment of society, including public schools and hospitals, and this is another of the fast food statistics that is linked to the current rise in of childhood and adolescent obesity. Another of the fast food and obesity statistics focuses on the workforce at fast
food restaurants. As they are largely composed of adolescents who may receive discounted or free food as part of their remuneration package, is it little wonder that the problem continues to grow.
There are several consideration in studies of fast food statistics. Those that are inherent in fast foods are known to cause excessive weight gains, for example: huge portion sizes and high energy density; palatability (appealing to rudimentary taste preferences for fats, sugar, and salt); plus high content of saturated and trans fats and low fibre content. A supplementary problem when analysing fast food and obesity statistics is that fast food may compromise diet quality by displacing more healthy foodstuff. In particular, research of fast food and obesity statistics has identified that children's odds of becoming obese are heightened if milk is replaced
with sugar-sweetened soft drinks in daily diets. A further explanation in the fast food and obesity statistics is the significant and totally relevant trend of increased availability of
fast food in school cafeterias, couple that with improved spending power of present day children and there lies a potential obesity time-bomb! Beware.....
When looking at fast food statistics, there are some fascinating conclusions to be drawn. Consumption of fast food by children has increased dramatically since the 1970’s - partly due to the fact that there are now upwards of 4 times as many outlets in existence.
Furthermore, massive advertising campaigns, cleverly aimed at children, obviously do a very good job and succeed in their objective. Some startling fast food and obesity statistics suggest
that children now get 10% of their total energy intake from fast foods! In addition, fast food encompasses virtually every segment of society, including public schools and hospitals, and this is another of the fast food statistics that is linked to the current rise in of childhood and adolescent obesity. Another of the fast food and obesity statistics focuses on the workforce at fast
food restaurants. As they are largely composed of adolescents who may receive discounted or free food as part of their remuneration package, is it little wonder that the problem continues to grow.
There are several consideration in studies of fast food statistics. Those that are inherent in fast foods are known to cause excessive weight gains, for example: huge portion sizes and high energy density; palatability (appealing to rudimentary taste preferences for fats, sugar, and salt); plus high content of saturated and trans fats and low fibre content. A supplementary problem when analysing fast food and obesity statistics is that fast food may compromise diet quality by displacing more healthy foodstuff. In particular, research of fast food and obesity statistics has identified that children's odds of becoming obese are heightened if milk is replaced
with sugar-sweetened soft drinks in daily diets. A further explanation in the fast food and obesity statistics is the significant and totally relevant trend of increased availability of
fast food in school cafeterias, couple that with improved spending power of present day children and there lies a potential obesity time-bomb! Beware.....
Saturday, 31 January 2009
The Facts About Fast Food And Your Weight!
The Facts About Fast Food And Your Weight!
“Temple University researchers interviewed 12,666 people about their dietary habits.
Here’s what they found about the weighty cost of a fast food feeding:
Those who ate 1 fast food meal per week:
“Temple University researchers interviewed 12,666 people about their dietary habits.
Here’s what they found about the weighty cost of a fast food feeding:
Those who ate 1 fast food meal per week:
- Weighed 1.4 more pounds compared with abstainers
- Weighed 2.8 more pounds compared with abstainers
- Weighed 4 more pounds compared with abstainers
- 41%
- 50%
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