826 Boston Write-a-thon #2. If You Haven't Eaten Fast Food, You Haven't Lived Yet

Guest Post By Abraham

My class read a book called Chew on This. It's about fast food and how you should think about fast food. We had to write a 5 paragraph essay persuading someone to either not eat fast food a lot, eat fast food a lot, or never eat fast food. I'm going to try to persuade you to not eat fast food a lot because I think fast food is not terrible all the time, but too much of it is. So here goes...

Outline- the important first place to start

What do you think about fast food? Personally, I don’t think it is the worst thing in the world but still I urge you to not eat it a lot. If you eat fast food too much you will become obese however if you haven't eaten fast food, you haven’t lived. Yes, I do like fast food and I bet you do too, but I encourage you to not eat it a lot even if it’s the best thing you have ever tasted. Fast food can change you (not in a good way) if you eat it a lot, so don’t.

In my opinion, fast food is okay to eat sometimes. It’s only the places that treat their animals cruelly when it’s not okay. I encourage you to find out which fast food places treat their animals nicely and only eat there. One reason you shouldn’t eat at fast food is that animal processing plants mistreat animals. As the author of Chew On This states, animals at some fast food places have no room to move whatsoever (P.G 165). Another reason you shouldn’t eat at fast food places is animals are not treated nice at the slaughterhouse. The author even quotes a person at the slaughterhouse and he said “I like the popping sound the chicken makes”(P.G.180,181) (and that is when he jumps on them) A final reason you shouldn't eat at fast food places is I understand from the author that the animals at the feed houses are being turned into cannibals (P.G.176). The chickens are even being fed fat from the chickens that were already slaughtered. So now do see why you should not eat at fast food places that mistreat their animals?

Secondly, I urge you to think about how big your meal is and how easy it is to get big meals at some fast food places. The author states on page 211, “a child’s coke used to be 12 ounces but that has increased nearly fifty percent!” As the author puts it on page 212, there is a hamburger in Pennsylvania that ways fifteen pounds! It increased someone’s weight by ten percent. The author explains on page 204, that at a McDonalds near a high school in Buffalo NY sold hamburgers for 25 cents and cheeseburgers for 35 cents and it was so cheap teenagers at the school and other people were buying four at a time. So just think how much are you really eating and how often, remember don’t eat big unhealthy portions too much.

Another reason I recommend that you don't eat a lot of fatty foods is that if you do eat a lot of fatty food (fast food), you will become overweight. In Eric Schlosser’s point of view, on page 213, people might make fun of you for that. Also, fatty foods can damage your body permanently as the author says on. (p.213) Finally, eating a lot of fatty foods is not a good idea because the author states eating too much fatty foods can lead to obesity, type two diabetes, and heart disease. (p214) Eating too much fatty foods can be fatal, so do not eat a lot of fatty foods. It’s bad for you trust me.

I can hear some of you protest “but it’s good.” I know how much people like fast food I like it too! I said it once and I’ll say it twice, too much of it can be really bad for your body. I encourage you so so much to find out about the ingredients of the fast food place you're going to. The food at the not as bad places taste almost the same. And if the super unhealthy fast food place is the closest, you should
still go to it. I urge you take my advice and you’ll be glad you did.