Question

Carry out a literature review on FAST FOOD CONSUMPTION AMONG YOUNGSTERS

minimum 2 pages required

Answer 1

Solution -

American rates of overweight and obesity are high, and the prevalence of obesity
has continued to rise over the past few decades. Excessive consumption of fast food has
been one of the multiple contributing factors driving the overweight and obese epidemic.
This literature review summarizes the disadvantages of fast food on people’s health,
reveals common people’s average fast food consumption. Based on this background,
the paper is to explore factors why some people choose not to consume fast food, as
well as factors why some people choose to consume fast food, and to summarize some
recommendations that can help reduce the consumption of fast food from the studies
that have been already done.

A Review of the Literature
Fast food is usually referred to hamburgers, pizza, or fries, or the kind of food that
can be prepared and served quickly at low price. Since 1950’s, fast food was penetrating
the food market and becoming more and more popular. It is common to see a long line
in a drive-through way outside of a fast food restaurant or a bunch of crowded clients
waiting to order in front of fast food outlets. Even though nearly every customer knows
the harm fast food brings to their health, we still can see every day in fast food
restaurants customers come and order in an endless stream.
To explore what drives customers to consume fast food while realizing its impact
on body, this literature review will present a brief explanation of fast food negative
effect, analyze people’s current fast food consumption, compare the two opposite
decisions people make when they are faced with food choice, and finally offer practical
suggestions against fast food high consumption. The following five parts are posed as
five questions:
1. What are the disadvantages of fast food on people’s health?
2. What’s common people’s average fast food consumption?

What are the disadvantages of fast food on people’s health?

Even in the first boom of fast food, people have been knowing this kind of food is
unhealthy. The labels people attach to fast food are always “high in calories”, “low in
nutritional value”, “obesity” and “additives”. Now it is a common sense that fast food
is harmful to body fitness. To be more specific, a study named “Local Concentration of
Fast-Food Outlets Is Associated with Poor Nutrition and Obesity” was conducted in
May/ June 2014 by Daniel J. Kruger and his colleagues. After 1345 complete data from
random selected 1688 respondents through a computer-aided telephone interview, this
study provided a result that habitants are “at greater risk for adverse consequences of
poor nutrition because of the patterns in local food availability, which may constrain
the success of nutrition promotion efforts.”(Kruger, Greenberg, Murphy, Difazio &
Youra, 2014, p.340) Although the limitations of this study include the geographic
character, the lack of data that households without landline, and some unmeasured
factors such local access to exercise opportunities may influence the result, this study
still has certain reference significance. It was conducted in the USA in 2014, so the data
is closely connected to current phenomenon.

What’s common people’s average fast food consumption?

Consumption of fast food has become a global phenomenon and is especially
popular among young adults and adolescents. Several studies have been conducted to
this focus group—university students. One recent research named “Self- Reported
Consumption of Fast Food Meals by University Students” (2015) was to examine
students’ daily consumption of fast food and to assess students’ perceptions of their
weight status compared to computed body mass indices. The study’s finding showed
that “36 percent of students eat fast food meals more than three times per day”. And the
study result suggested that “48 percent of the students who were overweight and 23
percent of those who were obese perceived themselves as being in the healthy weight
category” (p.26). This study was settled in Louisiana, in the form of a survey to 402
undergraduate students in Southern University and A&M College, with professor
Patricia E. Mclean- Meyinsse, assistant professor Shervia S. Taylor, and research
scientist Janet V. Gager. With assistance from a professional research scientist, the
research method, and the questionnaire design is more accuracy