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Emma Comley
Professor Hellmers
English 1201
22 March 2019
Does Happiness Lie in a Happy Meal?

America encourages children to indulge at a young age, encouraging them that happiness

lies in a Happy Meal. America seems to be infamous for obesity. Growing up in America, the

majority can relate to being faced with the pressures of glorified fast food commercials. This

pressure is matched with intense fitness and weight loss advertisements. Although many

empathize with the obesity epidemic and wish there was a more immediate and widespread

motivation to limit factors that lead to obesity, their efforts tend to fall short. It is too easy to fall

into this problem, and America has some of the highest obesity rates for this reason. Obesity is a

crisis with many different factors that could be limited or dealt with differently. Increasing

obesity ratings in America are due to increasing portion sizes nationwide. In this paper I will be

researching increasing obesity ratings in America. I will be looking into socioeconomic factors

that may tie obesity and fast food industry together as well.

The number of obese or overweight Americans is astonishing. One hundred and sixty

million Americans are either obese or overweight, says Christopher J.L. Murray in the article

The Vast Majority of American Adults Are Overweight or Obese… The article states that “there

are more obese adults living in America today… than in any other country in the world”

(Murray, 4). Obesity is truly an epidemic that must be stopped. The rates at which obesity is

increasing is devastating, suggesting that there is no end in sight. Obesity doesn’t solely lie in

adults either. Childhood obesity is increasing heavily. In thirty-three years, obesity in children

and adolescents increased by nearly 50%. This is no laughing matter, as it is increasing at such a

rate that will eventually be irreversible. This could damage individuals, as well as future
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generations. On the individual level, obesity causes cancer, kidney and cardiovascular disease,

and more. Millions of deaths occur each day due to obesity-related complications. Looking

towards the future, the rise in obesity could lead to declines in life expectancy worldwide. Every

life is affected by this epidemic, directly or indirectly.

Are we doing anything about this? In the midst of the obesity epidemic, many public

health experts have been called to urge the nation about the consequences of this. Hundreds of

public service announcements, campaigns, and attempts at preventing obesity have been utilized,

but with no luck, says Matt Richtel and Andrew Jacobs. Their New York Times Article American

Adults Just Keep Getting Fatter investigates the causes of increasing obesity rates within

America. Their purpose in writing this article is to inform the public of new findings and studies

performed in order to discover causes and sources for American obesity. The article explains that

attempts at educating and warning the public about the dangers of eating unhealthy have not

been effective. The experts were surprised at this. Richtel and Jacobs ask Dr. James Krieger,

clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington why he thinks these public service

announcements aren’t working. He responds by saying that just telling people there’s a problem

doesn’t solve it. An initiative must be taken to end this. The public has been informed but cannot

be stopped. The factors that contribute to obesity must be eliminated or lessened, as they are

murdering millions.

But what exactly are these factors? When exploring what could be causing the epidemic,

it is widely accepted that the fast food industry has correlation. Increases in calories, portion

sizes, salt, and additives have increased steadily alongside obesity. Elsevier, a Dutch information

and analytics company, has studied this. The study, Thirty Years of Fast Food…, analyzes ten of

the most popular American fast-food menu changes in the timespan of thirty years. From 1986 to
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2016, the total number of menu items increased by 226 percent (Elsevier, 4). This is a problem,

as each new menu item is as unhealthy as the last. Calories increased drastically. Desserts had an

increase of sixty-two calories per decade, followed by entrees at thirty calories per decade

(Elsevier, 4). These are directly associated with the increase in portion size. It is no mystery why

both of these factors are increasing at the same rate, as they are not mutually exclusive. They are

dependent on one another.

The fast food industry has an aggressive impact on America. Looking at which groups of

people this may be targeting may help one understand the influential grip of the industry. How it

is able to affect so many people is an important question. Anju Abraham seeks answers in Why

Are Americans Obese? This article is written for The Public Health Organization, a reputable

source that provides free healthcare-related resources for students, professionals, and patients.

Cited by state governments, universities, and federal departments, she explores the reasons and

consequences for the increase in obesity in America. The article first explains who is medically

considered obese, and also presents three specific ideas with studies for why this epidemic might

be happening. The article then moves in depth to what specific groups of people this is

specifically affecting in order to help explain the epidemic. It uses gender, income, and race to

show the type of people this is. African Americans have the highest percentage of obese people

across all three classes. 20.8% of African Americans are considered obese class I, followed by

8.8% and 6% in classes II and III respectively. Hispanics follow at a close second. We can

assume that minorities are most affected by this issue. The study also found those with incomes

lower than $36,000 are also more likely to be obese. In correlation to this, the average African

American income is about $39,490. It is safe to say that fast food industry is targeting low-

income minorities. In addition to this, it was suspected that unhealthy food was directly targeted
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at African Americans. Sequentially, junk food ads targeting black viewers rose fifty percent in

2017. This is a highly probable direct cause to the rise in obesity in America.

Fig. 1. This chart shows the percentages of three different classes of obesity sorted by

race. (PublicHealth, 2).

Further investigating upon the idea that the fast food industry is targeting low-income

individuals, Reynard Loki analyzes state-to-state obesity statistics. The Real Causes of America’s

Obesity Epidemic: Where Does Your State Rank? is an article written for AlterNet that provides

infographics and ranks how each state measures up. It cites several studies and lists their findings

in bullet points. The top five states with the most obesity-related issues and weight problems are

Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina. All five of those states

rank on the top ten poorest states in America. Three of those states rank on the top ten largest

African American populations in America. Simply put, the poorest states have the largest

minority population. This article attempts to ask an important question to reflect upon: why are

these certain states the most obese? One can now confidently infer and answer that weight,
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income, and race have correlation. Now, how does the fast food industry tie into this? The

Archives of Internal Medicine found that the closer fast food restaurants are to low-income

neighborhoods, the more fast food was eaten. the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School

of Global Public Health found that among twenty-one different studies that analyzed the

relationship between fast food restaurant locations and socioeconomic factors, seventy-six

percent of them determined that fast food restaurants were predominantly placed in low-income

neighborhoods. This confirms our suspicions that the fast food industry is directly causing the

increase in obesity across the nation- specifically in low-income minorities.

Fig. 2. This chart shows the rank of states with the biggest weight problems. The darker

the state, the higher it ranks (Alternet, 1).

A fresh perspective can help us find a solution to this problem. Obesity and What We

Need to Do About It- An Interview with John Wass is an interview by the popular medical journal

BMC Medicine. BMC Medicine interviews John Wass, an endocrinologist and expert on obesity.
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He explains his ideas for a resolve of obesity in the UK, which he adds can be applied to other

developed countries as well. He talks about what steps being taken are working and not working,

and how industry plays a part in this. He introduces some interesting points about a resolve for

obesity. He places responsibility more in the hands of industry, rather than the public. He says, “I

think that the food industry has got to, as far possible, work with everybody else to try and

improve some of the ways foods are sold” (Wass, 7). If America demanded that the fast food

industry only displays items that have content healthy for a daily diet, they may be able to turn

this around. Displaying items that are so high in calories and sodium that could be detrimental to

the human body with little to no warning is dangerous. Many fast food places fail to even list the

number of calories or nutritional content of items on the menu. This could be a major first step in

finding a solution. The fast food industry and public health must work harmoniously. John Wass

also finds that it would help to “make sure that all the medical disciplines have education on

nutrition and obesity” (Wass, 5). While the first step to ending obesity may be attacking it at its

core, one must remember to treat those already effected. All medical disciplines being educated

on a high level about effective ways to restore an overweight or obese person’s health, we could

see a decline as well. As it stands now, the methods suggested to lose weight are often not

followed through. If these two ideas were implemented nationwide, it could begin a massive

effort to end the rise of obesity. Though this problem may never go away, keeping it at a

manageable level will help our future generations.

Finding a happy balance between keeping industry strong and healing this epidemic is

not easy, however. Michael Devitt goes in depth on the policies that could work to find a happy

medium. The article reviews a credible new report that indicates increases in the prevalence of

adult obesity and related conditions. The article reviews certain socioeconomic factors for
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obesity, such as education, location, and income. It also reviews three very solid

recommendations for a resolve of obesity. Devitt recommends promoting policies and scale

programs that take a “multisector approach” (Devitt, 19). This means that efforts made with

multiple organizations on a larger scale will work more effectively that efforts made with a single

sector approach. The typical local school program has been proven to be uneffective by itself, but

joined with major health organizations and business partners, we can make a change. His second

recommendation is adopting and implementing policies that make healthy choices easy. On the

federal, state, and local levels, policies can be placed to make healthier lifestyles more attainable.

This could be implementing policies to indirectly effect fast food industry, such as lessening the

expense of healthy food. This could also mean directly implementing policies to disrupt the

growing sizes of meals. Finally, he says that investing in programs that level the playing field for

all individuals and families will be an advantage point to consider. Designing and funding

programs to reverse the targeting of minorities will aid the initiative to end this epidemic.

Fast food may not be the main cause of obesity, Felix Gussone says in America's Obesity

Epidemic Reaches Record High, New Report Says. The NBC article alludes to the idea that

obesity is directly caused by inadequate sleep. An estimated seventy million Americans suffer

from sleep disorders or sleep deprivation according to the Institute of Medicine, Gussone cites.

He says this relates to obesity because sleep-deprived people may be too tired to exercise, take in

more calories and may undergo hormones changes that control appetite. While it is true that

sleep deprivation inhibits many activities, this does not correlate to obesity. With seventy million

Americans sleep deprived versus one hundred and sixty million obese and overweight

Americans, sleep related problems would hypothetically affect less than half of obese people.

This is assuming that obese people hold every sleep disorder in America, which lowers this
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statistic even further. This counterargument still does not explain obesity ratings increasing as

they currently are. Sleep deprivation is common, though not increasing at a proportional rate to

obesity. Fast food portions are increasing at a rate proportional to obesity. Though sleep

deprivation and sleep disorders may play a role into the continuation of obesity in individuals, it

is certainly not the main cause. These components make this theory unlikely.

Happiness does not lie in a Happy Meal. In a Happy Meal lies cardiovascular disease,

cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, chronic kidney disease. Rising obesity ratings in America are

alarming, with one hundred and sixty million Americans are either obese or overweight with no

signs of stopping. In fact, America is the obesity capital of the world, with more living obese

adults than any other country in the world. In addition to the individual health problems caused

by obesity, the future is in danger as well. Future declines in life expectancy alert public health

experts. Public health experts have tried their best to slow these effects, but with no avail. The

main cause of obesity is increasing fast food portions and high calorie content. Obesity has a

correlation to low income minorities, and it has been found the fast food industry has targeted

them. The reason these groups are vulnerable is still being studied, but we know that fast food is

causing a rise of obesity in these minorities. The poorest, most African American populated

states were found to have been the most obese as well. Fast food is found to be closer in these

neighborhoods. All evidence is pointing to the fast food industry targeting these people. What

can we do about this? We must find a balance between industry and health. Portions at fast food

places are exceeding what is healthy and are a direct cause of the state of America. Making sure

that medical disciplines have education on nutrition and obesity will also help the public. With

sleep deprivation also on the rise, it is debated that that could be a more major cause. If we could
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all demand an end to obesity, industry and health could live in harmony. Happiness lies in being

healthy, not in a Happy Meal.

Works Cited

BMC Medicine. “Obesity and What We Need Do about It- an Interview with John Wass.”

BMC Medicine, 26 Aug. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4145219/. Accessed 3

Mar. 2019.

Devitt, Michael. “New Report Shows U.S. Obesity Epidemic Continues to Worsen.”

AAFP Home, 15 Oct. 2018, www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20181015obesityrpt.html.

Elsevier. “Thirty Years of Fast Food: Greater Variety, but More Salt, Larger Portions, and

Added Calories.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 27 Feb. 2019,

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190227140013.htm.

“Fast Food, Fat Profits: Obesity in America.” Fault Lines, YouTube, 19 Nov. 2010,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=slwgXXVXM3I.
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Loki, Reynard. “Graphic Showing States with the Biggest Weight Problems.” AlterNet,

10 Dec. 2015, www.alternet.org/2015/12/americas-obesity-epidemic-where-does-your-state-

rank/.

Loki, Reynard. “The Real Causes of America's Obesity Epidemic: Where Does Your

State Rank?” Alternet, 11 Dec. 2015, www.alternet.org/2015/12/americas-obesity-epidemic-

where-does-your-state-rank/.

Murray, Christopher J.L, et al. “The Vast Majority of American Adults Are Overweight or

Obese, and Weight Is a Growing Problem among US Children.” Institute for Health Metrics and

Evaluation, 28 May 2014, www.healthdata.org/news-release/vast-majority-american-adults-are-

overweight-or-obese-and-weight-growing-problem-among.

Richtel, Matt, and Andrew Jacobs. “American Adults Just Keep Getting Fatter.” The New

York Times, The New York Times, 23 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/health/obesity-

us-adults.html.

Wexler, Barbara. Weight in America: Obesity, Eating Disorders, and Other Health Risks.

Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016.

“Why Are Americans Obese?” PublicHealth, PublicHealth, www.publichealth.org/public-

awareness/obesity/.
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“WHO IS AFFECTED?” PublicHealth, www.publichealth.org/public-

awareness/obesity/affected/.