Fast Food Story (notes from lecture)

News Writing and Reporting

Assignment No. 9

Here are some statements made during a talk by Edith Heather Cahn, head nutritionist for the Food Studies Association of Chicago who visited the EC campus Tuesday.  Exactly 205 students and faculty members were at the Campus Theatre for her talk.  The title of her talk was “America Fattens Up” and it was given as part of EC’s Nutrition Awareness Month.  All of the following are exact quotes and you are to use the following as if these were your notes from her talk.  Please write a story of between 250 and 350 words in length.  Please note that there ARE style and spelling errors throughout this story.  They’ve been purposefully inserted to see if you will find them and will correct them.  Good luck!

We are no longer improving our diets as Americans.  For the last five years, one-third of our diet has consisted of what we call better-for-you foods.  But, recently, we have leveled off from purchasing and eating these lower fat, healthier foods and are no longer on the way to a fat-free or a lower-fat diet.  This is in spite of the fact that there are more healthier offerings today than ever before.

            Instead, we are seeing growth in another area—hamburgers, French fries, and chicken nuggets.  Americans love their junk food.  This year, in a two-week period that we studied, Americans ate five million more orders of chicken nuggets, six million more hamburgers and eight million more servings of French fries than they did during this same period last year.  That’s enough fat to fill a string of railroad tank cars for miles.

            We’re also eating on the run more.  Takeout food makes up more than half of the restaurant business, whereas only two years ago, it made up less than a third of the restaurant business.  This is why the fastest-growing restaurant items are soft drinks, French fries, hamburgers and chicken nuggets. 

Even though some fast-food restaurants are putting more salads and yogurts and chicken sandwiches on their menus, these foods are not that healthy for you.  Did you know that the average salad sold at a fast-food restaurant actually has more calories and fat than a cheeseburger at that same restaurant?  That’s because of the salad dressing.  If they included a low-fat or no-fat salad dressing, then it would be healthier, but if that choice is offered, and often-times it’s not, most young people don’t take it.  Also, those nuts they put on the salads and the yogurt have more fat in them than french fries.  And if you think that eating Chinese food is good for you, stir-fried beef and broccoli, the most popular Chinese food dish, has more fat and calories in it than a burger and fries.  So you not only have to make wise decisions about what you eat, you also have to look at the nutritional analysis of these foods that is available at any restaurant if you ask for it.  The problem is, most people do not ask for it because they don’t want to know that their favorite food is so bad for them.

            The fast-food diet is one that will not only make you obese, but it will also clog your arteries and cut your lifespan.  If you want to list the worst diet possible, this is it.  And the worst offenders are young people.  Older people tend to watch their diets and tend to consume the healthier, better-for-you foods.  Young people think they will live forever, so they just eat what tastes good and what is simple and easy to get.

            The worst eaters are college students.  In the two days I’ve been at El Camino College speaking in classes, I’ve witnessed some of the worst, most unsafe eating I’ve ever seen.  Students here are eating themselves into quick graves.  Your diets of grease-choked burgers and fries with a quart of cola on the side will come back to haunt you in about ten years.  Your arteries will be so clogged that your cardiac doctor will need a Roto-Rooter to clear them out.

After her talk, you talked to a professor and a student.  Here are their quotes:

Dr. Sally Simson, health professor at EC:

            I think what the speaker said makes a great deal of sense.  We are eating worse today than probably ever before in our nation’s history.  I think it’s great that she made such strong statements.  I hope it scares some of our students into making healthier food choices and eating healthier diets.  

John Dough, undeclared major, 20 years old, EC student:

            I love my burgers and fries and I don’t care what that old wind-bag has to say about it; I’m not giving them up!  I’m not at all worried about dying an early death and I’m not going to change my diet no matter what anyone tells me.