Tarrant 1

Antanay Tarrant
English 115
24 November 2014
Professor Angeline Olliff
What We Dont Know
All around the world people eat food, and everyone has their own ideas of where that
food comes from, and how it is processed. However, the real questions are what happens to our
food in the process of it becoming food, and how does this so-called food affect us as people
physically. People as a whole are mainly affected by fast food services, especially with how
cheap everything is. I may assume I know what is in my food and I know what I am being
served, but in reality I do not know. I only know what is being shown to me and I assume that
the hamburger I am consuming is all meat coming from a healthy well-fed cow. With this being
said, there is more to the food that is being consumed than what meets the eye. For instance, corn
is in everything but food labels will not directly say corn, the animals that are used to make our
food are no longer properly raised, and with all of that fast food is very inexpensive for anyone
to buy. As an outcome all of the components listed above have a role in health issues, one
specifically being obesity. Fast food companies that sell food that is falsely promoted, unhealthy,
and inexpensive are partially to blame for the increase in obesity and other health issues.
Food is falsely promoted in a way that companies that produce food do not always
directly state that the item they will be selling contains corn. When reading an ingredients label
you may see obvious words that state that there is corn such as: cornstarch, corn syrup, corn oil,
and corn flour. On the other hand, there are words that would not lead you to think that they
contain corn such as: gluten, margarine, citric acid, and fructose. It is not a simple task to know

Tarrant 2

what these words mean without looking them up, and such words are commonly used in almost
every food product. These are just a few of the many different ways to say that corn is in
something you are drinking or eating. In Michael Pollans book The Omnivores Dilemma, he
shows proof that, Soda [contains] (100 percent corn), milk shake (78 percent), salad dressing
(65 percent), chicken nuggets (56 percent), cheeseburger (52 percent), and French fries (23
percent) (Pollan 117). As a consumer you would not guess that all of the items listed above
contain those high amounts of corn just by glancing at them, but with the research corn seems to
be found in almost everything edible. This will lead a person to think, how much of our food is
actually food since a large percentage of it is made up of corn? Since there is an abundance of
corn that is constantly being grown, it is inevitable to not have corn in everything, especially
since it is so cheap. Some may say that there is nothing wrong with corn, but too much corn
cannot be a good thing. There is so much corn in the world, that Corn is what feeds the steer
that becomes the steak. Corn feeds the chicken and the pig, the turkey and the lamb, the catfish
and the tilapia and, increasingly, even the salmon, a carnivore by nature that the fish farmers are
reengineering to tolerate corn (Pollan 18). Every fast food meal and home-cooked meal contain
some source of corn because the animals are now being taught to eat and tolerate corn since it is
cheap and fattening.
Without chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys, and lambs, we as consumers would not have meat
to consume. For these animals to be used for food they have to be fed properly and kept healthy,
so that they can be considered good enough to eat. Over the years the eating habits of these
animals specifically cows, have gone from roaming wild in their natural habitat, which for cows
is open lands of grass, to being confined to small cubicle like spaces and forced to eat corn with a

Tarrant 3

mixture of antibiotics. Some may argue that The housing controls the animals behavior, limits
the space provided to animals, is often a barren environment, reduces the incidence of infectious
disease, and allows operators to monitor the nutrient intake of animals to maximize production
(Centner 470). While this may be true, animals are put in such close, confined areas that rarely
get cleaned, and as a result they are more vulnerable to diseases which means they have to take
many antibiotics with the corn they are fed daily. The animals are made to eat substances that
their bodies normally cannot digest, and they have limited moving room, so they stand sleep in
their own manure which increases the amount of bacteria within the livestock. Any type of grain,
corn, or antibiotics consumed by the animals, especially cows and pigs, will all eventually make
their way back to humans. Such farm animals and people are closely linked, in a sense that We
inhabit the same microbial ecosystem as the animals we eat, and whatever happens in it also
happens to us (Pollan 81). Any food or products that the animals consume including the bacteria
that comes along with it will also be inside the people, because we are eating those animals. The
only difference is that we will not be affected as much as the cows or pigs, because our stomachs
are able to digest food better than theirs. The hamburgers and chicken nuggets that are purchased
and eaten from fast food restaurants all come from any livestock that has lived in an unhealthy or
inhumane stable.
Fast food companies that make and sale all the meat and food that people eat are
constantly expanding, and making their mark everywhere that they appear. There are multiple
fast food restaurants everywhere you look, with some of the most common ones being:
McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, KFC, Popeyes, and Carls Jr. While everyone is always on
the move looking for a quick meal to eat, the location of these places play a major role in why so
many people in society choose to eat at fast food restaurants. It has been shown that, There are a

Tarrant 4

disproportionally higher number of fast food restaurants and quick service establishments in poor
urban and rural areas in every major city in the United States (Fortuna 57). Fast food places are
knowledgeable when it comes to making sure they are located in areas that they will benefit from
more. Their food becomes addictive because of all of the added salts and chemicals in it, and
because of their cheap prices. Many people would rather spend $1.08 for a hamburger, rather
than $4.10 for a Caesar salad. With these prices being surprisingly affordable for the fattening
and unhealthy food, it makes the choice of what to buy a no-brainer. Fast food restaurants are
constantly becoming more popular, that They serve more than 50 million Americans every day
(Fortuna 57). Customers get more for their money, and with them being satisfied it keeps them
coming back, making them want the food even more. Some people may even decide to come
back to a restaurant more than once in a day.
With the variety of cheap, inexpensive, and fattening foods that fast food establishments
offer comes an abundance of health issues, one specifically being obesity. Fast food restaurants
are partially to blame for the obesity epidemic that society is facing. Recent studies have found
that 17.1% of American children and adolescents are overweight, while nearly a third of the
adult population, 32.2% is obese (Davis 261). These percentages are the long term results of
constant fast food eating, and how the food is also unhealthy. Many parents do not have a lot of
time to cook breakfast, lunch, or dinner every day, so they turn to fast food to save them and the
food they are purchasing does not contain a lot of nutrition. In our culture today people will use
fast food restaurants for a quick way to get a full meal, while on the move, and without spending
excessive amounts of money. Food is constantly being purchased at these establishments, yet
consumers may not be aware that Fast food restaurants serve larger portions of food than other
restaurants, and even fast food portion sizes have drastically increased in the past half century

Tarrant 5

(Davis 262). With all of the food that people are given for a low price they are already taking in a
lot of calories, probably more than they burn in a day. With the increase of portion sizes this just
makes it easier for people to gain weight faster and keep buying the food, because they are still
getting way more for the little bit of money they spend. The more people like the food, the more
they will order, and the more likely they will come back to that establishment. For example, I
have gone to McDonalds plenty of times, and I notice that their fries are overwhelmingly salty.
Every time I would purchase French fries I would feel obligated to purchase a soda, because I
knew that I would get thirsty. This place of business makes their French fries purposely salty,
because they know that their customers will end up needing something to drink since all of the
salt dries out their mouth. Salt can also make the food addicting, and this is one way that
establishments can keep the customers coming back for those flavorful fries and buying more
food and drinks than they intended. All of the over-indulgence of fast food, especially with meal
deals, and the lack of exercise because the food makes them tired contributes to people becoming
obese.
From corn, to how livestock are treated, and to how they both result in being sold in fast
food services everywhere, people in society are sold food that is misrepresented and nonbeneficial to them in the long run. The more this unhealthy food is consumed, the more likely
someone is to have health problems in the future. Fast food has become a way of life, making it
easy for families to get out of making a home- cooked meal, or even just going to sit down at a
fancy restaurant. Food being served is more corn, antibiotics, and chemicals than it is actual
food. We do not know all of the hidden mysteries of what is in the food we as people consume,
but there is always time and opportunity to find out. If fast food companies continue to grow they
will be more than just a way of life, but a way of survival. As the intake of fast food increases, so

Tarrant 6

does the risk of obesity and other health issues. The only way to prevent this is to figure out what
you are really eating, and ask yourself, is it worth what could possibly happen to you in the
future?

Tarrant 7

Works Cited
Centner, TJ. "Limitations on the Confinement of Food Animals in the United States." Journal of
Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, 23.5 (2010): 469-486.
Davis, Jackson S. "Fast Food, Zoning, And The Dormant Commerce Clause: Was It Something I
Ate.? Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 35.2 (2008): 259-288.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Fortuna, Jeffrey L. "The Obesity Epidemic And Food Addiction: Clinical Similarities To Drug
Dependence." Journal Of Psychoactive Drugs 44.1 (2012): 56-63. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York:
Penguin, 2006. Print.

Tarrant 8