According to USA today, obesity has been on the rise since early 1980. In the year 2010 it was recorded that obesity is a problem with over 35% of adults In the USA which translates to 78 million adults; 50million of those adults were white. Since the 1950’s there has been a huge demand for time. Throughout history we see products such as microwaves, vacuums, canned goods and frozen foods just to name a few; enter into the market as a time saving commodity. We also see dairy farmers with the need to save as much time as possible with their live stock.
Farmers have been injecting animals with growth hormones since the 70’s; according to Sciencenewsonline. com It costs farmers about $1 to $3 per head to treat their livestock with either procedure, notes animal scientist Michael J. Fields of the University of Florida in Gainesville. Treatment increases animals’ growth by 20 percent, so each cow in a feedlot typically gains 3 pounds per day, he says. Moreover, for each pound that it gains, it consumes 15 percent less feed than an untreated animal does. “This feed efficiency works out to a cost savings of about $40 per head—so you get more protein at a cheaper cost,” Fields says.
(TheFreeLibrary. com) The Center for Veterinary Medicine at the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of these hormones because they tend to leave only small concentrations—ones believed to be harmless—in meat. However, the regulators haven’t considered what effects the hormones might have after being excreted into the environment. —J. R. In the name of time we have seen a rise in processed foods to help with the amount of time our foods will last. We have seen growth hormones to help with the amount of time our live stock will be ready for slaughter.
We have seen frozen and canned goods to help in saving us time when we make our dinner. Fast food chains such as McDonald’s is a big player in the fast food industry; also saving time themselves; they carry highly processed, frozen and canned foods. It isn’t an industry secret that these types of foods have an effect in the way our bodies grow. McDonald’s serves 69 million people worldwide a day! With such high demand comes great concern on the quality of foods they serve. In the documentary Super Size Me, we see firsthand effects of eating McDonalds on a daily basis.
Director Morgan Spurlock an American Independent film maker documented his experience of eating McDonalds 3 times a day as an investigation of the affects after 2girls tried to sue McDonalds for their obesity. During the 30 day documentation Spurlock gained 24 1/2 lbs with an increase of 13% body mass and a cholesterol level of 230. Symptoms of the unhealthy diet included mood swings, sexual dysfunction and fat accumulation in his liver. Spurlock reports that since his experience he has suffered irreversible damage to his health. Industrialized feedlots are no longer only for livestock.
Americans have fallen into a different type of feedlots. The kind of feedlot where we have the freedom to boycott or change our industries, but our eyes are closed to the reality that we’re living. We buy what we’re told. We’re ignorant on the process of processed foods and we demand to buy more. What would we say to a cow who tells us they have no choice, but we do? Will we continue to eat harmful foods we so willingly buy from fast food giants or even our grocery stores? Commercialized feed lots are now on our kitchen tables; and when we need to save time we buy it from a window because a toy is included.
According to a United Nations report; Mexico is now the leading obese country in the world with the US being 2nd. Mexico blames increasingly industrialized agricultural production for a worldwide epidemic of both obesity and malnutrition; the increase of fast food chains in Mexico is also a concern. The CDC has named obesity an epidemic, but how do we fix the vicious cycle that starts with our farmers and food plants? In recent years McDonalds has done well with marketing a much healthier choice of foods; due to Americans wanting healthier choices; however, even the ‘healthy’ stuff can lack nutritional value.
With their dollar menu as one of the biggest in the industry; McDonalds is staying at the top in the meantime. We are becoming a society of processed high fat and sugar consuming Hansel and Gretel’s waiting to be devoured by the wicked witch of the west. We see how our national average size has grown and still we continue to eat the sweet stuff. Snow white; had she known her apple was poisoned would have never taken a bite. So why do we eat pesticide (poisonous) ridden foods?
When our food sources become industrialized hormone, pesticide and processed food pushers while we can’t pronounce the ingredients in our food labels, it may be time to stand up for our future and demand a change today. References: USA Today http://www. usatoday. com/story/news/nation/2013/10/17/obesity-rate-levels-off/2895759/ Science News Online http://www. phschool. com/science/science_news/articles/hormones_beef. html The Free Library http://www. thefreelibrary. com/Hormones%3A+here%27s+the+beef%3A+environmental+concerns+reemerge+over… -a082512511 Food and Drug Administration – FDA. org McDonalds. com