Fast Food (Especially between Saudi
Arabia and USA)
Consuming
fast foods has become an obsession and a trend that is not about to be phased
out anytime soon. Available data indicate that one out of every four Americans
buy food from a fast food restaurant every day. Families hardly prepare
traditional family meals since most of them have resorted to foods ordered from
fast food joints. In light of these new global lifestyles, business ventures
have taken advantage of this obsession aiming to make mega profits of fast
foods. Fast food chains haven spread across the world. This paper will examine
the fast food craze in America and Saudi Arabia with special focus on the
reasons for fast food consumption, the effects, the solutions, and the benefits
of the same on the population of these two countries.
Fast foods
refer to foods that are prepared for fast consumption in restaurants. These
foods are normally high calorie and sugary foods like French fries, crisps,
fried chicken, meat burgers and sandwiches among others. These foods hardly
contain healthy options like green vegetables, fruit or whole grain. More so,
fast foods are high in fat, salt and processed ingredients. Most people prefer
fast foods to homemade foods because the former is cheaper and sweeter. A
recent poll indicates that McDonalds alone feeds over 46 million Americans
every day. The trend also features in school restaurants. (Michael).
The fast food vogue has also caught
up with citizens from the Middle East and especially Saudi Arabia. Unlike the
past years when the only food you could find in Saudi was hot, flavored, spicy
traditional Arab cuisine, fast food restaurants now dominate the market. Burgers
and French fries have gradually taken over the menu that previously contained
meats, vegetables, rice, wheat, and spices. Soda has become a viable option for
tea, which is the local favorite drink of the residents (Robin).
The American brands feature highly in towns in
Saudi Arabia. In fact, the local market has adapted the fast food concept so
that they design their traditional foods to resemble American fast food menus.
For example, the ‘Al-Balik’ is the Arab adaptation of the Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The ‘Al-Balik’ is deep fried chicken and shrimp, an obviously unhealthy version
of traditionally prepared chicken. More so, there is the ‘Shawerma Joha’ and
the ‘Kudu’, which is the Arab adaptation of the American Subway (Saxton).
However, the fast foods in Saudi Arabia contain less processed foods than those
served in American restaurants. People in Saudi Arabia also consume a Burger
with a serving of a healthy vegetable. This is different from America when
menus hardly contain a serving of anything fresh and organic. The Arab version
of fast foods is also spicier and more flavored than the American equivalent.
People in
the current world are said to work longer hours than ever before. There is a
great demand for performance and delivery in the job area. As a result, most of
the employees in the job sector have very little time left to go home and make
food. This makes fast food the easiest and most convenient solution for most of
these workers. Statistics show that most of employees in the job industry do
not have enough time to cook healthy food at home. In Saudi Arabia, there has
been a boom in the economy. Such has brought about more jobs and less rest for
the workers. Therefore, most of the citizens especially the youth end up
consuming fast foods instead of having well-cooked meals (Thorner).
Consuming
fast foods and visiting joints such as McDonalds comes with prestige, status
and class. The importance tinged to these high-level joints keeps attracting
the young people to such places. As a result, the level of fast food consumers
in the world has continued to skyrocket due to the perceived class and status
brought about by the joints for fast foods. It is therefore evident that fast
foods are not taken because people love them for their nutrition and sweetness
but rather, the food is consumed for class and status (Walker).
Due to the high number of fast food
consumers in the world, there has been a boom in the business. Today, there are
more fast food joints across the world than ever before. Given this figures,
the cost of fast food has drastically reduced as many more companies come in to
make a large profit from the business (Thorner). Therefore, the stiff and
cutthroat competition by fast food companies has lead to the reduction of fast
food prices. As a result, more people can afford the food and thus the level of
consumption has continued to rise across the world.
Marketing of products in the world
has taken a new twist. Today, it easy to convince an audience or a group of
people to consume goods than it has been before. This has been made possible by
the high tech and sophisticated modes of advertising and marketing goods.
Advertising fast food in such avenues has attracted more consumers due to the
savory and mouth watering details in the advertisements. It is therefore,
expected that fast foods shall continue to attract more people if the
advertisements are not curtailed (Schlosser).
Fast foods
affect Americans and Saudi Arabian’s in adverse ways. Studies indicate that
less than forty percent of all Americans are of normal and healthy weight. The
remaining sixty percent are either overweight or obese. The unhealthy lifestyle
adapted by Americans has led to the increase in diabetes among the citizens.
Further research indicates that diabetes causes more preventable deaths than
cigarette and alcohol combined. This trend is not limited to adults but it also
affects children and adolescents.
More so, the level of highly
processed foods in the fast foods cause a variety of cancers including, breast,
prostate and colon cancers. Foods like chicken that are sold in fast food
restaurants are usually injected with hormones like estrogen to make them fat.
These hormones also aid them in growing fast than the usual maturity period.
Since animals have a high retention rate, the hormones are ingested directly
into the body of the consumer. Artificial hormones are not limited to animal
alone. Technology has enabled farmers to grow plants under artificially induced
conditions. (Saxton).
The
statistics are not any different from Saudi Arabia although the number of
diabetics, obese and overweight people is definitely lower. However, the
complications of lifestyle diseases resulting from eating unhealthy fast -foods
are catching up fast in Saudi Arabia. This is because the younger generation
strongly favors fast foods as opposed to authentic Arab cuisine. Younger people
are registering high rates of hypertension, previously a disease of the old and
weakened. More so, more young and middle-aged people suffer from asthma and
hormonal imbalance related diseases (Robin).
The trend of the fast food is growing
too fast these days, this trend of fast food seen everywhere in the world. One
can easily get a fast food meal for only 6 to 7 dollars. People prefer fast food because they consider
that fast food makes their life easy and uncomplicated. It is also beneficial
for the parents as well, because if both the parents are working they can
easily get a fast food meal for their children. These benefits are seen in countries
like Saudi Arabia and America as well. (Jayleen, 2012)
The problem
biggest problems of fast foods are that they lead the human being to obesity.
Fast food can give harm to the health in both long term and short term. The
fast food content has a high level of fat in them which leads to high level of
cholesterol level. The food with high calorie content with high level of sugar
can lead to obesity. Obesity is a big problem now days in this modern era and
in the young generation. To overcome this problem the government can keep a
check and balance on the fast food about what kind of food they are providing
and give them warnings and put on fines on them if they are proving food that
is injurious for health. The schools can come up with programs that will aware
the children about the problem of obesity and its side effects on health.
Mostly in Saudi Arabia and America this problem is increasing day by day. In
the last the fast food can provide a menu which is heath and full of vegetarian
food. (Mercola, 2013)
Fast foods consumption is a trend all
over the world. The old, middle-aged and the young all consume fast foods at
alarming rates. And it trends is increasing day by day. The only reason behind
this is that people do not have time to go home and cook for themselves due to
their busy and hectic routine. People consider this service to be fast, cheap
in price and also easy available. So it is necessary to aware the people about
the side effects fast food or junk food can cause on health especially in our
young generation. The role the government can play in this is that I ban every
TV advertisement related to fast food and schools can conduct different
seminars and programs for the awareness of the side effects of fast food.
Works cited
Michael, Jacobson. The fast-food guide : what's good, what's
bad, and how to tell the difference . St. Cloud State University MC Main
Collection - Basement : New York : Workman Pub, 2009.
Robin, Leidner. Fast food, fast talk : service work and the
routinization of everyday life . California Press: Berkeley : University of
California Press, c1993., 2007.
Saxton, Freymann. Fast food/slow food : the cultural economy
of the global food system. Lanham, MD : Altamira Press, 2006.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast food nation : the dark side of the all-American meal . New York:
New York, NY : Harper Perennial, 2005.
Thorner, Marvin Edward. Convenience and fast food handbook. St.
Cloud State University MC Main Collection - Basement : Westport, Conn., AVI
Pub. Co., 2008.
Walker, Bynum Caroline. Fast food, stock cars, and rock 'n' roll :
place and space in American pop culture . California: Lanham, Md. : Rowman
& Littlefield Publishers, 2008.
Jayleen. (2012, April 7). Studymode.
Retrieved from
http://www.studymode.com/essays/Benefits-Of-Fast-Food-Restaurants-996568.html
Mercola, D. ( 2013, August 24). Mercola. Retrieved from
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/24/fast-food-fat-profits.aspx
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