MASS CULTURALIZATION AND OBESITY

We are in 2010. Each century, each decade, each year brings new things and different problems. Colonization, World War I and II, invention of computers, Iraq war…these are all some of the most important events in the world history. But, how about today? Which problem are we dealing with in these years? Let me give you a hint, the fast food industry increased much faster than any other industries and people started over consuming fast food. Every day in the newspapers and the TV we see many advertisements for fast food and millions of solutions to lose weight. When you look at the rate of obesity and obesity- related diseases, they increased so incredibly that a lot of people are even dying from them. These diseases are spreading faster than we can imagine, due to the factor of American culture .American culture ,in another words mass culture or pop culture, is so strongly dominating many cultures in the world that many people are already forgetting their traditions or don’t believe in them anymore. For instance, many traditional food recipes are disappearing and fast food franchises like Mc Donald’s or Burger King became the main meal of many families , especially poor and middle class families. So, other cultures are facing the serious risks of fast food as well in the recent decades. What is in fast food that makes it so unhealthy and how does it cause obesity and deaths? Also, how is American culture related to increasing the risk of obesity? How do you connect culture, obesity and death? if a culture is not based on healthy living then it may cause many diseases and even many deaths, that is what is going on in today’s world and it is an increasing concern.

Mass culture is a culture that is disseminated by mass media. Mass culture is not based on deep and rooted beliefs that are generated throughout time by societies; it is the temporarily beliefs that are learned by TV or Radio or Newspapers. So, in this case, advertising plays a key role in mass culture, because it is an easy way of convincing people, also advertisement has a big power of what media really needs to spread mass culture to our society, and to transmit it to each individual. An article by Fouzia Aman called “Social Change” gives a great example of how advertisements affect an individual’s life; “I told him that it is too expensive for him as he is class seven student. In reply he showed anger and increased my knowledge that most of his friends and classmates already have it. All this situation gave me a spark and thought that this type of culture is not rooted in the society or region from the beginning but it is transmitted to individuals through the media.(1)” So, if each individual in our society gets negatively affected by advertisements like that little 7th grade student, then we will definitely want to have everything we see on the TV, including major food brands such as fast foods like Mc Donald’s or Burger King . Today, not just children, but the parents are also keen for hamburger and coke, because it looks delicious and is cheap. So, if we let mass culture to sneak into our children’s and then our lives by media through advertisements, we will have a stronger, and harder time changing mass culturalization in our society.

Mass productions is involved in everything including fast food. Fast food products, which are really cheap and not fresh, are putting our own health in danger and making us suffer from health diseases. For example, some of the health diseases we suffer from are high risk of obesity and obesity related diseases. According to research done by Dr. Arthur Schoenstadt , the negative health benefits of fast food are linked to obesity. Because fast food has trans fat and trans fat has a significant effect on the body and may contribute to weight gain, abdominal obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart diseases (1). Also, Raj Patel adds that “billions suffer the diseases brought on by our bad food industry and a billion people are clinically obese” (1). While millions of people are dying from hunger, that is not fair. We should think how unbalanced the food is system and change our way of eating. Otherwise we may even lose our lives. According to JAMA (American Medical Association) , it is found that obesity has a profound effect on life span (Fontaine et al 5) indicates that early life losses is due to obesity. For example, a person with a life expectancy of 78 years, may have 17 % reduction in total life expectancy due to obesity, or a 20 year old white male is expected to live another 58 years , a 13 year reduction due to obesity represents 22% reduction in remaning years of life (Fontaine et al 5 ) Mass produced food system not just spoils our food system, it also shortens our lives, creates an unbalanced system in the globe and makes the world an unhealthy place.

The fast food industry is increasing and establishing itself incredibly fast almost everywhere in the world, even though millions of people are dying from its unhealthiness. According to Mr. Scholesser; “In Colorado Springs, the fast food industry has grown much faster than the population. Over the last three decades the number of restaurants has increased fivefold. In 1967, Colorado Springs had a total of twenty chain restaurants. Now it has twenty one McDonald’s.”(65). So, as a result of that, a book by Morgan Spurlock called Don’t eat this book declares that, in the last twenty years the rate of obesity has doubled in children and tripled in adolescents and teens (11) and “Sixty-five percent of American adults are already overweight; thirty percent are obese”(9). It is so far so fast! That is a really stunning fact that obesity has spreaded so fast with the growing numbers of fast food chains. That is also not just in the U.S., it is everywhere in the world. For example, In India alone the fast food industry is growing by 41% a year. Mc Donald’s is located in 126 countries,6 continents and operates over 31,000 restaurants worldwide. This is proof of how the mass culture and its effects are increasing all over the world.

Most of the fast food restaurants are located in lower middle or poor class neighborhoods. Mr. Spurlock in his book states that “you will see many Golden Arches in lower income areas like South Central and east L.A. that they overlap on the map .Now look at Beverly Hills. How many Golden Arches do you see?” (12-13). He also mentions that obesity rates increases related to the level of education in this poor areas. “People who are college or above educated the obesity rate is 15.7 percent, if it is less than high school education, it is 27.4 percent. So, obviously, lower income folks don’t have the access to health education and information that people of higher incomes do”(12). Low Income households besides their education level, don’t have money to buy healthier food than fast food. So, that shows us that mass culturalization , mostly effects the poor’s lives because of their shortage of money and their inability to access to other alternatives .

The increase of fast food industry is not just affecting the eating habits and health of people, but also, more importantly,it is changing the culture of other countries’ people. According to Raj Patel; “developed” nations are forgetting where food comes from or how to cook it (2). More specifically, from Star Tribune ; “ Doua Vang came to the United States in 1976 when his three children were very young . From the start, he said, they preferred fast food to their traditional foods of fish, rice and fruits. Twenty five years later, he says, parents are even worse off because fast food is everywhere.”(1).It is the same thing from my experience, when my family moved to big cities we started to eat fast food almost every lunch and we forgot to cook our own recipes. Ten years later, I wonder what my culture will look like under the influences of mass culturalization.

In conclusion, mass culturalization is causing early life loss, obesity and culture changes. Soon, many societies will be strangers in their own culture and adapt mass culturalization voluntarily as the way of their new lives. If this change is happening fast in our traditions of food, I can’t imagine how my look , my lifestyle, and mind will be effected by mass culturalization. Then it will teach nothing to our children for the future, but to be mass grownups in the mass culture; in other words to be nothing but lost. Eventually that will affect our choices that we make in food and everything. It definitely will make us unaware of what we are doing and unhealthy.



WORK CITED

Aman,Fouzia. “Social Change”. Bussiness Recorder (2008). Lexisnexis. Web.17 Apr. 2010.

Fontaine, Kevin R., David T. Redden, Chenxi Wang, Andrew O. Westfall, and David B. Allison. "Years of Life Lost Due to Obesity." The American Medical Association 289.2 (2003). Jama. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. .

Kingsnorth, Paul. "How the English Malady Became the World's;stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel Portello." Art& Book Review (2007). Lexisnexis. Web. 17 Apr. 2010. .

Lalwani, Sheila. "Obesity on Increase among Immigrants' Kids." Minneapolis Star Tribune. 2 Sept. 2001. Web. 05 May 2010. .


Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2005. Print.

Schoenstadt, Arthur. "Does Fast Food Cause Obesity?" Fast Food and Obesity (2008): 1. EMedTV. 18 Oct. 2008. Web. 05 May 2010. .

Spurlock, Morgan. "2." Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America. New York: Berkley, 2005. 9-25. Print.

last2 annotated bibliography

Nestle, Marion. Introduction and the first chapter. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. Berkeley: University of California, 2002. 1-31. Print.


A book called “Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health” by Marion Nestle is a great book to see how the food industry is involved in politics and public policy and how that damages our food. This book is another prospective to explain the American Food system. With this book, we will see how the food companies subsidizes the media and dominate our decisions.

Seibel, John. "Syptoms of Type 2 Diabetes." Webmd (2008). Webmd. Web. 13 May 2010. .


The article that I have found by WebMD is about the symptoms of Type II Diabetes. That article will help me to explain to you the symptoms of type 2 diabetes , and then you will be able to act before it is too late . When you know the symptoms you may get the medication even earlier . So, you will be more prudent and that is very important to save our lives on time.

how about mcunion ? (one more time)

Mc Donald’s is the most widespread fast food restaurant in the world. The fries, burger
and coke sometimes are the best and most practical meal of our happy times. Our mother
sometimes takes a break from cooking and gets us Mc Donald’s for the lunch or dinner. Mc
Donald’s food sounds fan, but how about the company by itself? Is it a company that is fair to its
workers? What do you think that is going on behind McDonald’s restaurants? Does the food
come to your home is made in a good work environment by happy people? Do you think that
workers who prepare our burger get the money they deserve? Are the workers informed and
trained about the whole process of the food? Are the workers unionized and can save their
rights? There is a dark side of Mc Donald Company’s that nobody but only its workers know
about. The workers of Mc Donald’s have to lighten this darkness to find their rights and save
them by unionizing.

As a matter of fact Mc Donald’s workers aren’t unionized, so they are not able to claim
their rights or save them .According to Ron Marcoux , executive vice-president of Mc Donald’s
restaurant of Canada Ltd., as far as he knows none of the company’s Canadian restaurants are
unionized, because Mc Donald’s hires immigrants and teenagers who are not aware of their
rights, are poor, have no talent ,no any knowledge to do another job and don’t speak English
well. Because of the need of money, lack of experience and knowledge, they do whatever
employers say even though they are being treated unfairly. So, these workers become subject to
arbitrariness and unfairness on their job all the time. According to The Toronto Sun News of
April 2002, there is a big turnover at McDonald’s. So, some people had to leave because of the
bad working system or they just get fired. As a worker you never want to be thrown out as an
object and be easily replaced by someone else. You want to be appreciated and respected by your
employer and coworkers. Hence, to avoid the unfair, inappropriate threatening, arbitrary and
careless attitude of the employers’ toward the workers, the workers have to get together and be
unionized.

Mc Donald’s consciously hires workers who are not just teenagers and immigrants, but also
immature and have a weak personality. A sociologist Ester Reiter says that “obedience” is the
most valued aspect of a personality in fast food restaurants (Scshlosser,75). So, these immigrants
and teenagers, because of their hard life conditions, are obedient to their employer and don’t
have the kind of personality, maturity and self-confidence to object and say “no!.” If they do so,
they get fired and lose the chance of earning some money. To stop that kind of usage of
immature workers, Mc Donald workers should definitely get unionized to be able to improve
their personalities, get more mature, and gain some self –confidence and to have the right to say
“no” without being afraid to be fired.

Even though i say that Mc Donald’s workers should know their rights and get unionized ,
that is not really easy for them. Because Mc Donald’s take some serious steps not to have their
workers unionized easily. Mc Donald’s deliberately controls and tries to keep unions out of its
restaurants (Scholesser 76). For example, Mc Donald uses the mass produced system in
assembly line and doesn’t train its workers to improve themselves in the job. Mass Produced
food in assembly line means that the food in Mc Donald’s fast food restaurant is processed by
large groups of people and each person has a very little job to do. Therefore, that system makes it
more difficult for the workers to mention about and fight for their rights. Because the little job ,
that each worker is doing, can be done by anybody who doesn’t even know anything. So, that
mass produced system in assembly line requires almost no rights for the workers, because they
don’t even have an influence or a real importance on the job. That system costs less to the Mc
Donald’s Company, but takes away a lot from the workers earnings. Also, the workers feel
insecure at work because of the small and simple work that they do, they don’t feel themselves
enough useful in this working system. Furthermore, the workers not allowed to be trained to do
the whole or larger of the job even though they want to. So, if the employer wants to fire them,
he can fire them and replace them very easily. Because of these bad consequences of mass
produced system in assembly line on the workers and because of avoiding the workers from
learning and doing more of the job, the workers feel useless and that lessens the ability of
unionization of the workers in enormous amount.

Working in a mass produced system in assembly line so intensive, and many of the workers
get injured. But the company may not want to get any responsibility of the injuries and fire the
injured person right away. They can do that because the workers are not unionized and they
know that the workers are afraid to talk. So, when you are not unionized in your work place you
may not get a chance even to sue the company and get any insurance. Unfortunately ,even if you
lose your hand ,nobody may care. If Mc Donald’s continues using mass produced system in
assembly line for just its benefits to make more money, and continues to avoid listening to and
caring about its workers, one day Mc Donald’s name will be vanished in the universe sooner
than we think .

In conclusion, every fast food restaurant’s workers have to be unionized in order to keep
their rights, gain confidence and have a better working condition. If the workers can keep their
rights , the turnover rates decreases and then the workers can feel safer at work . We ,as the
consumers, can change the system that Mc Donald’s has and help the workers to work in a
smaller groups, by learning more, in safety and in more respectful environment. We may not
change the mass –produced system in assembly line right away, but if we don’t buy big food
chains’ food, we may slowly change their system and help the workers. Don’t let companies to
use your money to harm their workers more and more, and do not support mass produced food
system by keep buying their products.




WORK CITED

Cp. "McUnion Ordered;Burger Workers Sign First Contract." The Toronto Sun [Toronto] 18 Apr. 2002, News sec.: 53. Lexisnexis. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. .


Cp. "McDonald's Staff Puts in Order for 'mcunion'at Alberta Outlet." The Toronto Star [Toronto] 6 Oct. 1985, News sec.: A11. Lexisnexis. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. .


Schlosser, Eric. "Behind the Counter." Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 59-87. Print.

prospectus research paper

In my research paper, I will talk about the obesity and obesity-related diseases in the U.S. According
to my research ,the obesity and obesity-related diseases are dramatically increasing in the U.S. ,
furthermore ,the U.S. spreading those diseases to the world by American (pop) culture. The book by
Morgan Spurlock will be my primary source to explain to you how seriously those diseases are
threatening our health and what it is that makes those diseases spread more and more dangerously.

The articles I have found in JAMA (the journal of the American Medical Association), will help me to
define obesity to you more specifically and to inform you that we can lose our life sooner than we
expect according to the doctors. Also, the effects of sedentary life style and its connection with obesity
will be another topic that I am going to inform you about, as well as the chronic conditions of obesity
among children. As an example, in order to explain obesity more detailed ,I will be talking about a fifty
two years old woman with severe obesity; how she faces obesity?, what happens to her? How does
obesity effect her quality of life and stigmatize her.

Another article that I have found from lexisnexis is by Fouzia Aman and about the impacts of mass
culture on individuals .That article will be the key point of my argument about the connection with mass
(pop) culture and fast food restaurant, in other words, between mass (pop) culture and our eating habit.
That article will be very useful to fulfill my argument of obesity by relating it the culture that is spreading
fast around the world.

bibliographyentries3

Danaher, Kevin, Shannon Biggs, and Jason Mark. "The United States Food System." Alternet. Alternet. Polipoint Press. Web. 03 May 2010. .


This article is an interview with a food expert about the food system of America. It explains the reasons why the food system is failing in the U.S. The farm machines took over farmers’ job and then the farmers’ situation got worse and worse.According to the article, modernization did not effect just the farmers but also our health. Also,genetically modified food entered our lives right after the machines. This article will specifically help me give you some more proofs about why our food system going bad.


Hallberg, Milton C. "1." The Economic Trends in U.S. Agriculture since World War Two. Ames: Iowa State UP, 2001. 5-13. Print.

The book called “Economic trends in the U.S. agriculture and food systems since world war two” is going to give us the background information of the food system since world war two; how it changed? What is the story of it? What factors helped it to get to the shape it has today? This book will be a great source for us to understand our food system better and to see its path until today.
"A Healthy Type 2 Diabetes Diet." Webmd. Webmd. Web. 3 May 2010. .

That article tell us what the major food categories are for type 2 diabetes and which products are including in them . That article will be very useful for us in order to learn what foods we should control eating to get healthy. Also that article mentions the role low fat foods in our health and how much of them we should get in our daily lives.

obesity rate in the U.S.

Soda tax is an increased tax that is trying to be put on our sodas in order to help epidemic
obesity in the U.S. This is a big issue because, why does each person in the U.S. have to pay the bill of
obesity by paying extra pennies for their sodas. There should be a better solution .Also ,if you search
little bit about it ,we ,as a society, are working a lot on obesity issue ,our doctors, professors, health
organizations, our neighbor, our parents … and so on, they are all warning us and educating us about
obesity. So why do we need that extra tax?

There are some states in the U.S. that are already have the soda tax, but are still ranking one of
the highest states in obesity; Arkansas and Virginia. They are ranked 5th and 6th i in the U.S. So, is that
telling us that the soda tax is already working for the U.S.? Of course not, as the results show us
Americans even though the extra pennies they are paying for each soda, will continue the way they are
consuming it and the obesity is still the problem.

Group 4 presented that problem very successfully and told us that the soda tax is not going to
change the way we are consuming soda. Clark mentioned about Arkansas and Virginia’s problem with
obesity fact and the level they were ranked in the U.S. As I listened to them and took notes these are the
key evidences that we see so far.

how about mcunion?

HOW ABOUT MC UNION?

Mc Donald’s is the most widespread fast food restaurant in the world. The fries, burger
and coke are sometimes the best and most practical meal of our happy times. Our mother
sometimes takes a break from cooking and gets us Mc Donald’s for the lunch or dinner. Mc
Donald’s food sounds fan , but how about the company by itself? Is it a company that is fair to
its workers? What do you think that is going on in the backside of the McDonald’s restaurants?
Does the food come to your home is made in a good work environment by happy people? Do
you think that workers who prepare our burger get the money they deserve? Are the workers
informed and trained about the whole process of the food? Are the workers unionized and can
save their rights? There is a dark side of Mc Donald’s company’s that nobody but only its
workers know about.

As a matter of fact Mc Donald’s workers aren’t unionized. According to Ron Marcoux ,
executive vice-president of Mc Donald’s restaurant of Canada Ltd., as far as he knows none of
the company’s Canadian restaurants are unionized, because Mc Donald’s hires immigrants and
teenagers who are poor, have no talent ,no any knowledge to do another job and don’t speak
English well. They are afraid to get fired all the time because of the lack of experience and
knowledge they have , so they do whatever employers say. According to The Toronto Sun News
of April 2002, there is a big turnover at McDonald’s. So, some people just can’t stand the system
there and leave the job or get fired. A sociologist Ester Reiter says that “obedience” is the most
valued aspect of a personality in fast food restaurants (schlosser,75). So, these immigrants and
teenagers , because of their hard life conditions, are obedient to their employer and don’t have
the chance to say “no!.” So, these workers are subject to arbitrariness and unfairness on the job
all the time. In this case , Mc Donald workers should definitely unionize in order to save their
rights ,and have a better work environment.

Mc Donald’s take some serious steps not to have their workers unionized. Mc Donald’s
doesn’t care about the pain or bad consequences that the work system causes to its workers. The
only thing Mc Donald cares that money, and more businesses. That is why the food that comes to
your home is mass produced food in assembly line. That means that the food in Mc Donald’s fast
food restaurant is processed by a large groups of people and you can be never sure that who
prepared your food .So, that brings up more than one questions in your mind; are those people
clean? Why is my food prepared by so many people that each one do a small part of the work ?
Can’t one person do everything from the beginning to the end and be responsible from
everything? This is not a car company or any other industrial factory that produces technological
stuffs, this is my food that I am buying for dinner to eat with my children. How will I be sure that
my burger is made of clean stuffs, I can’t go ask all the people who are working there because
Mc Donald’s is a huge company. So, it is better to do my own food or buy it from the people that
I know. As that can effect my health, it definitely effects the workers’ work conditions too. First
of all, the workers earn less money because of the small part of job they do, also they can’t be
sure about the safety and cleanness of the food they are preparing because they are only allowed
to do one simple thing every single day and don’t allowed to ask questions or get information
about other processes of the food. So, actually workers have no idea what is going on before
their turn comes and passes. This mass produced in assembly line system makes Mc Donald’s
company earn a lot of money, but the workers’ money decreases or doesn’t increase. The
workers feel insecure at work because of small and simple work that they do in this system
without allowed to be trained to do the whole job. So, if the employer wants to fire them, he can
fire them and replace them easily. In this case, workers become weak because they are not
unionized, and do whatever the employer says. Mc Donald’s deliberately controls and try to keep
unions out of its restaurants (Scholesser 76). If Mc Donald’s let its workers to be unionized then
the company can’t treat the workers arbitrarily. That is why Mc Donald’s hires mostly
immigrants or teenagers. Teenagers are too young and the immigrants can’t speak English, so
they can’t unionize because they don’t even know their rights yet. According to Scholesser if
somebody wants to get fired mentioning about the word “Mc union” which stands for unionizing
Mc Donald’s restaurants, is enough for it; “did somebody say Mc Union? Not if they want to
keep their Mcjob”(77). So, when the workers of Mc Donald’s start seeking their rights, they get
fired immediately. If Mc Donald’s continues using mass produced system in assembly line for its
benefits to make more money, and continues to avoid the union actions of its workers in its
restaurants by hiring inexperienced teenagers and immigrants, one day Mc Donald’s name will
be vanished in the universe sooner than we think .

In conclusion, any fast food restaurant has to be unionized in order to keep their rights and
have a better work condition. Also, if the workers can keep their rights and the turnover rates
decreases we will have a better food, at least by the same people who work there for along time
with more knowledge of work. We may not change the mass –produced system in assembly line
right away, but if we don’t buy big food chains’ food, we may slowly change their system. Don’t
let companies to use your money against you and do not support mass produced food system by
keep buying their products.


WORK CITED

Cp. "McUnion Ordered;Burger Workers Sign First Contract." The Toronto Sun [Toronto] 18 Apr. 2002, News sec.: 53. Lexisnexis. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. .


Cp. "McDonald's Staff Puts in Order for 'mcunion'at Alberta Outlet." The Toronto Star [Toronto] 6 Oct. 1985, News sec.: A11. Lexisnexis. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. .


Schlosser, Eric. "Behind the Counter." Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 59-87. Print.