Obesity is a serious condition which can lead to life-threatening health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and osteoarthritis. A recent Yale University study has provided evidence that “fast food contributes to increased calorie intake and obesity risk in children”. Fast food restaurants use questionable tactics to increase their sales, resulting in higher rates of obesity among customers. The motto of some fast food restaurants, like McDonald's, seems to be “eat more bad stuff, it tastes good!” Fast food restaurants use unhealthy ingredients in their products which contribute to the poor nutrition the food offers. These fast food chains encourage upsizing the meal so that people consume more than they should. The cost relates to portion size because customers receive a better deal when they purchase more food . The convenience of having fast food prepared rapidly figures into the equation to why customers buy meals when they could have prepared a healthy dinner at home. Fast food restaurants of today entice customers to buy unhealthy foods that increase of the risk of obesity.

The Big Breakfast with Hotcakes and Egg Whites (Large Biscuit) of McDonald’s sounds like an amazing, wholesome breakfast which is a great way to start your day. Wrong! This menu item has 1060 calories with a whopping 480 calories from fat and 2200 mg of sodium. An average human being needs, at most, 2000 calories in his daily diet. A person consumes half of his daily caloric intake with this breakfast item! The “golden-brown, melt-in-your-mouth Hotcakes” may sound delicious, but the truth about this food is horribly disgusting! Burgers have additional calories due to the amount of sauce. Sides such as fries and onion rings add unnecessary calories and fat. Drinks such as sodas contain large amounts of sugar. Some fast food restaurants, like Burger King, trick customers. The rodeo burger is described as “a savory flame-grilled beef patty topped with sweet and smoky BBQ sauce and crispy, golden onion rings served on a toasted, sesame seed bun” when in reality, the burger is fried rather than grilled based on the allergens chart Burger King provides.  The initial calorie count increases by introducing another fried component. The customers that come into Burger King get duped when they expect a grilled burger as a healthy alternative to a fried burger, but instead they receive a fried burger.

Nowadays, many fast food restaurants encourage upsizing the customer’s order. Most of the time, the meals are known as value meals. When a customer can get a burger, fries, and a soda for $5.99 instead of a single burger for $4.99, it seems like a pretty good deal. At Domino's, a customer can pay only $14.98 for two medium pan pizzas rather than $12.98 for one. The customer pays less for more product and the company makes more profit.  The customer eats the meal until it’s finished and does not realize that his hunger would’ve been satisfied with eating the single burger or even sharing the single pizza and drinking water. The end result is the customer consuming more calories to get a good deal on his order. Upsizing also comes back to cost. Many customers, like college students and low-income families, appreciate the abundance of food for a lower value.

Low cost contributes to why customers opt for fast food restaurants in their daily lives. A college student is more likely to buy fast food rather than cook a healthy meal due to his living circumstances. It is easier for a student on-the-go to purchase fast-food rather to take the time to make a healthy dinner. Low-income families choose fast food restaurants rather than healthy home-cooked meals because the fast food meals are inexpensive and upsizing results in a better deal. Researchers at the University of Washington found that a “2,000-calorie diet of junk food costs 10 times less than a 2,000 calorie healthy diet” which proves that low-income families are more susceptible to obesity since they opt for fast food. Their 2-year study proved that the cost of healthy food skyrocketed by 19.5% when the unhealthy food cost dropped by a mere 1.8%. If fast food was not unhealthy and life-threatening when eaten on a regular basis, this study would not have mattered.

Fast food restaurants are like convenience stores. The convenience of buying fast food late at night when the supermarkets are closed seems to be an advantage the fast food restaurants have. Many fast food restaurants deliver, which adds to the fact that customers do not need to make their dinner. Fast food companies are ubiquitous. The closer the restaurant is to a person’s home, school, or work, the more tempting it is to buy from that restaurant. For instance, “children that have a fast food restaurant within 0.1 miles of their school have a 5.2% greater chance of being obese. For pregnant women, the same distance to fast food restaurants increases their obesity odds by 2.5%”. The other point of convenience is that since fast food takes at most 5 minutes to be prepared, customers think making a fresh home-cooked meal is pointless.
The strategies fast food restaurants use to boost their profits show that they are a major reason for the increased percentage of obesity in the USA. Fast food restaurants have tried, but not succeeded,  in introducing new healthier options on their menus.  Either the fast food restaurants need to use healthier ingredients, eliminate frying and implement baking, or the customers need to decrease their spending spree at fast food restaurants. The customers can also find loop-holes at fast food restaurants. The customers can eliminate the unnecessary amount of sauces and opt for one sauce. They can substitute the fries for a salad or yogurt. They can bring a water bottle and eliminate sodas to cut down on sugar intake. However, the most a customer can do is limit his intake of fast food. Fast food is a major part of the Americans’ lives today, but fast food restaurants need to acknowledge the fact that they need to become cognizant about the negative effects their fast food offers to customers. It is time to change for the better and it is time to do it now!