Fast food: to be or not to be ?

Автор: ПРЫГУНОВА ДАРЬЯ ученица 7«А» класса МБОУ «Гимназия №5» Научный руководитель: ОЛЕЙНИК НАТАЛЬЯ ОЛЕГОВНА FAST FOOD: TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

INTRODUCTION In our research work we want to know the influence of fast food to our organism. And to do this I have to advert the menu and also a process of its preparing. Everyone knows that fast food is very harmful to people’s health. In spite of it, MacDonald's is very popular among children, teenagers and youth. We have decided to make an experiment and as an example to make out a world famous restaurant which is called “MacDonald’s”. It is also fast food. The aim of the work is to found out fast food’s influence to man’s health. Hypothesis: if MacDonald’s is very popular among people, consequently, it won’t cause damage to people’s health. Tasks: to investigate the situation, to analyze the questionnaire, to do the comparison of the prices, to sum up given information Methods: a search and close study of reference books, investigation, systematization, comparative analysis, questionnaire The object of our research is the influence of fast food and its harmful consequence to people’s health. The theoretical and practical significance of our work: it’s really useful and necessary to know more about the importance of right nourishment and using it in our real life.

CHAPTER 1 1.1. History of McDonald's The business began in 1940, with a restaurant opened by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California. Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant. The original mascot of McDonald's was a man with a chef's hat on top of a hamburger shaped head whose name was "Speedee." Speedee was eventually replaced with Ronald McDonald in 1963. The first McDonald's restaurants opened in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, France, El Salvador and Sweden in order of openings.

Kroc later purchased the McDonald brothers' equity in the company and led its worldwide expansion and the company became listed Kroc was also noted for aggressive business practices, compelling the McDonald brothers to leave the fast food industry. The McDonald brothers and Kroc feuded over control of the business, as documented in both Kroc's autobiography and in the McDonald brothers' autobiography. McDonald's sells hamburgers, various types of chicken sandwiches and products, French fries, soft drinks, breakfast items, and desserts. In most markets, McDonald's offers salads and vegetarian items, wraps and other localized fare. Portugal is the only country with McDonald's restaurants serving soup.

1.2. Fast Food restaurants Tasty and good-looking fast food is not good for our organism at all. Almost everybody knows that is contains a lot of calories and is very fatty. But besides this fact sandwiches, hamburgers, fried potatoes and fried chicken also contain the oxidized cholesterol. It is very bad because it is favorable for the increase of the diseases and aging. Moreover fast food also contains the number of dioxides, preservatives, and harmful lipids that are not needed by our organism at all. The easiest way out from the formed situation is to have good breakfast and to find the time for cooking breakfast by yourself. Fruits, vegetables and sandwiches made of rye bread with the boiled meat or fish will be also very good. And during the dinner at work don't visit the nearest fast food restaurant. Instead buy something from the dairy products. Choosing yoghurt you'll get more good and less calories than from pizza or hot dog. And you won't feel hunger longer than from eating the fatty food.

1.3. Fat children The problem of fat children has become of great importance recently. According to statistics nowadays almost every fourth citizen of the planet suffers from obesity. And doctors are especially preoccupied by the rising statistics of children who suffer from it. If present trends are not stopped by 2032 almost the half of world's population will suffer from obesity. And the number of children who suffer from obesity may gain the number of a million in four years already.

The consequences of the obesity epidemic have the negative influence on all spheres of life. First of all the ambulance service had to increase the hoisting capacity of cars and stretchers. Schools increased the size of desks and chairs. And crematoriums are building the wider incinerators for too fat dead people. Obesity is very dangerous for life, so, people start to fight against it and even propose to get the help of the social services. As obesity is one of the forms of overfeeding, then it is the result of inadvertence of parents. That is why the social services must start to pay attention to the problem of children overeating.

1.4. The influence of the colors Usually all buyers consider that the quality of all food is connected with the look of these products and especially with their color. Usually the yellow and golden colors are considered to be the sign of good quality. There are a lot of coloring agents and similar substances in the world, but the majority of producers choose the cheapest one. And one of such agents is E 102. In fact this substance is simply the industrial waste. Later the investigations were held that showed that 1% of the patients that suffer from the urticaria got it in the result of E 102 consumption. After this fact the new data was got according to which 20% of people had already the undesirable reaction to this coloring agent. That means the number of people the organism of which reacted to this substance increases.

1.5. The danger of obesity Obesity is one of the most spread diseases of the economically developed countries where the quarter of population has the mass of the body that exceeds the normal one in 15%. According to the forecasts of experts its level will increase in 8% more by 2010 if modern trends are not changed. In fact by 2025 there will be more than 300 millions people with the diagnosis obesity. Although obesity is defined as the plenty of fat in the organism, it is the complex state that is considered to be the chronic disease connected with the cardio-vascular system disorders and the range of other pathological disorders.

The most spread reasons for obesity are the genetic factor, the specialities of behaviour (overeating), the disorders of the endocrine system and the environment. As any other disease it is favorable for the development of many other diseases. People that suffer from obesity because of the genetic reasons have no way out. Of course it is treated but there is always the threat of this disease return. When our organism is healthy and normal, it produces the certain hormone that regulates the appetite controlling it. People who suffer from obesity don't have the biological control that would produce this hormone that is why they eat more than they need. And it means overeating that leads to obesity.

In the conclusion I’d like to say that one of the greatest mistakes of people is eating without such necessity. The main reason for obesity is overeating because the majority of people can't stop eating. But the problem is not even that they can't stop eating but that they eat huge courses even when they don't want to eat it.  

2.1. Prices in different countries In the first experiment we decided to get to know that in spite of the one range of the restaurants with fast food the prices in different countries are differ. We made out three countries. They are Turkey, USA and Russia. Now look, please, at this table and diagram. CHAPTER 2

Menu Turkey, TRL (Rub) USA, $ (Rub) Russia, Rub Hamburger 39 42 27 Cheeseburger 40 45 37 Chickenburger 78 153 137 BigMac 42 93 70 Orange juice 78 63 46 Big Tasty 69 99 116 Filet-O-Fish 81 87 68 Chicken Mac Nuggets 81 87 77 Yogurt 58 90 90 Chicken Makfresh 195 135 104 Happy Meal 80 111 128 Potato 78 45 47 Salad 117 69 108 Coca-cola, Sprite, Fanta 39 57 36 McFlurry 117 81 49 Ice Cream 49 39 40 Coffee 49 39 35

2.2. Survey. What do children know about MacDonald’s? In our second experiment we made a survey among the children at the age of 12 – 14. We were interested if the knew something about MacDonald’s and its harmful food for our health. You can see the questions, the table with the results and also the diagram.

1. Do you know who founded MacDonald’s? a) Yes b) No 2. Do you eat in MacDonald’s? a) Yes b) No 3. Do you know that this food is very fat and calorie? a) Yes b) No 4. How much money can you spend in one time in MacDonald’s (in rubles)? a) 10-40 b) 40-70 c) 70-100 d) 100-150 5. How many times a week do you go to MacDonald’s? a) 1 b) 2 c) 3 d) 4 e) 5 6. Do you know that this food is very harmful for your health? a) Yes b) No 7. Why do you visit MacDonald’s? (More than one variant is possible.) a) Tasty b) cheap c) fast 8. What food do you prefer to eat in MacDonald’s? a) Sandwiches b) sweets c) fried 9. What food do you prefer? a) Home-made food b) MacDonald’s 10. Have you ever had problems with your health after visiting MacDonald’s? a) Yes b) No

2.3. Home-made food and fast food: a hamburger and a French potato In the third experiment we took a hamburger with potato from MacDonald’s and a cutlet with potato from home. MacDonald’s potato and a hamburger are in the left side, home-made potato and a cutlet are in the right side. We put them into bottles and we were waiting for a month. As you can see at the photos, home-made potato became to grow musty through 6 days while MacDonald’s potato through 10 days. MacDonald’s hamburger didn’t grow musty at all and a cutlet through 6 days. It shows that almost all fast food products contain a lot of carcinogens and they are harmful for us.

2.4. Video about Coca-Cola And the last experiment was with Coca-Cola. They say that Coca-cola, Fanta and Sprite are very harmful for our health and it may destroy our organism. Here you can see the experiment and its results.

In the conclusion I’d like to stress that having made these experiments each of it proves that fast food is a real problem in our society and our lives are in danger. So we must eat it as less as possible.

Conclusion Having analyzed all facts we came to the conclusion that fast food is really harmful for people’s health. So it destroys our hypothesis about healthy fast food in MacDonald’s and everywhere. In spite of it, children love to go to MacDonald’s and we would recommend to the parents to limit the numbers of visiting such institutions. MacDonald’s is trying to do his restaurants more attractive for families with children, trying to attract more visitors to get profit. Medical statistics says that no one got anything good. It can reflect to your health. You gain unnecessary weight, problems with your inner organs, your skin and even your hair. I think that this work is very useful for me. Now I know that in spite of the attractiveness of MacDonald’s and the other restaurants of fast food it is better to eat home-made food. CHAPTER 3