Why are Americans obsessed with fast food?

Running Head: AMERICAS OBESSION WITH FAST FOODS

Americas Obsession with Fast Foods
Natasha Camargo
Hudson County Community College, New Jersey

Abstract Research on as to why are Americans so addicted to fast foods, specifically on the psychological aspect such as the way fast food companies advertise their brand by using color psychology, the halo effect, and how they trigger memory eating into their products, brand, and environment surrounding their brand. Companies specifically target children since children are not fully developed yet so that when they are older, they’ll already have that brand imprinted onto their memory thus repeating the cycle to their children and so on. Also, this paper focuses on the effects of eating fast food such as its addictive properties by looking at a rat study in which they fed them only fast food and how they reacted when they stopped feeding them. To finish the research report, talked on why fast food is linked to the cause of depression and/or anxiety among people who are addicted to fast food.
Americas Obsession with Fast Foods According to Jakle (2003) on page 397, the term fast food means speed in both food preparation and customer service, as well as speed in customer eating habits. Individuals and families seek fast food for many reasons, particularly because of time and budget; fast food is cheap, quick, easy to access, and tasty (Sharkey, Johnson, Dean, & Horel, 2011, page 37). While fast food, and especially the fast-food hamburger, has become a staple of the modern American diet, may critics charge that it causes a variety of public health problems (Hogan, 2004, page 343). We all know that eating fast food can cause physical problems, but research has shown that it could also affect the brain in many ways. Not only can fast food affect how certain parts of the brain function, but it could cause problems from behavioral changes all the way to addiction. Our obsession towards fast foods can be traced from the convenience, to the prices, to the chemicals put into the foods, and even to the way they advertise their brand to the general public.
Fast Food and Advertising
Color Psychology Used in Marketing If you put all the brands logos side by side, you would notice that all the brands have the same two colors, yellow and red. This is because certain colors trigger different responses and since they are branding food, they want to use colors that will make people linger towards their products. The red color stimulates appetite because of its effect on our metabolism, making red popular color choice among fast-food restaurants (Mofarah, Tahmtan, Dadashi, & Banihashemian, 2013, page 168). The yellow color is also employed by fast-food moguls to hijack customers’ interests – they gain customers’ attention, increase their appetite, and encourage them to eat (Singh, 2006, page 785). These two colors trigger guests to not only spend more, but leave quickly which are exactly what fast foods restaurants intend costumers to do.
Halo Effect Fast food companies love to use a technique called the “Halo Effect.” The halo effect is the generalization of a positive feeling about a brand from one good trait (Simon, 2005, page 67). This means that, for an example, if you think or know that a company is selling healthy products, you would feel much better purchasing other products from them because of that knowledge rather than if you didn’t know that they sold healthy products.
Memory Eating Most fast food companies advertise towards children whether it’s the kid’s meal or on television with all the different colors. They even put toys into their meals and have play pens so that they’ll actually want the food and stay there longer, this could make them buy even more food than what they originally were going to buy. Fast food companies do this because “every food experience creates a sensory memory response to the food, the caloric level, and the social surroundings (Witherly, 2007)”. Also, when they turn into adolescents or adults, they’ll start to remember about their childhood because of the past experiences. Companies want their product and brand to be permanently glued into people’s brain so that no matter what age or where they are, if they eat their product, all these positive memories start to pop up.
Convenience in Pricing Fast food companies make sure that their prices are low because they know that people are attached to their money and do not want to spend a lot on something that they know isn’t worth spending. Neuroscientists at Caltech believe they have discovered the part of the brain responsible for that fear of losing money, according to Colin Camerer, a professor of behavioral economics at Caltech (Gallegos, 2010). When trying to decide on something it starts to become hard whenever two very different, but yet important factors are in play. When it comes to the fast food industry that means deciding on whether to spend money or eat. Our brains start to see the difference between the pros and cons which are all focused in the orbitofrontal cortex. As for fear, the amygdala, an almond-sized part of the brain that's often activated by fear (Gallegos, 2010). Fast food companies make these decision making situations easier by offering low cost meals which not only triggers rewards to your brain but satisfaction also.
Consistency
The fast food industries promises its customers that wherever people either buy their product or enter their business that it’ll taste and look exactly the same. Customers are drawn to familiar brands as they offer reassurance, and something related to that feeling of consistency, reliability and stability (MacDonald, 2013). To do this they have to make sure that all the foods are exactly the same which then proves the point that all the foods are not only premade, but frozen. Also that means that they have to make sure that every single aspect even to how they cut their meat is exactly the same so that they’ll be able to keep profiting from customers.
Overall Knowledge Fast food companies hire numerous scientists to do research for them to help profit their business and to ultimately keep them relevant to customers. The one thing that scientists found was that humans were evolved to crave sugar, store it and then use it (Lieberman, 2012). Our ancestors were forced to gather energy-sense or high fattening foods in order to survive during their times. This mindset however did not change with the times. The food industry has made a fortune because we retain Stone Age bodies that crave sugar but live in a Space Age world in which sugar is cheap and plentiful (Lieberman, 2012). Fast food companies use this information to their advantage by making their foods high in sugar and fat because they know that humans are programed to eat that way. This finding sheds light onto why people are not only obsessed with fatty foods but as to why the fast food industry is forever a booming business.
Effects of Fast Foods
Addictive
Humans have different impulse controls when it comes to temptation or even certain types of foods. Scientists at Scripps Florida say rats fed high-calorie junk food became addicted to the food and voluntarily starved when given healthy food instead of, say, cupcakes (Rats Starve Rather Than Eat Healthy Food, 2010). A nutrition and sensory expert named Adam Drewnowski discovered that high energy density food is associated with high food pleasure (Witherly, 2007). This is because “chemical processes triggered by the high quantities of fat, sugar and salt hidden in burgers and milkshakes give people the same cravings as do hard drugs, tobacco or alcohol (Lois, 2010).” Once they are addicted, just like drugs, it’s harder for them to steer off of it which will ultimately cause obesity because they want to have that pleasure sensation. This can also cause other psychological effects such as depression or anxiety which go hand-in-hand.
Depression and Anxiety Fast food has many different things combined such as fats which are mostly the unhealthy ones, food-coloring and carbohydrates. The brain requires a balance of essential fatty acids—including omega-6 and omega-3—to function properly (Fleck, n.d). With all the dangerous chemicals and whatnot in fast food, it can cause imbalances in your brain which could ultimately lead to depression and anxiety. This goes back to the addiction section of this paper when once you stop eating junk food; you try to deal with the withdrawal process on your own. Most of the time, it won’t work causing you to feel negative about yourself and ultimately, giving in into eating junk food which will then make you feel even worse than what you did before. In addition, once you start to gain weight because of fast food you start to become anxious and depressed about your self-esteem and pretty much everything else around you. Although there are other mental effects associated with fast food, depression and anxiety are the two that not only go hand-in-hand, but they are the most common.
Conclusion
Overall, the fast food industry dominates any other business when it comes to the United States. They use many psychological tactics to lure customers in such as the halo effect, memory eating and convenience in pricing. They also use their overall knowledge of the human evolution of brains and use psychological coloring in their advertisements. Fast food however has harmful effects on the body which can cause addiction, depression, and anxiety. No matter how much information people read about how harmful fast food is our brains are wired to eat these foods with no sight of us stopping in the near future.
References
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