Erika Arrojado Professor Lori Bedell November 16, 2012

The Road to Unhealthy Eating It is already seven oclock in the evening when a mother gets home from work. Her children have been waiting for dinner, but she has no time to cook. Luckily, there are frozen dinners waiting in the freezer and even if that wont do, there is a Burger King down the road. She decides to ask her children, who she finds watching television, if they want the frozen dinners or fast food. Having just seen a commercial for Burger King on TV, her children excitedly choose the fast food option. The family then gets in the car and drives down the road to consume too many calories and not enough nutrients. This typical exchange among families exemplifies the shift in eating habits among American families. It also makes references to the different factors that have played a role in this transformation. Priorities regarding food have shifted to favor convenience over healthiness. Over the past 50 years, kairotic events such as women entering the workforce, the introduction of food advertising, and the rise of more hectic schedules have paved the way for a decline of healthy eating habits, especially among children and adolescents. According to US News article, during the 1960s, more females than ever were entering the paid workforce (Walsh). This trend has continued since then, as evident by the fact that 40% [of women] worked full time in 1992, compared with 16% in 1970 (Working Mothers 2355). Because of this shift in the workforce, a shift also occurred in the household. Food professional Alice Ross contests that as women increasingly work away from home, they have, of necessity, reduced their customary domestic food preparations (566). To further illustrate

Arrojado 2 this, out of the many hours in a day the average working woman spent [only about] 1 hour and 20 minutes on household chores (Working Mothers 2356). Thus, as time progressed over the next 50 years, less cooking was done in the home and more meals were being eaten elsewhere. From this kairotic opportunity, there arose an issue that has contributed to unhealthy food consumption. Preparing meals at home allows for more control and portion regulation. Outside the home however, in restaurants and food chains, this is not the case. Registered dietician and health educator Kirsten Herbes quotes Paula Kepos when claiming that serving sizes at national restaurant chains have become two to five times larger than they were in the 1970s (160). Furthermore, according to a study in the Aug. 19 issue of U.S. News and Worlds Report, a typical hamburger in 1957 weighed 1 ounce and had 210 calories, whereas a typical hamburger today weighs 6 ounces and contains 618 calories (McGreevy). This drift towards outside meals is still affecting childrens eating habits nowadays. American children consume an estimated 33.9% of daily calories outside the home in 2006, compared to only 23.4% in1977 (Nordqvist). As outside meals are consumed more frequently, families and their children become accustomed to larger portions, instead of learning how to maintain healthy serving sizes. Growing up this way, children and adolescents begin to develop poor eating habits instead of wholesome ones. Once the trend of poor eating began, other events have occurred that have facilitated further decline in healthy eating, such as the introduction of food advertising. Television advertisements can influence consumers to buy certain products. That much is understood. However, food advertising targeted at children and adolescents has a much greater impact. Not only do these commercials help kids decide what foods to buy in a particular moment, but they also set children up for lives of continued unhealthy eating. These commercials stay with them and shape their dietary patterns in significant ways. Doctor Carpenter and Doctor Bryant assert that each year, billions of dollars are spent on US food advertising because employers know that

Arrojado 3 they can build positive, long-lasting brand relationships and create brand loyalty among children [and] teens (253). Food advertising is therefore successful at attracting unwitting consumers and whats more important, keeping them on the unhealthy path. These experts also affirm that analysis shows that most advertising on childrens television promote sugary, fatty, and overall unhealthy foods and there is a direct correlation between exposure and consumption of these products (Carpenter and Bryant 254). The more advertising of food children see, the more they choose to consume these foods. In addition, families allow these poor choices to be made instead of preventing them. As stated in the Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media, results of a 1998 USA Weekend Roper Report show that 78% of youth influence where the family goes for fast food, 55% choose the restaurant for dinner, and 31% determine specific brands that families purchase (Carpenter and Bryant 253).A childs influence over household food decisions combined with his or her inclination toward advertised food only leads to eating habits that not only unhealthy, but are reinforced by family acceptance. More evidence shows the connection between exposure to food advertisements and consumption of those foods. In an article based on studies regarding food advertising on television, researchers found that an increase in exposure to fast food advertising was associated with a 1.17% rise in childrens consumption of fast food (Andryeva, Kelly, and Harris). Moreover, these same studies also showed that exposure to 100 incremental TV ads for sugarsweetened carbonated soft drinks during 2002-2004 was associated with a 9.4% rise in childrens consumption of soft drinks in 2004 (Andryeva, Kelly, and Harris). These statistics clearly expose the negative impact that food advertising has on young consumers. More children become susceptible to unhealthy eating habits just by listening to the television. Young people dont yet have the ability to discern healthy products from non-healthy products. They simply rely on what looks good in the commercials, not thinking about important things like sugar

Arrojado 4 content and nutritional value. The dietary patterns of children and adolescents are thus shaped by corporate marketing. With the wrong role model, children wont develop the healthy eating habits that they should. The third kairotic factor that has influenced the negative shift in healthy eating is the fact that daily life has become busier. From 1976 to 2000, the number of people who worked more than 40 hours a week routinely went up from 23.6% to 32.2% (The Family and Free Time 175). In a comparison of schedules, after accounting for hours of sleep, work, and leisure, people living in 1973 had roughly 45 hours remaining per week, whereas in 2001 people only had 42 hours left (The Family and Free Time 177). Schedules have become more packed with appointments and events resulting in less and less time to prepare a good meal. Subsequently, the need for quick, easy meals has arisen. As stated in an article about dietary trends, the introduction of the Swanson TV dinner in 1953 started the trend for convenience foods (Herbes 160). The term convenience food refers to any food that requires little preparation because most of the preparation has already been done, such as canned foods and frozen meals. Reliance on these foods can be harmful to healthy eating habits because frozen meals that arent identified as reduced-sodium or heart-healthy often contain from 700 to 1,800 milligrams of sodium (Collins). Microwave dinners and instant foods may be convenient for a demanding schedule, but they only have negative health benefits. An issue occurs when parents dont have time to cook meals or are not home in time for dinner; children learn that its okay to depend on quick, easy foods, no matter how unhealthy, when there is not any time. Another alternative for battling the lack of time in a busy schedule is fast food. More teenagers in todays society choose fast food more often because its more convenient to pick on the journey between activities then to go home for a well-cooked meal. The popularity of fast food has increased significantly since the shift toward convenient food. Registered dietician

Arrojado 5 Kirsten Herbes reveals that in a span of 20 years, from 1978 to 1998, fast-food sales rose by about 100 billion dollars (160). Though sale and profit increased, an increase in fast food consumption is not something to be completely proud of. Herbes maintains that fast-food diets are low in calcium, riboflavin, vitamin A, folic acid, and vitamin C, as well as being high in fat and saturated fat (160). In other words, fast food is not at all healthy for consumption. However, because of the growing need for convenience and the easy availability of fast food, children and adolescents in todays society have no qualms about eating fast food. Having a McDonalds every five miles is a normal circumstance which makes it easier for younger people to make it part of their everyday eating habits. Unfortunately for todays younger generations, its much easier to eat unhealthy than it was 50 years ago. To recapitulate, the course of events influencing the decline of healthy eating over the past 50 years is as follows. Women entering the workforce resulted in more meals being eaten outside the home, which led to issues regarding lack of portion on control. Once the trend toward unhealthy eating began, markets joined and helped fuel the shift. In order to take advantage of the influence children have in the household diet, food companies used advertising to influence them to choose the sugary, fatty, and unhealthy options. Lastly, the demanding schedules of todays world dictate that convenience foods and fast food are the easier choice, whether or not they seem healthy. All of these events worked together to shift dietary habits in the negative direction, where more and more children are becoming victim to poor eating habits and improper dietary skills. At this point, being able to analyze trends and their negative repercussions provides people today with an advantage. Once a person realizes the sources and the causes of the problem, he or she can take action. The growing prevalence of poor eating habits among children is indeed a problem and now is the time to make a change.

Arrojado 6 Works Cited

Andreyeva, Tatiana, Inas Rashad Kelly, and Jennifer L. Harris. Exposure to food advertising on television: Associations with childrens fast food and soft drink consumption and obesity. Economics & Human Biology 9.3 (2011): 221-233. Web. 16 Oct. 2012 Carpenter, Courtney, and Jennings Bryant. Eating Habits, Media Influence on. Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media. Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2007. 253-254. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. Collins, Karen. Should you defrost your diet? Fitness on NBCNews.com. NCBNews.com, 11 April 2006. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. "The Family and Free Time." Social Trends and Indicators USA. Ed. Arsen Darnay. Vol. 1: Work & Leisure. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 173-188. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. Herbes, Kirsten. Dietary Trends, American. Nutrition and Well-Being A to Z. Ed. Delores C.S. James. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 159-162. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. McGreevy, Maura. Quick, Cheap and Unhealthy. LexisNexis Academic. LexisNexis, 18 Nov. 2002. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. Nordqvist, Christian. More Food, More Often, Being Eaten Away From Home By US Kids. Medical News Today. MediLexicon International Ltd, 26 July 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. Ross, Alice. "Women and Food." Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Ed. Solomon Katz. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 562-566. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. Walsh, Kenneth T. The 1960s: A Decade of Change for Women. US News. US News & World Report, 12 March 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. "Working Mothers." The Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy through Adolescence. Ed. Jacqueline L. Longe. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 2355-2358. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.