Alex Sumption

Mrs. Lohmeyer

ENGL 101

3/18/2018

Sumption: Today, we welcome two very successful essay writers to share their ideas and beliefs of fast
food. They have expressed their beliefs about fast food and they even bring up the question, “Can fast
food be good for us?” They are Michael Moss and David H. Freedman!

Sumption: Welcome to the show guys. We are here to discuss your ideas and the topics you have
written about. We will start with you Michael. In your essay, you talk about the problems of obesity, can
you address some of those issues?

Moss: Yes, I can Alex. “More than half of the American adults are now considered overweight, with
nearly one-quarter of the adult population – 40 million people – clinically defined as obese” (473).

Sumption: That is an extreme amount! Now that you have shared some stats about adults, how about
children?

Moss: “Among children, the rates had more than doubled since 1980, and the number of kids
considered obese had shot passed 12 million. This was still only 1999; the nation’s obesity rates would
climb much higher” (473).

Sumption: Yes, I say there has to be a change because those numbers are getting out of hand. David, in
your essay, if I read it correctly, you believe that fast food can end obesity? How is this possible when
fast food is so unhealthy?

Freedman: Yes Alex, this is a very good question that I have been asked many times in the past. We can
use McDonald’s as an example. “If you can reduce fat and calories by only a small amount in a Big Mac,
it still won’t be a health food, but it wouldn’t be as bad, and that could have a huge impact on us” (525).

Sumption: In my opinion it seems like fast food restaurants were healthier option a couple decade ago,
have you proposed anything to fast food chains about going back to a healthier menu?

Freedman: Yes Alex, I have indeed reached out to McDonald’s trying to persuade them to add some of
the items on the old menu like the McLean Deluxe, the McPasta, the McHotdog, and the McAfrica (526).
Even though they were a big failure, I would still like to see them on the menu for a second chance to
healthier choices to fast food restaurants.

Sumption: In my life time, none of these items have been on the menu and I have I even heard of them
before either. Do you know when these were on the menu and explain why these items can end
obesity?

Freedman: Not many remember these items because they were introduced in 1991 and were not the
biggest hit on the menu. The McLean Deluxe was supposed to be a healthy option to replace the quarter
pounder. It was made with very lean beef with seaweed extract. “My wife and I were big fans” (527).
“The company gamely flogged the sandwich for five years before quietly removing it from the menu”
(527). These items were a healthier choice but the public did not want them, causing the company to
take them of the menu.

Sumption: Do either of you have any real-life experiences that have persuaded you to study this?

Moss: Yes Alex, I have had some real-life experiences with this topic through sources I have spoken to. I
know this really is not a real-life experience but it is a real-life conversation with others that have had
real-life experience. “Most often, (one source) said, people bought what they liked, and they liked what
tasted good” (476).

Freedman: Well, I can add to that a little too. A while back I purchased a smoothie for $9 which
contained 300 calories. So later, I purchased another smoothie for $7.95 for a vegan restaurant and
waited 10 minutes for it. It tasted like liquid celery and smelled like lawn clippings. Then I went to
McDonald’s to get a smoothie that contained 220 calories that cost $3 that took seconds to make (507).

Sumption: That is crazy, it is so hard to get a good smoothie like the fast food ones but in a healthy
matter. Today's society needs to make it easier for us to get healthier foods that will not break the bank.

Freeman: Indeed, “If only the McDonald’s smoothie weren’t, unlike the first two, so fattening and
unhealthy. Or at least that’s what the most-prom-invent voices in our food culture today would have
you believe” (507).

Sumption: Does the media influence how the world sees fast food restaurants?

Freeman: “An enormous amount of media space has been dedicated to promoting the notion that all
processed food, and only processed food, is making us sickly and overweight” (508).

Sumption: Michael, in your conversation, did the sources every talk about making a push to adding
healthy foods to the fast food menu?

Moss: “A source was trying to say, ‘Look, we’re not going to screw around with the company jewels here
and change the formulations because a bunch of guys in white coats are worried about obesity… But I
was struck by how prescient the organizers of the sit-down had been. Today, one in three adults is
considered clinically obese, along with one in five kids, and 24 million Americans are afflicted by type 2
diabetes, often caused by poor diet” (476-477).

Sumption: In your time studying this issue, how many people have you talked to and were they
professionals in this type of business?

Moss: “I talked to more than 300 people in or formerly employed by the processed-food industry, from
scientists to marketers to C.E.O.’s. Some were willing whistle-blowers, while others spoke reluctantly
when presented with some of the thousands of pages of secret memos that I obtained from inside the
food industry’s operations” (477).

Sumption: What have you seen change over the last few decades, for example, the store shelves and
what is on them?

Moss: Yes, very good question. Over the past decade I have noticed many changes. One major one is the
amount of generic brand that have come onto the shelves. “What they all wanted was Dr Pepper, which
until 2001 occupied a comfortable third-place spot in the soda aisle behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi. But
then a flood of spinoffs from the two soda giants showed up on the shelves – lemons and limes, vanillas
and coffees, raspberries and oranges, whites and blues and clears” (478).

Sumption: Thank you for taking some time to talk with us about fast food restaurants and how times
have changed over the past decade. You have both shared with us how time and fast food have played a
significant role in obesity. I agree with both of you that we will eat what tastes good and usually, it is not
healthy food. I have also been persuaded to believe if these restaurants add healthier choices to the
menu, it could end help end obesity. I say that if the restaurants start today by slowly adding healthier
options the world will be a healthier place.

Sumption: Sadly, we have run out of time but it was fun having both of you guys on the show. We all
hope to have you back soon.
Work Cited:

Freedman, David H. "How Junk Food Can End Obesity." "They Say/I Say" The Moves That Matter in
Academic Writing WITH READINGS, by Gerald Graff, edited by Cathy Brikenstein and Russel Durst,
Third Edition ed., New York, W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2017. PP. 506-537

Moss, Michael. “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food.” “They Say/I Say” The Moves That
Matter in Academic Writing WITH READINGS, by Michael Moss, edited by Cathy Brikenstein and
Russel Durst, Third Edition ed., New York, W.W Norton & Company in 2017. PP. 471-495