fast_food_in_the_US_amp_belarus

Fast food in the US & Belarus

Fast Food Restaurants have become the leading food source for most Americans today. It's not uncommon to find Fast food places very close to one another, even right next to each other in some areas of a town. Popularity for fast food has grown rapidly. Just in the past couple of decades you can see the difference of how many fast food places there are between decades. You can now find all types of fast food restaurants offering different varieties of food such as Pizza, Chicken, Hamburger, Hotdogs and Sandwiches, just to name a few. They are all designed to entice the public's appetite. Americans are a busy bunch of people. They are always on the go and have a need to do things fast. The convenience of these food and beverage establishments fulfills this fast growing need to eat and drink on the run. Today it is easy to find people eating or drinking while driving in theirs vehicles or while shopping in Malls. A whole section of a shopping mall is dedicated to only fast food restaurants so that shoppers can eat while shopping. This keeps the shopper from having to leave the mall to find a place to eat and possibly going to a different shopping mall. This was a smart business move on the mall owner's part.

It is for these reasons we can easily see the fast food phenomena growing daily. But there have been recent studies that show fast food is not a healthy way to eat and causes serious problems for people and our youth today. Obesity rates for children have doubled over the past 20 years. America is becoming more and more the “fat country” and a large part of this problem is due to fast food. The numbers of people affected by obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and strokes (all caused in part of overeating unhealthy foods) increase every year.

One more reason Fast Food is wreaking havoc is because food items without any nutritional value are so widely and easily available; there are vending machines in workplaces and schools that dish out high-sugar and high-fat foods; you can even pick up a burger, fried chicken or a piece of pizza along with some sugary soda at a Gas station! This food is also usually considerably cheaper than healthier food, making it that much more attractive. And for the working class, instead of making breakfast at home, maybe some fruit, milk and cereal or something healthy - people will simply stop at their local McDonalds and order an egg, bacon and cheese 'McMuffin' - more or less a truckload of fat for a breakfast. This is happening because Americans are working far more than they have in the past - longer than 'average' 40 hour work week and also taking their work home with them. The culmination of people working more and resting less and the fact that its quicker and cheaper to get fast food on the run than prepare your own meals.

There are some examples of fast food. Pop-Corn. It’s impossible to imagine American take-away food or snacks without popcorn. The famous American habit of eating popcorn at the movies is well-known. Many people like to put salt or melted butter in their popcorn, some prefer to have it without.

The Hot Dog. The original name of the hot dog was the frankfurter, after the German city of Frankfurt. In the United States frankfurters, sausages on buns, were first sold in the 1860s. But for Americans the name “dachshund sausage” seemed to be a good one for the frankfurter. And in 1906 the newspaper cartoonist Tad Dorgan saw the men with the dachshund sausages and got an idea for a cartoon: he drew a bun with a dachshund inside – not a sausage but a dog. The cartoonist didn’t know how to spell the word “dachshund” and under the picture he just wrote: “Get your hot dogs!” The cartoon was a sensation as well as the name.

The Hamburger. An obligatory item on the list of fast food, the hamburger has no connection to ham, but with the German town of Hamburg, which was famous for its ground steak. German immigrants to the United States introduced the “hamburger steak”. The important part, due to which hamburgers with the introduction of the bun have become well-known and favourite all around the world is McDonald’s, the fast food restaurant. The first restaurant was opened in San Bernadino, California, in 1949 and hamburgers were the main item on its menu, as well as the hamburger remains the main item in all McDonald’s restaurants today.

Coca-Cola. The world famous fresh drink Coca-Cola first was an all-purpose medicine, made in 1886 by a druggist from Atlanta, who made a brown syrup by mixing coca leaves and cola nuts. The syrup wasn’t a success and then another druggist, Jacobs, had an idea of selling Coca-Cola as a soda fountain drink. He mixed the syrup with soda water. An immigrant from Ireland, Asa Candler bought the recipe of the drink and having registered the company, became its father in 1892. In 1899 the first bottling factory was opened. The shaped bottle, as we know it today was invented in 1916 to protect the trademark. And again the World War II helped to make Coca-Cola popular outside America, when the Coca-Cola Company sent bottles of the drink to US soldiers fighting in Europe. It became so popular with the soldiers that the US Army asked the company to start ten factories in Europe. It’s a curious thing but from 1903 coca leaves were no longer used in the drink. The exact ingredients and the quantities are not known – the Coca-Cola Company keeps its recipe a secret.