Fast food for thought.When I went to grab a bite during my monthly shopping trip, I couldn’t help but notice that one of the 31,000 links in the world’s foremost fast food chain was the only food court venue with any customers. The line was out the door. The whole scene reminded me of a dilemma that has been eating at me for a while—and I wasn’t “lovin’ it.”
The fast-food restaurant, that ubiquitous symbol of the auto-centric lifestyle we have cultivated in the last 50 years, is not only burying us in an avalanche of excessive packaging and waste, but more important, it’s directly affecting our health.
In fact, their menus have now become a matter of public health. In July, California became the first state to ban trans fats from restaurant food, following several cities and major fast-food chains. In addition, Los Angeles has introduced an ordinance that would stop new fast-food businesses from opening for up to two years while city officials establish a long-term plan to deal with restaurants that have been linked to health problems.
Trans fats are vegetable oils treated with hydrogen to extend the shelf life of baked and fried foods. The New England Journal of Medicine concluded there is a strong connection between heart disease, diabetes, obesity, infertility and some types of cancer and consumption of trans fats that dominate most fast-food restaurant menus. Trans fats have even been compared to cigarettes: “There is no safe level of consumption.”
With Hawai‘i’s families working hard to make ends meet, the best foods aren't always the cheapest. Home-cooked meals have all but disappeared from the dinner table and we are more likely to super-size than exercise. Of course the cost of eating healthier is a key factor for Hawai‘i’s struggling families, but cheap, unhealthy food is a certain recipe for obesity.
According to the state Department of Health, 57 percent of Hawai‘i’s adults are either overweight or obese. Nearly 30 percent of Hawai‘i’s high school students are overweight, and more than half of them are obese. And Hawai‘i’s childhood obesity rate has been growing at twice the national level for the past two decades.
Limiting fast-food restaurants may not be a solution in itself, but it might prove to be an important piece of the puzzle. Like everything else in the news these days, it comes down to economics and an inevitable lifestyle change. And research has shown that people will change their eating habits when different foods are available.
Although fast-food officials said the industry is being unfairly targeted, I believe it is we who have been unknowingly victimized for a good long while. This is such a serious problem that some believe the federal government should intervene. But until the feds create a Department of French Fries and Hot Apple Pies to protect public health, Maui might consider putting itself on a diet. It’s food for thought.