Super Sized Responsibility

I've been reading Whizgidget's Blogs about the movie Super Size Me with interest. They bring up the question of where does corporate responsibility end and personal responsibility begin? I've seen the movie once, and recommend it as a way to reaffirm why we shouldn't be eating fast foods.

So why do people eat so much fast food? Compulsion? Addiction? Time pressures? Conditioning? Indifference? It is not hard to understand how unhealthy it is. The cause and effects. There's a reason we call it fast food and junk food. But who's fault is it when we do eat it? Or when we eat too much of it?

The movie cites the case of two young girls and their parents who sued McDonalds for their obesity. For knowingly causing them harm. Eventually the judge threw the case out (twice). But it does bring up a good point.

Successful business is about creating and capturing opportunity. And you must admit McDonalds has been remarkably successful at that. They are often used as a case study of growth and innovation. Capturing business opportunity means capturing as many target market dollars as you can without getting into trouble. Sometimes that means walking a very fine line. But it also shows what the corporate motivation is. Healthy or unhealthy doesn't matter unless it can make you more money. The profits matter. Fast food, convenience food, and snack food companies spend a lot of money to get the right look, feel, smell, and appeal in their foods. If more salt or sugar or fat gives them a competitive advantage, they will pour it in. Or chemicals... Then the more you buy the better.

In other words; the behavior of fast food companies is driven by demand. If there were no demand there would be no supply. So of course they are going to target cravings, impulses, and appetites. To get you drooling whenever you see or smell their products. They know that people buy with their eyes and noses. They strive to give you what appeals to your desires, not what you need. And then: "Do you want to Super Size that?".

With such a symbiotic relationship between consumer and company, it is impossible to place blame solely on one side or another. They behave the way they do because we behave the way we do, and vice versus.

In my High School science class we did a nutritional experiment. They brought in about 30 baby white mice which we divided up into pairs in cages. We had 2 basic groups of around 8 pairs of mice. One group was fed junk food. Potato chips, french fries, candy, soda ... that sort of stuff. We fed the other group fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fresh water. We weighed and measured them and the foods regularly so we could keep track of how much they ate. We assessed their strength, stamina and level of energy in different ways. By the end of the quarter the differences were very obvious. The junk food group had less stamina, were less active, were shorter and pudgier, and even their fur looked worse. Only the diet was different, albeit dramatically different.

In that case it was clear. Their diet was our fault.

So far, all of this touches on the tip of a bigger problem that has spent years developing. Fast foods, convenience foods, processed foods. People will pay more to spare themselves time and effort. Then they will pay less and sacrifice quality, substance, or freshness. It becomes quite easy foregoing the more nutritional or healthy diet to save time and money. Stores are stocking more and more prepared foods. For lower costs and improved profit margins they will sacrifice whatever is not needed.

60% of Americans are overweight or obese and that number has doubled in the last 25 years. Woah ... you can't blame all of that on fast food, but they are an obvious contributor...