Fast Food vs. Organic Lifestyles

1. Fast Food vs. Organic Lifestyles A comparative presentation

2. Fast Food in the United States

3. Living in the Fast Lane • Americans seem to pursue instant gratification like nothing else, and they apparently thrive on immediacy. When they want something, they tend to want it now. • The vehicle, for many Americans, becomes like a home away from home. People put on make-up, talk on their cell phones, eat their meals, and do many other things while driving. • Fast food drive-thru lanes facilitate this fast-paced mode of living, where everyone is always on the go. • Fast-paced living can decrease the amount of time that people have to simply enjoy life and their experiences.

4. Fast Food on the Go • Drive-thru lanes allow people to remain in their vehicles while ordering and purchasing food. • People who lead busy lives and find themselves on the road a great deal often utilize drive-thru lanes at fast food restaurants. • Drive-thru eating provides a convenient way to save time on what could be a very pleasurable experience: enjoying a meal. • Fast food meals represent a quick and easy way to fuel the human body. Whether that fuel actually provides what the body needs is another question.

5. Fast Food Nutritional Value • Fast Foodmeals generally consists of ingredients formulated for a certain flavor and to maintain freshness. • Fast Food products are often full of hydrogenated vegetable oils that contain high amounts of trans fat. • Fast Foodingredients undergo extensive processing and contain many additives that reduce the nutritional value.

6. Fast Food • A cheeseburger • French fries • A soda or soft drink • Fast Food generally refers to food that is cooked in large quantities then kept warm or reheated to order. • Fast Food is purchased ready-to-eat from from fast food restaurants that are often franchise establishments. • Franchise operations serve standardized foods shipped from central locations or distributors. Often, these foods arrive frozen.

7. Fast Food is Big Business • Fast Food restaurant chains have increasing sales each year. • In 1970 in the United States, consumers spent $6 billion on fast food meals. • In 2000, American consumers spent $110 billion on fast food meals. • Fast Food Nation is a novel that investigates the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry.

8. Fast Food in the Movies • Fast Food Nation,the novel, was adapted into a major motion picture. However, it was not received with nearly as much acclaim as the original novel. • Super Size Meis a film that was directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock. The film covers a 30-day period in which Spurlock ate only at McDonald’s, which is arguably the largest, most globally-renowned American fast food company.

9. Energy Drinks • Energy Drinks are quite popular in the United States. They seem to hold great appeal to individuals who maintain fast-paced life-styles. • Energy Drinks are essentially soft drinks designed to provide energy. The central ingredient in both soft drinks and energy drinks is caffeine. Other common ingredients include B vitamin, extracts from the guarana plant, and other herbal ingredients. Some contain high levels of sugar. Others are artificially sweetened.

10. Energy Drinks as Fuel • Energy drinks claim to fuel the mind and body with energy, with the ability to keep going and doing. • Many energy drinks have names that refer to their alleged effects. One called “Xcelerator” supposedly makes your mind and body accelerate. • Other energy drinks are named, presumably, for what the person becomes who drinks such a beverage. Among these, “RockStar” and “Monster” are incredibly popular.

11. A Different Take on “Fast Food” • Power Bars are a healthier “fast” food for individuals on the run. • Power Bars, or energy bars as they are sometimes called, provide quick, easy snack-type meals for people with busy schedules. • Power Bars come in a wide range of flavors and generally are more nutritious than candy bars, although some taste as good as a candy bar. • Although power bars provide more nutrition than other snacks like candy bars, they can not replace regular balanced meals.

12. Vitamins • Vitaminsare considered dietary supplements. They are not meant to substitute regular, well-balanced meals. They can add into a person’s diet essential nutrients that may otherwise be lacking. • Dietarysupplements, or vitamins, can be purchased in almost all grocery stores, drug stores, and even convenience markets. • Vitaminsencapsulated in pill form are packaged in bottles of 50, 100, or up to 1000 pills with labels clearly listing the contents and intended or suggested uses. Some vitamins make claims about health benefits that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If a pill has not been approved, its effects are unproven, meaning that it may or may not do what it claims.

13. Choices and Priorities • Eating healthy is an active choice that has to be made and reaffirmed on a daily basis. • Nutrition often gets ignored in the face or more pressing concerns, such as work or other projects that become priorities. • Many people prioritize living healthily below meeting deadlines or saving time. • Vitamins, power bars, and energy drinks do not comprise a healthy diet. These items and others like them are not meant to replace regular, well-balanced meals, but for many Americans they do.

14. Organic Lifestyles The growing popularity of organic lifestyles in the United States

15. What is an organic lifestyle? • Avoiding the purchase of products grown with synthetic chemicals and/or hormones • Includes the purchase of food, clothing, household items, and cosmetics • The most extreme organic lifestyle includes growing one’s own food to ensure its quality and freshness • For some people, this can become a spiritual awakening

17. Why do people buy organic? • Belief that the use of pesticides is harmful to the earth and contributes to problems such as global warming • Belief that eating or using products grown with pesticides or hormones is “unnatural” and has negative effects on the body such as disease

18. What is the government’s role? • Only products with 95-100% organic ingredients can use the USDA organic symbol • As promised by the USDA, the regulations: • Reflect National Organic Standards Board recommendations regarding which substances used in production and processing are allowed or prohibited • Prohibit the use of irradiation, sewage sludge, or genetically modified organisms in organic production • Prohibit antibiotic and synthetic hormone use in organic meat and poultry • Require 100% organic feed for organic livestock

20. Arguments promoting organics • The average non-organic fruit contains more than 20 pesticides • Organic food is much more rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber and retains the levels of nutrients for much longer • Eating dairy or farm produce means also eating the chemicals, drugs and growth hormones given to the animals • See full article

21. “Organic Health Food” by Eric Medina Organic health food stores have been around for a long time, but the number of organic products has greatly increased in recent years. Organic food products have been around for well over a decade. Slowly but surely, people have been finding out that artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and other additives can have seriously compromising health effects. Nonetheless, other kinds of consumer awareness have been a little bit slow to come. Nowadays, there are organic beauty products, organic health care products, and even organic clothing. It is unfortunate that our world is run in such a way that we have to specify when we don't want to have harmful additives in the things that we use every day. Nonetheless, it is fortunate that people are finally starting to wise up to it. Through organic products, we can all have healthier lives.No matter what you are using, you can probably find an organic product version of it. There is even organic soda nowadays! Nevertheless, just because something is an organic product does not mean it is healthy. Different states have different rules on what constitute organic products. In some of them, such as California, there are very strict standards on organic food and other types of organic products. To be considered organic, something has to be free of artificial additives, growth hormones, antibiotics, and other impurities. In other states, however, you can say anything is organic if you want to. A lot of the time, organic standards are industry controlled on a voluntary basis. In practice, that means that the consumer has very little protection. Finding non-GMO food products can be very difficult if you don't live in California.In reality, the best way to make sure that you are using organic products is to buy locally grown produce. If you can buy food, clothing, crafts, skin care products, and other consumer items that are made in your area, it is quite easy to verify whether or not they are organically prepared. Although these organic products can cost a little bit more, you can feel good about yourself for using them. Not only do you know that you are living a healthier life, but you also will be supporting local industry. It is always nice to be a will to give something back to your community, and by making wise decisions about the food we eat and the clothing we wear, we can do just that.

22. Organic Athlete is a global network of athletes • Their common goal is to promote organic lifestyles • The Portland Chapter organizes local groups that share a passion for exercise and healthy eating

23. The Controversy • Some believe purchasing organic products, or withholding their purchase of “unsafe” products, allows the consumer a voice in a capitalist society • However, the organic marketplace is sometimes criticized as a deceiving marketing ploy and trend • See full article

24. The effects of marketing • How are the stores designed to attract customers?

25. “Is Whole Foods Straying From Its Roots?” by Marian Burros They came together in what seemed like a perfect marriage: earnest former hippies and Whole Foods, the clean, well-lighted version of the old natural food store. The chain’s stores were filled with organic foods and socially responsible ingredients. They were decorated with pastoral scenes of the local farmers who sold to them; signage explained why local and organic are better for the environment. The food may have been more expensive, but for many shoppers it was worth it. Since opening its first store in Austin, Tex., in 1980, Whole Foods has grown from a small business to a mega-chain with 193 stores, capping its rise last week with a deal to acquire the 110 stores of its largest rival, Wild Oats. The newer stores are getting bigger, too: 60,000- to 80,000-square-foot supermarkets, they have extensive prepared food offerings, along with in-store restaurants, spas, concierge shopping services, gelato stands, chocolate fountains and pizza counters. While many shoppers find the new stores exhilarating places to shop, the company also faces critics who feel it has strayed from its original vision. In angry postings on blogs, they charge that the store is not living up to its core values — in particular, protecting the environment and supporting organic agriculture and local farmers. In interviews, some of the customers who describe themselves as committed to these values say they have become disillusioned and taken their business elsewhere.

26. (Article Continued) Bill Bishop, president of Willard Bishop Consulting, a retail food consulting firm, said that Whole Foods has drifted toward the middle, which has made the store more popular with a broader range of people. Many of today’s Whole Foods shoppers are more interested in prepared foods than in whether the eggs are organic. But that carries a downside. “The folks truly devoted to organic and natural can’t get them all in Whole Foods and have to go somewhere else,” he said. “There is a segment of shoppers,” he added, “who have moved ahead of Whole Foods. They think it is important to have a smaller carbon footprint and to want to help small farmers.” He said that John Mackey, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Whole Foods, “is lagging behind his leading shoppers.”Wall Street has also become a bit disillusioned, and the stock has dropped by nearly 40 percent in the last year. Whole Foods faces competition from chains like Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Safeway and Kroger, stores which have successfully copied many of its strategies: organic and natural products, expanded prepared foods and attentive service. Those stores have ample opportunity to capture the Whole Foods shopper. Mr. Hale of Nielsen said that even dedicated Whole Foods shoppers make many trips to other food stores because they tend to see Whole Foods as a “special occasion” trip.