Thursday, June 10, 2010

In class I learned many things on how to researching that is going to help me in the future. Now I know better research website that may help me in other classes throughout college. Researching in this class helped me understand more ways to use reliable sources. Now I know how to cite my sources so that my professors could know where I got my information from. Researching opened my mind to endless possibilities of knowledge in the internet. Now I could find information from the internet like news, politics and sports that I could find before. Researching is a key skill for success in anything in life.
Alexander Sanchez
4/13/2010

In the United State, the obesity rate has increased in the past years. Fast food companies are targeting children through advertisements. McDonald’s, for example, is very unhealthy, and shouldn’t be advertised to children because it’s raising the obesity rate. McDonald’s is trying to gain children’s attention through commercials, kid meals with toys and playgrounds. It has been proven that McDonald’s and other fast food industries have made a great contribution to the obesity rate, which has increased due to the poor quality of their food. Obesity can cause many health issues such as heart attacks, cancers and diabetes

Did you know that the clown character that McDonald’s always uses in advertisement know as Ronald McDonald is one of the most known figures in the world? This is because McDonalds spends 2 billion dollars to make sure the audience buys their product. Ray Kroc, the man who created the McDonald’s empire, understood from day one that children were the ones who he wanted to target. He used characters like Speede and Ronald McDonald to attract the kids to buy the burgers and shakes. But have you ever seen Ronald McDonalds in any commercial or advertisement eating or even touching any McDonald’s product? He sings, giggles, and smiles at the kids while they stuff their faces, but he never takes a bite of a cheeseburger. In my opinion it’s because, like Eazy-E said in the song “The Dopeman”, "Don't get high off your own supply."

On www.kdvr.com there is an interesting article titled “Colo. woman says McDonald's meal still 'Happy' one year later”. Where a woman named Joann Bruco claims her Happy Meal stayed preserved on her book shelf for almost a year after she bought it. Rather than molding or decaying like any other meat would, it looked the same as when she bought it. "You would think you could eat it" said Joann. She admits that the food stayed looking 'happy' a lot longer than she expected. While the buns got hard, the meat dried up, and the fries became frozen. She states, “I didn't expect it to look that good”. This just goes show how unhealthy and low quality McDonalds really is. McDonalds claim they “deliver quality food, and we take that responsibility seriously.” “We’re dedicated to making you feel good about choosing McDonald's foods and beverages.” Is that why McDonalds is purposely producing their food with chemical additives that are designed specifically to increase your appetite, get you physically and chemically addicted to their food, for their product to last long and make you fat.

There has been many lawsuits against McDonald’s, some more significant than others. A noteworthy case to look at would be the case with the two overweight girls that sued McDonald’s because they claimed that McDonalds was all they saw when young and that’s what they became accustomed to eat. The girls were overweigh one was 5'9" and weighs 270 pounds, while the other was about 5'3" and 200 pounds. Each girl is at least 80 pounds overweight, according to government statistics. There claim was that they are suing McDonald’s on the behalf of children. They say that “It's hard to argue that a 6, or 8 or 10-year-old child has to take full responsibility for their decisions when they're lured into McDonald's by the toys and the playground and happy meals and the birthday parties.” They lost the case because they didn’t have enough proof to show that McDonald’s was the real reason for their overweight. Meanwhile, McDonalds said "Any processing our foods undergo make them more dangerous than unprocessed foods".

You might not think of it but what McDonald’s has created has revolutionized how we view healthy food. In today cafeterias we feed our children frozen cheeseburgers and fries with the mentality that they are eating healthy. This explains why the obesity rate among children has increased in the past years. In the website www.topnews.us there is an article named “Improved Quality Food to be Given a Priority in School Lunch Program”. The article shows how we are trying to improve school lunches. The website states “This bill is expected to increase the effectiveness of lunch programs”. Maybe now, little by little, we can start making a change in our children’s eating habits and take them away from McDonalds Cheeseburger and French fries.

In conclusion, I think McDonald’s success is very wrong because they are targeting kids to gain profit. It’s sad how McDonald’s brainwashes kids for example, how children before they can speak they can recognize McDonald’s. They know their food is low quality and can harm kids. McDonalds should stop advertising to children because it is causing lots of illnesses such as obesity.



Word Cited

CC, Matthews. "Warning!! Facts will make you eat healthier! ." (2009): n. pag. Web. 1 Jun 2010. .
Charles Wilson, Schlosser. Chew On This. New York: Park Av South,2007. Print.
“ Fat Teens Sue McDonald's” Foxnews.com. September 21, 2002. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,63698,00.html
Greg Critser. Fat Land. New York: Hudson Street, 2004. Print.
Hemmat, Heidi. "Colo. woman says McDonald's meal still 'Happy' one year later." www.kdvr.com. N.p., March 31, 2010. Web. 1 Jun 2010. .
sharma, prachash. "Improved Quality Food to be Given a Priority in School Lunch Program." topnews.us. N.p., 27/03/2010. Web. 1 Jun 2010. .
Spurlock, Morgan, Dir. Super Size.2004, Film.
Spurlock, Morgan. Don't Eat This Book. New York: Hudson Street, 2010. Print.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Alexander Sanchez

McDonalds helps communities all around the world. They help by sponsoring teams, sending out free food to nations in need, and even donating money to hospitals to prevent type2 diabetes and obesity. But I ask myself, if McDonalds is so eager to help communities and reduce the obesity rate why are they selling unhealthy product to communities all around the world and in specially targeting kids.

McDonalds claim they “deliver quality food, and we take that responsibility seriously.” “We’re dedicated to making you feel good about choosing McDonald's foods and beverages.” Is that why McDonalds is purposely producing their food with chemical additives that are designed specifically to increase your appetite, get you physically and chemically addicted to their food, and make you fat.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Alexander Sanchez
05/03/10

Super Size Me

Super Size Me was a very interesting movie that would inspire anyone to stop eating fast food. Super Size Me gave very detail facts on illness people could receive when eating fast food. Super Size Me was about this man, Morgan Spurlock who personally explores the consequences on his health of a diet of solely McDonald's food for one month. Spurlock eat at McDonald's restaurants three times per day, eating every item on the menu. He was trying to prove the low quality food McDonalds makes and the health risk people could receive when eating McDonalds in a normal basis. The main reason for Spurlock's investigation was because of the lawsuit brought against McDonald's on behalf of two overweight girls, who tried to sue McDonalds. They blamed McDonalds for their overweight, because they claimed that’s all they saw on advertisements in their childhood. The lawsuit against McDonald's failed because due to the poor amount of evidence to accuse McDonalds for their overweight. In the end of the movie Super Size Me, Spurlock gained 24½ lbs., a 13% body mass increase, experienced mood swings, and fat accumulation to his liver. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment. Six weeks after the movie premiered, McDonalds toke out the Super Size option from their entire restaurant’s menu. This was a great movie, and is glad that they show this movie in all public schools. This movie can really educate student to make better eating decisions. They should make more of these types of movies more often and maybe make one for children’s.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Alexander Sanchez
04/26/10

Revision
Dear Prof. Mcormick,

In my paper one there were many mistakes that I could fix such as, grammar, spelling, word agreement, and punctuation. I could say my biggest mistake was I didn’t use enough resources. In my paragraph two I felt like I didn’t go deep into my research, I could have explained better why in commercials you never see Ronald McDonald eat McDonald products. I also think I should have gotten into how McDonald’s products are produced, mentioning from animal brutality to farmers rights. I could have also mentioned some statistics from website about obesity because of McDonalds. To make my paper more interesting I could have pointed out some lawsuits against McDonalds such as, the famous case were these two overweight women sue McDonalds. They sue McDonalds because they claimed that McDonalds was all they saw when young,and that’s what they became accustomed to eat. Additionally, what I missed in the end that I bet I lost point on was I didn’t mention my word cited. Am delighted that we are talking about our health and foods, some people don’t see the importance of healthy eating including myself before I toke this class.

Sincerely,
Alexander Sanchez

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Hey everyone,
My topic is based on childrens obesity because of Mcdonalds.
These are a few links I would be using for my research paper :

http://www.vivavegie.org/101book/text/nolink/social/supersizeme.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/05/health/main591325.shtml

http://www.theroot.com/views/you-ll-never-eat-chicken-mcnuggets-again

http://www.fitcommerce.com/Blueprint/Supersized-Obesity-Is-McDonalds-to-Blame_page.aspx?pageId=276&announcementId=400&portalId=2&cid=631

http://www.obesityfocused.com/articles/obesity-issues/obesity-and-fast-food.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Organic Food

Alexander Sanchez
03/20/2010



If organic food is healthier than fastfood, why is it more expensive to buy carrots than a cheeseburger in McDonalds? Organic foods means food that is farmed using renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality. Organic foods don’t have pesticides, antibiotics or genetically altered organisms. These organic foods are really healthy but they are extremely expensive compared to fastfood. Eating organic food is healthier than “regular” food. For example, organic tomatoes might not last as long as normal tomatoes because its not sprayed with chemicals to make it last. Organic food doesn’t just help our health but also helps the environment.

We all look for ways to eat better, but its hard to do so when the bad food we normally eat is cheaper. Specially when there are different variety of fast food in every corner. Its also hard to educate people on what fast food really is when you are always seeing this cool commercials on tv . When was the last time you ever seen a commercial on organic vegetables? To be honest I never seen one. The problem is that these fastfood industries are producing enormous quantities of low quality meat making high profits. Unlike fastfood, organic food don’t make much profit due to the fact that they don’t have the same amount of customers buying the product. Also because organic product don’t have pesticides, antibiotics or genetically altered organisms, it means it needs to be sold faster than fastfood or else it get rotten.


Even the fruits and vegetables we buy normally in our nearest supermarkets to eat healthier is infected with chemicals farmers are forced to use so the product last longer. Farmers are forced to use these chemicals so that the product last longer and so they could make more money. I don’t seem to understand why companies like the FDA that are made to protect use don’t have the power to do so. In my opinion these companies like the FDA are being paid by high industries so they don’t stop their way of producing food.


Organic products doesn’t only help our health but also helps the environment. It helps the environment by recycling of livestock manures and organic materials which includes crop residues. Farmers that produce organic products learned how to control the growth of weeds and insect infestation through crop rotation. This helps a lot so soil can be used for a very long time without the use fertilizers.

In my opinion if we all agree that what we are eating is garbage and we change our eating habits and buy more organic products we can make a bigger change. Fastfood industries will be forced to make more natural and organic food. If more people would see what these industries are doing and educate themselves we could make a faster change. The best tip I could give to decrease the power of this high fastfood industries is buy their product less and go organic.