TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

MEET PATTY

Teens remain attracted to bad-mouthed meals

Meet Patty. Patty has been a hit sensation since the 1920s. Patty originally grew up on a farm in Ohio, they say, and took the country by storm. Patty enjoys being cooked on a hot grill and being the center of attention for teens.

Along the way, Patty met other friends; there’s fries, soda, nuggets, and the rest of the gang. Together, the friends created a band known as “Fast Food” -- recognized for its ability to prepare for a performance in a matter of minutes. Today, “Fast Food” battles its opponents -- “Fruits and Vegetables” -- to win the hearts, or rather stomachs, of teens everywhere.

This opener may have been for jokes, but the dangers of fast food are not to be taken lightly. Fast food has nasty effects on the human body: galloping weight gain, heart disease, and other damaging consequences. Yet, nearly 10 years after the publication of “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal,” many teens are still members of that forsaken country.

Kathy Cunningham is a registered dietitian in Boston who knows a thing or two about fast-food nutrition. She explained that fast food is dangerous for two reasons – disease, of course, but also the ridiculous amount of calories taken in during an evening with it. “Probably 2,200 calories,” Cunningham said, are devoured in one sitting, which unfortunately is the recommended caloric intake for one full day.

Analyzing this equation -- one fast food lunch could equal a day’s worth of calories, plus adding in the two other meals of the day, means excess calories, which in turn could cause obesity. Cunningham also expressed concern over fizzy, sugary, overpriced water -- or soda for short. With the super-sizes that restaurants offer in these drinks, it is inevitable that many teens will succumb to diabetes.

To understand what makes fast food desirable to teens, let’s meet some of its biggest fans.

Livymer Caceres is a 17-year-old at the John D. O’Bryant School of Math & Science who is a self-described fast-food junkie. “As long as it tastes good” is the motto she uses to defend the food she loves ever so much. Eating healthy is not important to Caceres, nor to many other teens; taste is what they are most concerned with.

Exposés on fast-food industries have little effect on Caceres. She explained recently that she has seen some parts of the Oscar-nominated documentary, “Food, Inc,” which displays animal cruelty, yet she still feels no guilt.

This lackadaisical trend is a common trait in the modern teen today, such as Linecker Dasilva, 17, from the O’Bryant. His stance on this controversial topic is that origins, nutrients, and type of animal are all diminutive; “taste overpowers” any doubt he has about biting into a greasy burger. Dasilva remains immune to the messages projected by documentaries focusing on exposure to fast-food atrocities. Not even the profound effects done to Morgan Spurlock in “Super Size Me” have an impact on his food selection. Dasilva feels that he can make healthier food choices, but his feeble will-power intervenes with what he decides to fill his plate with.

You would imagine that the release of so many fast-food critiques like “Super Size Me,” “Fast Food Nation,” and “Food, Inc” would change minds, but they have proven ineffective in the face of American teen taste buds. Animal cruelty, unsanitary meat, and the dreaded diarrhea-maker E Coli have all been put into the mix, yet fast food remains a dominant industry. Why? Critics say that it’s because of the flashy advertisements that are able to manipulate teens. Ads convince the youth that what they are buying is kid friendly -- just look at McDonald’s spokesman, Ronald McDonald, a friendly clown encouraging kids to purchase junk food.

The commercials effectively sell the food products, the big business owners get fat in wealth, and the consumers get fat in… well fat. It appears as though teens will never reject taste as a factor for foods or get away from the mentality of what Caceres and Dasilva both generally feel about the animal issue: “It’s not fair, but we still have to eat.”

painting by Demetrius Henry // Artists for Humanity

Organic options

Do you know what is in your food? If you can’t pronounce an ingredient on the label, you probably shouldn’t be eating that particular item. Or at least you should go find out what it is. That is why everyone should at least attempt to go organic. Your overall health would improve, you would help out local farmers, and the environment would get better.

Before a mother first nurses her newborn, the infant has already been exposed to hundreds of pesticides and toxins. Organic fruits and vegetables are grown without pesticides or fertilizers, and all the nutrients and vitamins are retained.

Probably the biggest benefit in going organic is that it would improve our environment. Industrial agriculture doesn’t only affect farmlands, but also neighboring cities and towns because pesticides can drift into urban areas.

Buying healthier foods will also assist local farmers who are producing organically grown crops.

How to buy organic? If a food has a USDA organic label, it means that at least 95 percent of its ingredients are organically produced.