Task: Fast Food Grade 9/10 Fast Food Parts 1 & 2 Your Assignment: Obesity has become an epidemic in the U.S. To address this problem, officials in your city are considering limiting access to fast food. You have been asked to research this issue. You will gather data from a variety of sources, answer three research questions, and then write an editorial arguing whether a fast food ban would be effective in your community. Steps You Will Follow: In order to plan and write your essay, you will do all of the following: 1. Watch two videos. 2. Read three articles. 3. Interpret a data chart. 4. Answer three questions about the readings and the videos. 5. Plan and write your essay. Directions for Beginning: You will now watch the videos and read the articles and data chart. Take notes because you will want to refer to your notes while answering the three research questions and writing your essay. You may refer back to any of the sources as often as you like. Source Information: Video #1: South L.A. Fast Food Ban: Kate Rooney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nKG_XWypU Video #2: San Francisco’s Happy Meal Ban: The Daily Show http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-3-2011/san-francisco-s-happy- meal-ban Article #1: Fast Food: Is It the Enemy? by Sarah Muntel, RD Article #2: Obesity Ills That Won’t Budge Fuel Soda Battle by Bloomberg: New York Times Article #3: L.A. Says ‘No Fries With That’: NYT Upfront Data Chart: Compare Obesity Rates & Fast Food Consumption by County: FindTheData PART 1 (75 minutes) Student Directions:
Transcript
Task: Fast Food
Grade 9/10 Fast Food Parts 1 & 2
Your Assignment: Obesity has become an epidemic in the U.S. To address this problem, officials in your city are considering limiting access to fast food. You have been asked to research this issue. You will gather data from a variety of sources, answer three research questions, and then write an editorial arguing whether a fast food ban would be effective in your community.
Steps You Will Follow:
In order to plan and write your essay, you will do all of the following:
1. Watch two videos. 2. Read three articles. 3. Interpret a data chart. 4. Answer three questions about the
readings and the videos. 5. Plan and write your essay.
Directions for Beginning:
You will now watch the videos and read the articles and data chart. Take notes because you will want to refer to your notes while answering the three research questions and writing your essay. You may refer back to any of the sources as often as you like.
Source Information:
Video #1: South L.A. Fast Food Ban: Kate Rooney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nKG_XWypU
Video #2: San Francisco’s Happy Meal Ban: The Daily Show http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-3-2011/san-francisco-s-happy-meal-ban
Article #1: Fast Food: Is It the Enemy? by Sarah Muntel, RD
Article #2: Obesity Ills That Won’t Budge Fuel Soda Battle by Bloomberg: New York Times
Article #3: L.A. Says ‘No Fries With That’: NYT Upfront
Data Chart:
Compare Obesity Rates & Fast Food Consumption by County: FindTheData
1. In the effort to curb obesity, explain two arguments for banning fast foods, and two arguments against banning them. Use information from the articles, the data chart and at least one of the videos to support your answer. (Claim 4, Target 2)
Task: Fast Food
Grade 9/10 Fast Food Parts 1 & 2
2. Evaluate which source, the data chart or the article, “Fast Food: Is It the Enemy?”, would be most useful for supporting a person’s freedom to access fast food. Use details from both resources in your analysis. (Claim 4, Target 3)
Task: Fast Food
Grade 9/10 Fast Food Parts 1 & 2
3. Explain how Video #2, “ San Francisco’s Happy Meal Ban,” uses humor (satire) to both criticize and support the fast food industry. (Claim 4, Target 4)
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
L.A. Says 'No Fries With That'Medina, JenniferNew York Times Upfront; Mar 14, 2011; 143, 11; ProQuest Research Librarypg. 12
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
New York Times: Obesity Ills that Won’t Budge Fuel Soda Battle by Bloomberg 1
A hospital offers Zumba and cooking classes. Farmers markets dole out $2 coupons for cantaloupe and broccoli. An adopt-a-bodega program nudges store owners to stock low-fat milk. And one apartment building even slowed down its elevator, and lined its stairwells with artwork, to entice occupants into some daily exercise.
In the Bronx, where more than two-thirds of adults are overweight, the message has been unmistakably clear for a long time: Slim down now.
But, if anything, this battery of efforts points to how intractable the obesity problem has become in New York’s poorest borough. The number of the overweight and obese continue to grow faster in the Bronx than anywhere else in the city — nearly one in three Bronx adults is obese — leading the city’s health commissioner to call it “ground zero for the obesity epidemic problem.”
So it was to the weight-burdened Bronx that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went last week to make the case for his controversial proposal to ban supersized sodas and sugary drinks. Standing in the lobby of Montefiore Medical Center, the borough’s largest hospital, he was flanked by doctors who spoke of treating more
patients than ever with diabetes, hypertension and other obesity-related diseases.
Critics have described the proposed soda rule as interfering with a matter of personal choice, calling instead for less intrusive means to address the obesity problem, through education and access to healthy foods. But the Bronx experience helps explain why Mr. Bloomberg and city health officials embraced the aggressive new regulatory tack after years of trying, and failing, to curb obesity through those types of measures.
At parks, bodegas and fast-food restaurants across the Bronx, many residents had not heard of most of the previous anti-obesity efforts. “If I did, I don’t think I’d be this big right now,” said
New York Times: Obesity Ills that Won’t Budge Fuel Soda Battle by Bloomberg 2
Faith Coleman-Njikeng, who, at 5-foot-2 and 200 pounds, has never been heavier. “They didn’t do a good job of publicizing them.”
For others, nothing had worked. Brett Toney, who is 5-foot-9 and 210 pounds, and his wife, who is also obese, have sworn off fried foods, attended health fairs, used a coupon for a farmers markets and walked in a park for exercise in the past year. He did not lose a single pound. She gained 20.
Kelly D. Brownell, the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, said that while education and incentives were popular with the public, those programs tended to reach relatively small numbers because of their limited funds. He said he supported the use of regulations like the city’s proposed ban on large sodas as a necessary step toward curbing obesity.
“It completely makes more sense to make the environment healthier rather than to just do pure education,” he said.
In defending his proposal, Mr. Bloomberg said at Montefiore that the ban was not intended to tread on anyone’s rights, and he noted that more than individual liberties were at stake. “We are absolutely committed to doing everything in our power to help you get on track and stay on track to maintain a healthy lifestyle,” he said. “Because this isn’t your crisis alone — it is a crisis for our city and our entire country.”
Though the Bronx has the largest percentage of overweight adults, a staggering 70 percent, the other four boroughs also have seen increases in the past decade. Sixty-two percent of Staten Island adults are overweight; followed by Brooklyn, at 60 percent; Queens, at 57 percent; and Manhattan, at 47 percent, according to city health data.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 68 percent of adults in the United States were either overweight or obese in 2008.
“It’s simple math: it’s increased intake of calories and decreased exercise,” said Dr. Steven M. Safyer, the president and chief executive officer of Montefiore, which spends about $7 million annually on anti-obesity and related programs, including community health fairs and free Zumba, yoga and cooking classes for thousands of employees, patients and local
residents. The hospital no longer sells sugary drinks, deep fried foods or ice cream on the premises. Dr. Safyer supports the proposed soda rule.
During a recent health fair at St. James Park, about 100 people had their weights and blood pressures measured. Community groups handed out brochures for nutrition programs, jump-ropes, energy bars and even a card showing portion sizes of foods like rice and beans.
Some left with optimism that they would change their ways. “I’m going to take care of myself more,” Jose Jimenes, who is 5-foot-6 and 200 pounds, said after learning he had high blood pressure.
New York Times: Obesity Ills that Won’t Budge Fuel Soda Battle by Bloomberg 3
City health officials and community leaders insist that all the anti-obesity measures have helped some people, though they acknowledged it was not enough in a borough of 1.4 million.
“I wouldn’t call anything we’ve done a failure until we put them all together,” said Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the health commissioner, who believes the soda rule will work together with the previous efforts.
There is little available data showing the cost of the programs, the number of participants or the results.
Aides for Mr. Bloomberg noted that the efforts had worked, with more than 500 bodegas and 20 supermarkets in the Bronx now stocking healthier food. But they did not report the extent to which whole-wheat bread was replacing white bread or low-fat milk was replacing whole milk in customers’ shopping baskets.
The impact of other programs was also inconclusive. The mayor’s aides said the city had issued 200 permits for green carts, which sell fresh fruits and vegetables, in Bronx neighborhoods since 2008, and that the $2 coupons for farmers markets, known as Health Bucks, had an 88 percent redemption rate in the Bronx, up from 81 percent the year before.
Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx borough president, said that while the mayor had proposed a bold idea, the city should
focus on expanding community and education programs rather than trying to dictate soda sizes.
“Ultimately people need to be responsible for their own actions,” Mr. Diaz said, explaining that “if they’re of a certain mind-set, they’re going to continue to have poor eating habits, and we’re still going to have the same problem.”
Outside a bustling McDonald’s near Yankee Stadium, many Bronx residents said the only effect of the proposed ban would be on their wallets: they would have to buy two small cups of soda ($2.58) instead of one large ($1.89) to get their fill.
“If I eat cheeseburgers and fries, I’m going to get dehydrated and that little cup is not enough,” said Jessica Torres, 22, a mother of two.
Arla Lucien, 27, a post office clerk trying to lose 40 pounds, said a ban would no more help her stick to her diet than the calorie counts posted on menus, another anti-obesity measure that city leaders hoped would lead consumers to make healthier decisions. She still orders her Big Macs.
“Really, you’re going to tell me how to eat and drink?” she said. “That’s not going to work. It’s hard to do with kids; you think it’s going to work with adults?”
by Sarah Muntel, RD
FAST FOOD – Is it the Ene
Since 1970, the amount of fast food restaurants in business doubled, which equates to about 300,000 establishments in the United States. Coincidentally, 33.8 percent of the U.S. population is affected by obesity and 19 percent of children and adolescents are also affected. Could there be a link between fast food and obesity?
Let’s look at a few typical fast food menu items, which do not contain
drinks or sides:
McDonalds Big Mac: 540 calories and 29 g of fatBurger King Whopper: 670 calories and 40 g of fatWendy’s Bacon Deluxe Double: 880 calories and 52 g of fatTaco Bell Nachos Bell Grande: 770 calories and 24 g of fat
Now let’s throw in the sides:
Medium fries at McDonalds: 380 calories and 19 g of fatOnion rings at Dairy Queen: 360 calories and 16 g of fatRegular cole slaw at Popeye’s: 260 calories and 23 g of fat
And don’t forget the drinks:
Large Frosty at Wendy’s: 540 calories and 8 g of fatLarge sweet tea at McDonalds: 280 calories and 0 g of fatIced Carmel Latte from Dunkin Donuts: 450 calories and 12 g of fat
IS FAST FOOD TO BLAME?
Th ese foods are highly processed, full of fat, calories and sodium. You could easily take in 1,500 calories from just one meal alone. Keep in mind that a general caloric recommendation for Americans is 1,500-1,800 calories per-day and around 50-60 grams of total fat. Choosing a typical fast food meal every day can lead to increased calories which can lead to weight gain and can lead to other health conditions like heart disease.
Could it be the environment?Let’s think back to the pioneer days. People had to plant their crops, tend to their animals and cook foods from scratch. Th ere were no box mixes or pre-made items. Meals had to be planned ahead every day. People really had to work for their food! Grab and go meals were unheard of! Coincidentally, the obesity rates were much less years ago.
Let’s now fast forward to today. You can fi nd a fast food restaurant every time you turn the corner. You can choose from greasy burgers, crunchy tacos or a sugary drink at most intersections. It is not necessary to plan your meals ahead, cook or even shop because you have a variety of foods right there at your fi ngertips.
Th ese quick and easy foods are also cheap, which appeals to so many Americans. You can order dollar cheeseburgers, dollar sodas and supersize items for just pennies. People see a value in cheap food and get it with fast food. People often claim it is cheaper to eat at a restaurant than prepare a meal at home.
Most Americans are overscheduled and overcommitted. Th ey run from activity to activity and do not make time to plan or prepare meals. It is just too easy to grab fast food on the way home from work, or treat the kids to a thick milkshake after a busy day at soccer practice. Having fast food everywhere makes this very easy.
Unfortunately, people do not know the consequences of fast food. Th ey are unaware how the extra fat in their diet can lead to cardiovascular disease. Th ey do not realize the supersized fries may be the reason why their pants are tight. Th ey forget the recommendation to eat a low sodium diet, so their blood pressure rises.
What’s the answer?Th ere is no easy answer. Obesity can be caused by a combination of fast food and the environment people live in today. Many Americans eat out every day! If that is you, make a plan to cut down and prepare a meal or two at home and see how it goes.
Th e key to this is planning ahead. It may take a little time to do this, but just start one day at a time. Th ink about your schedule in advance. Sit down on Sunday and determine what you have going on for the week. On your crazy days when you do not have extra time to prepare a meal in advance, have some quick healthy options ready to go:
• Sandwiches on whole grain bread with some low-fat yogurt• Lettuce topped with grilled chicken• Low-fat refried beans in a whole grain tortilla with a side of fruit
Fast Food continued on page 34
What Can You Eat When You Eat out?Let’s face it, at some point in our life, we will all eat fast food. Try to make those visits few and far between. When you do go out, here are a few tips:
1. Leave off the Sauces Mayo and high-calorie sauces can add tons of calories to a sandwich. Make yours plain or add mustard, salsa or low-calorie dressing.
2. Substitute the Fries You do not have to eat the fries. Lots of fast food restaurants now off er choices. Pick a salad, fruit or yogurt instead of fries.
3. Choose Calorie-free Drinks Skip the sodas and go for water or a sugar-free beverage, like unsweetened tea or light lemonade.
4. Get it Grilled Try a grilled chicken versus a fried chicken sandwich. Instead of chicken nuggets, try a hamburger.
5. Limit Portions Portions are huge at restaurants. Cut your sandwich in half and save some for the next meal.
Make a PlanMake a plan this month to limit fast food. You certainly do not have to cut it out altogether, but focus on small improvements as much as you can. Just by packing your lunch a few days a week, you can consume signifi cantly less fat and calories. As it becomes easier for you, make more changes. Gradual changes can lead to a long healthy life.
About the Author:
Sarah Muntel, RD, is a registered dietitian with IU Health Bariatric & Medical Weight Loss. She has worked in bariatrics for the past 12 years and enjoys helping people get to a healthy weight so they can improve their health, feel better about themselves and become more active.
Fast Food continued from page 33
Obesity rates by county 1
Obesity rates by county 2
Obesity rates by county 3
Task: Fast Food
Grade 9/10 Fast Food Parts 1 & 2
Your assignment:
You have been asked to research the issue of banning fast foods in the effort to curb obesity. Your job is to write an editorial (an argumentative essay) making a claim for or against limiting people’s ability to consume fast food in your community. You must support your claim using details from the research sources, and you should acknowledge both sides of the issue. Your essay will be published on a local news blog in order to influence the public and city officials. Use information from both print and video sources in your essay.
Your essay will be scored on the following criteria:
1. Statement of Purpose/ Focus – how well did you clearly state and maintain your claim? How clearly did you address opposing claims? How well did your ideas logically flow from the introduction to conclusion using effective transitions? How well did you stay on topic throughout the article?
2. Elaboration of Evidence – how well did you provide evidence from the
sources to support your opinions? How well did you elaborate with specific information from the sources you reviewed? How well did you effectively express ideas using precise language that was appropriate for your audience and purpose?
3. Conventions – how well did you follow the rules of usage, punctuation,
capitalization, and spelling?
Part 2 (105 minutes)
Student Directions:
Essay Scoring
Now begin work on your essay. Manage your time carefully so that you can:
• plan your essay • write your essay • revise and edit for a final draft
You will now have 105 minutes to review your notes and sources, plan, draft, and revise your essay. You may use your notes and refer back to the sources. You may also refer to the answers you wrote to questions at the end of part 1, but you cannot change those answers. Now read your assignment and the information about how your essay will be scored, then begin your work.
Type your response in the space provided. Write as much as you need to fulfill the requirements of the task; you are not limited by the size of the response area on the screen.
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