Answer

Causes and Effects of the Popularity of Fast Food Restaurants

In the past, people used to consume healthy, freshly prepared meals together as a family. Meals were considered the best moment where families would spend time together discussing the challenges that each member experienced across the day. However, the emergence of fast food restaurants has changed this trend as many people currently prefer consuming fast foods rather than cooking their meals at home. This pattern has been contributed to the hectic lifestyles that people have adopted not forgetting the convenience of fast food restaurants. However, shifting to fast food restaurants have made the world unhealthy as many people continue to experience problems with their health and weight caused by the continued intake of fast foods. As such, while fast food restaurants have gained popularity due to hectic changes in people’s lifestyles, they have both positive and detrimental effects on people’s health and family.

The Causes

            Fast food restaurants have become popular in the contemporary society due to people’s hectic lifestyles. Longer working hours coupled with the growing patterns of the young spouses to seek full time jobs have taken much time that families can cook and sit together to consume meals prepared at home. Most people prefer quick meals (Al-Saad, Eman 279). Because of the increasing challenging time plans, most people lack the time to cook nor wait for the meals to be cooked in restaurants. Therefore, fast food meals provide the more appealing options since they are often prepared in advance. Resultantly, consumers can freely pick these meals them and have options of consuming the foods either at their residential places or in work places.

Effects of Popularity of Fast Food Restaurants

            Increase in the popularity of fast food restaurants have created numerous employment opportunities to humans. The increase in the number of fast food outlets across the world has contributed to the rise in the workforce. By expanding in different regions across the world, the fast food restaurants employ millions of people who perform various tasks to ensure that these business entities provide quality meals to customers (Al-Saad, Eman 279). Moreover, the outlets collaborate with advertisement companies and other agricultural firms that supply them with fresh produce that they need to prepare the quality meals that customers need.

            The popularity of fast food restaurants has contributed to the erosion of morals and behaviors amongst children. Essentially, a major factor behind the popularity of fast food restaurants is the adoption of the new technology including the internet or use of popular media such as magazines, televisions or newspapers to attract the customers. However, these techniques have detrimental effects on people especially the children. In particular, they mislead children to to purchase the meals or indirectly influence their dietary trends, habits and final behaviors (Wani & Nandkishor 79). Precisely, children lack the cognitive ability to comprehend reasons behind the commercial advertisements (Al-Saad, Eman 280). They are also affected by how the advertiser of these meals use things such as toys or cartoons. Those toys that fast food restaurants give to the children are cheap and manufactured using poor quality materials that are far much below the required health standards. Some of these materials can cause deadly diseases such cancer.

            Consuming fast foods has detrimental effects in various aspects of people’s lives. First, changes in lifestyle has contributed to excessive supply of foods rich in energy and reduced energy outlet (Bahadoran, Mirmiran & Fereidoun 231). Taking of fast foods coupled with physically dormant lifestyles can cause heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. These diseases have led to an increase in the cost of healthcare. Essentially, fast food restaurants have designed selling approaches that encourage customers to buy more meals at a cheaper prices. This consequently has resulted in the excessive consumption of these meals and led to increased rates of diseases such as obesity. Notwithstanding the fact that fast foods are regarded as higher energy laden meals, individuals tend to consume much of these meals leading to excessive supply of energy that when combined with a physically inactive lifestyle may play a critical role in the emergence of obesity and other lifestyle diseases already mentioned.

            The popularity of fast food restaurant has contributed to the lack of social relations among many families across the world. Decades ago, families would meet thrice a day but due to fast meals, it is proving difficult for such families to meet and sit a table for a meal (Al-Saad, Eman 280). This has created a wide space for the family in both long run and short run. Similarly, fast food restaurants have hugely contributed to the financial challenges to many families across the world who have concluded that they facilities are the major feature of the modern rush time experienced. Indeed, any meal can be prepared easily and within a short time, making most women to hardly pay attention to the cooking demands and requirements of their spouses and other members of the family.

Conclusion

            Fast food restaurants have gained popularity in the modern society because of the growing demands in the contemporary life. In particular, people have opted to spend many hours in their workplaces and thus lack adequate time to prepare and take their meals as a family. As such, they have resorted to fast food restaurants that offer myriad of meals at affordable prices and the meals being prepared to fulfil individual taste and preference. Nonetheless, the effects of the popularity of fast food restaurants are diverse. First, these restaurants have created many job opportunities. Moreover, their impacts on the health conditions of people across the world is devastating with the growing patterns in lifestyle diseases. Fast foods coupled with reduced physical activity in most people across the world have contributed to the rise in various lifestyle diseases including diabetes. Lastly, fast food restaurants have caused social isolations and conflicts among families. Therefore, with the present attempts to offer quality healthcare for everyone, policy makers should adopt preventive approaches to ensure that the lifestyle diseases described herein are eliminated. As such, intensive regulation should be implemented in how meals in fast food restaurants are cooked and consumer awareness carried out to ensure that individuals have several delicious options of healthy options that are cheap and convenient.