Fast Food Nation:
The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

Eric Schlosser

Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co., 2001
Hardcover, $25.00
356 pages

"Have it your way." For more than 40 years, fast food chains have promised to give us what we wanted when we wanted it – no lines, no waiting. They have so revolutionized mealtime that the idea of the family meal – the Leave it to Beaver-esque ritual complete with full attendance, good clean horseplay with wet dishtowels, and the opportunity for Mom, Dad and their 2.5 American kids to catch up on each other's lives – has become a fleeting memory in most homes. If, like me, you question whether you have "your way" or not, Fast Food Nation will let you off the hook. Your desires had virtually nothing to do with it. You were duped.

Schlosser makes the point that America, and now the world, is being duped in the most effective and insidious manner possible. The fast food empire was built on and continues to thrive by appealing to children. The culinary tastes of children are developed at a very young age, and what they "like" is largely a function of what is familiar. And what is familiar, what we "like" as adults, is driven primarily by those same forces. The elaborate playyards and the Happy Meal toys with fantastical characters are all there for a reason. These capture the minds and palates of the young. Keeping them as customers is as simple as offering drugs to an addict.

The original concept for fast food didn't stray too far from the diner ideal. A McDonald's company historian, in explaining the lasting significance of this self-serve system, says: "Working-class families could finally afford to feed their kids restaurant food." At the outset that may have been true, but more recently a single "supersized" meal can easily set you back $8 to $10 with fries and a shake. A grilled cheese at the local diner, on the other hand, is probably closer to $3. As a nutritionist, I watch with horror as the fast food restaurants continue to "supersize" their portions. They are supersizing our youth, as well. The last 40 years has seen the national obesity rate stabilize at the 50% mark, and the incidence of Type 2 diabetes – "adult-onset" diabetes – skyrocketing in overweight kids.

Eric Schlosser lifts the lid on this industry, and while we who shun the interstate to seek back roads, diners and a taste of local color probably aren't surprised, the average three-Happy-Meals-per-week family might just get their socks knocked off. We can hope, anyway.