Prospectus

In our society we see as our way of eating affects people both physically and healthfully. Adults make decisions that they believe are the best for each, but children need a role to guide you on what is right and what is wrong. That's why it is that obesity in children is an issue that we as adults must regulate and try to find a solution. But first in order to achieve this mission we must understand how it works, and how does diabetes affects children, that way we can make an attempt to regulate it. In this project I seek to directly investigate the effects of obesity in children, and what are the most dangerous the factors that make children acquire the disease. I'm also going to investigate how the fast food consumption influences the development of diabetes, and as a result of these promote other diseases. To help conduct my research I will find information using the databases provided by the school, and from there I will use articles, books and reports from health experts, I will also use a lot of medical sources that way it will be easier to explain the effects on the children's body with a more professional view of points.  

If You Are A Man.... You Have To Eat Meat???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGLHlvb8skQ

This link will lead you to a video that basically states that; men must eat meat.

In this commercial, Burguer King is portraying groups of men singing and marching through the streets proclaiming taht meat, Burguer King, is teh real man food. We can see how in this commercial the company is associating masculinity with eating Burguer King. The message this is trying to send is that in order to be a "MAN" you must eat like one, and teh best place to do this is at...... Burguer King!!!! I actually asked my brother if he truly feels like this, if he needs to eat "strong" food in order to promote his inner status.... He said " not exactly, but us weird to see a guy eating light stuff... a true guy eats like a man." He didn't exactly answer my question but in other words he said yes, that's a man stereotype, too bad that there might be a lot of youngsters that will be carried away with this commercial, some because tehy want to improve their "manly" image.   

A Fast..... Hospital!!!

Last Wednesday, my aunt was having a kidney laser surgery, therefore, I had to go with her. To my amusement this surgery is a proccess that takes 2 hours, so it came the time when I got hungry and decided to go to the hopsital's cafeteria, and this is where i got real surprised.

Right inside the not so big cafeteria was a small stand, with big letters portraying the name of the so famous restaurant Taco Bell. I honestly couldn't believe it, and it was standing there where I stopped for a minute and started to think that this was a "hospital", a place where people treat their diseases and have health procedures in. Then, why was there a fast food restaurant right inside it.

As I looked around, I saw more than a few ladies and gentlemen wearing white ropes on top of their clothing. I was perplexed, it was harder to believe that the doctors who most likely would tell you to eat healthy were there, holding trays with chalupas, tacos and sodas right in the "hospital". So, a question arised to my mind, how are people going to stop eating fast food, if fast fod restaurants are like a temptation you found everywhere, even health facilities.      

Coca Cola's drinking policy???

Coca Cola, nown for being the leader brand in sodas worldwide, used this ad to promote the consumption of soda in babies. Stating that it will increase the chances of "fitting in" to society during the pre-teens years of the child. But, there's no such thing as drinking coke to fit in or be popular in life. If people who started drinking sodas when they were teenagers, developed sings of diabetes and obesity at an early age, imagine if parents started to give soda  instead of milk to their babies, more people will be affected by these diseases, earlier.

Companies want to make profit. They don't intent to sell us products that will benfit our bodies, it's and inevitable chain; they sell because we buy, we buy because they know how to sell, regardless the product. They are so good in selling and advertising, that even this absurd message in the poster above might have caught up cusomers attention.

Images like these, are the ones that we as citizens, specially customers, should pay a great amount of attention to. Not just reading it, but analizing it, to realize if the consumption of soda at early ages is truly "beneficial" to babies, which is not really the case.   

  

What we see, is not really what it is....

Around the world, people are daily consuming fast food. They have various motives, to please each ones necessities, but, as I went through research I realized that advertising is also a very influential factor in persuading the consumers to buy them. Different cultures, ways and techniques, but they all have the same focus, making the product, or the company, look good. This is the reason why, my theme project for the next weeks, will be analyzing fast food restaurants advertisement. I will describe how fast food commercials have change and advanced through years, sending messages to families that are beneficial to the company’s image, but are not exactly the truth.

We live surrounded by ads. In my way to school, I always look at the dollar menu posters, pasted on the buses sides, on the subway walls and inside the trains, without mentioning the countless times fast food restaurants commercials are aired on TV everyday, which in comparison with old ads, have change in many ways, but have kept the persuasive idea of “you will love this food”. That is why I found myself interested in fast food ads, they have become part of what we see, hear and live with, but, there is more behind the ads the companies present us.

In my project, I hope to inspire the readers by encouraging them to not just eat the food they are “happily” presented by ads. I would like to make my readers analyze the content of the food before they consume it, keeping in mind that commercials show the “good” and beneficial side of their products, but never the consequences of the consumption.   

Posing-Problem Method

Teenagers are trying hard to get jobs, in many cases to pay their own expenses, be involved in fashion trends or manage their own money, while other teenagers are needed to work in order to help support their family. Whichever the case might be, it doesn't affect the fact that teenagers are exposing themselves to danger in fast food restaurant jobs, and by wanting to earn money, they're neglecting their duties in school and thus dropping out.

Jane Trogdon, head of the guidance department at Harrison High School in Colorado Springs, said; "I have lots and lots of kids who are terribly depressed, I've never seen so many, so young feel this way". This quote represents the problem above, by confirming that teenagers are feeling "depresed" which in this case would likely also mean; stressed, down, tired and without energy, due to having to balance work and study at the same time.

I can relate this problem with myself. I'm a teenager, 17 years old, and I work wednesdays and during the weekends, so it's sometimes hard for me to distribute my time. I need to make sure I keep up with my classes and assignments while working as well, which can be very stressful, due to the fact that when I get out of work all I want to do is rest for the day, but I remember that I need to finish my assignment, or when I stay up late doing my homework I go to work tired the next day. It's hard but it's a sacrifice I must do, but, this is a situation that many teenagers can't bear, therefor give up.

Some solutions that have been tried but failed, are the prohibition of kids under the age of sixteen for more than three hours on a school day or later than seven o'clock at night and the usage of hazardous machinery. These regulations have failed because, even thought they are state laws, teenagers have been found breaking these regulations, for example, managers let minors operate dangerous machinery with the pretext that the they know how to, and make them work overtime without payments.

A solution I suggest to this problem is, not to raise the legal age required to work since this problems have emerged from the manager's fault by not supervising their working requirements, but, to take serious legal actions against the restaurants on which situations like these have been happening, for example, closing the location permanetly.