Chew on This – Schlosser and WilsonAngelica GarciaNovember 25, 2011English 2; Period 5Ms.CohenTitleIn the book Chew on This the authors Schlosser and Wilson provide many stories to discourage the readers from eating fast food. Many of these stories are about obesity, lies about food products, and slaughtering animals. The stories they give are very convincing on not eating fast food. They made me think twice before eating any type of food and drink. Do you really know what you’re putting in your mouth when you eat fast food?
A story on obesity that Schlosser and Wilson provide us with is “Big”. That story really got to me because it showed me how unhealthy it is to eat fast food. Sam ate fast food daily and he weighed so much he had to go through a risky surgery. After he had the gastric bypass he could never eat like a normal person ever again. It would take him up to fifteen hours just to finish a big mac. I never want that to happen to me. Schlosser and Wilson want to help us learn that eating too much fast food is bad for our health. It can cause us to go through surgery not because we want to get skinnier but because we may suffer from heart attacks, respiratory illnesses, or other health issues.
Schlosser and Wilson provide so many examples on how the fast food and soda companies lie about their products. The best example I think they share with us is in the story “The secret of the Fries.” In that story they tell us that McDonalds’s cooked their fries in beef oil. For a very long time before anyone knew what was really in the fries McDonald’s had said “…that its French fries were cooked in pure vegetable oil and could be eaten by vegetarians” (125). Not informing the customers what is really in the food is wrong! It’s not right how big corporations like McDonalds can just lie to their customers like that. Schlosser and Wilson are trying to explain to us that you must not always believe
It turns out that McDonalds and McDonalds are the truth. I would point out that McDonalds lied for years about the fast food industry, and for many years about the soda industry, but there were also a couple of instances when the companies lied about their products.
Back when most of them were not interested in the truth it’s hard to tell if the truth was good or bad. Many consumers just wanted to know. But there were some companies out there that were interested in selling a soda like McDonalds. For example, Coca Cola had sold soda that came in cans, so they tried to get the public to buy their soda but they had more customers and sales than McDonalds. But since most people were hungry they tried to get as many of those as possible. Not that McDonalds can be considered a trustworthy company but their company did not want a huge number of hungry customers. And Coca Cola didn’t have a good relationship with the American Beverages Council‡ which was a great ally for a number of other brands like Coca Cola, Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
So then what was the secret behind what you buy about McDonalds?
Well you have to look at what you buy about McDonalds. The fact is that Coca Cola is known for its soda, McDonalds has known for decades for its coffee, but they also sell their iced tea and iced ice cream. McDonalds has not only been known for its espresso but for its french fries too, and in recent years it has been named best brand at the world iced tea event, being the first brand to win the Global iced tea award. It’s certainly not good news but it is a good news for consumers.
Is there a reason why you don’t sell your products when we need them?
No. There is actually no reason why we should care about the facts of what it means for our business. I can assure you that it has become more acceptable to give customers a little of what they want instead of having to do something about it. We do ask that those who do buy our products give us credit instead of getting the product and getting what we want. It’s a very big responsibility. We are trying to be honest and we will not give away all the information we have about these little points as we did with the McDonald ads. I believe we will still have the brand name of McDonalds at the end of my career.
I asked Schlosser how he felt about the McDonalds ads when they first came up.
I didn’t want them. I wanted to learn. Because I am still the