Peer Reviewed Article - The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight

Gain
The author(s)’ argument and main points

The authors’ main arguments deal with the correlational studies based on obesity rates and

placement of fast food locations. Their main argument is that fast food doesn't appear to hold a

substantial percentage of who to blame for obesity. And the differences between different

minority groups, age gaps, and pregnancy to spot any discrepancies in the correlation. The main

arguments are that present and future fast food locations will have minimal impact on obesity

rates between groups.

● The authors briefly discussed the sensitive beliefs about obesity's strong connection to

fast food locations and quickly disproved these concerns with hard statistics.

● The authors argue that the effect of obesity from fast food locations is much different for

teenagers, men, and pregnant women since it primarily revolves around the resources

available to them.

● The authors' central argument is that they can pinpoint geographical locations where most

people are affected, demonstrating that some restaurants are out of reach, causing most

people to resort to unhealthy, quicker options.

How the author(s) arrived at the argument s/he presents

The author arrives at the argument by first presenting the believed issue: fast food locations

are causing mass obesity nationwide. First, the author slowly strays away from this as he talks

about real analytical data by showing a time span of over ten years of a newly opened fast food

place in a smaller than average size town. First they used a group of 9nth graders as a statistical

sample and they found that obesity rates only increased by a mere 1%. Seeing this faint change
made the authors think that teengers were just an outlier as they usually have faster metabolisms,

so they tested a new location. This fast food place was near a nursing home for kids in a city

where pregnant women were in abundance. They only saw an increase of 1.9% which they have

deemed it was due to their available resources and fast and easy meals that would be much easier

to get and eat then regular food. Therefore rendering fast food to make a very minimal change in

obesity rate giving the authors their main argument.

The evidence the author(s) uses to support the argument

1. The author uses two main ways to support their argument, gathering analytical statistics

and citing the work of other profound researchers in the nutrition space including;

● Matsa’s “Are restaurants really supersizing americans”

● Anderson’s “ Writing and Raisinets: Are School Finances Contributing to Children'

Obesity?"

● Patrcia’s “Maternal Employment and Overweight Children."

● Austin’s “Clustering of fast foods around schools.”

● Beich’s “Why is the developed world obese.”

1. These are some of the many references that the authors used coupled with statistical data

that was scattered throughout the paper that the authors did themselves as professionals,

classifying that as a true research paper. They supported their own experiment by giving

the smallest and most intricate details like their statistical equations in formulas that they

used to run the experiments.

The type of evidence the author(s) uses and how the evidence is used
 1. Janet and Caffano used their evidence all throughout their paper and primarily used their

own experiment while mentioning their references subtly.

2. One reference that they use much more than all of the others is Matsa’s “Are restaurants

really supersizing Americans” as Janet and Caffano mention that this is most closely

related to their paper and drew inspiration from it heavily.

3. The authors proved cut, clear examples of their social experiments and results down to

the percentages they were able to achieve.

4. Janet and Caffano also talked about their professional background as nutritionists adding

to their evidence's reliability.

A breakdown of each section of the text

1. Setting the foundation of their experiment and setting the percentages of the radius that

fast food effects.

2. Testing out the experiment with a different set of sample sizes and completely changing

the statistical population.

3. Noticing the minimal health effects that it holds in 9nth grade students and seeing the

caloric intake versus a normal caloric intake trying to spot any discrepancies.

4. Ruling out outliers in the statistical experiment throughout surveys.

5. Seeing how infected fast food was in calories and grease and trying to correlate metabolic

rates of tennageers and pregant women.

6. They gave background in the fast food space and mentioned old testimonies of previous

college references stating that fast was not bad.

7. A data and summary of all of their analytical statistics and giving the results and final

conclusion of their experiment.

 8. Showing the nitty gritty of their math work showing step by step how they led to their

conclusion and how it supports their original message.

9. Showing the data of both the pregnant women and the 9nth grade children.

10. Providing us as the readers with diagrams and showing us the minamal trends of obesity

and fast food.

11. Giving the estimated amount of damage that a fast food place would hold in a specific

location .

12. Further resin wetting their original message that fast food places will not do much harm

and further reinstating with a little bit of more data.

The main points the author(s) makes

1. The fact that fast food doesn't cause damage to obesity rates, but is minimal and varies

amongst groups of people.

2. How fast food locations act as a resource and are often much easier to get then normal

food.

3. The statistical experiment ranging over the span of ten years and expressing their results

and findings.

4. Understanding the main point of view of what fast food really is and its small adverse

effects that will never outweigh its convenience and speed. ( 5x time more )

How the text connects to the course

The text connects to the course objectives as it properly represents how to mix in

analytical data and math equations in a journal article. It gives us a snippet on how to properly

write and anticipate difficult topics in formal writing. This acts as a primary foundation for all

English literature that any scholarly writer can learn from. Furthermore this makes a writer sound
much more credible and proper when knowing how to make a combination of difficult topics in a

writing.
 Work Cited

Currie, Janet, et al. “The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain.”

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, vol. 2, no. 3, 2010, pp. 32–63. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25760073. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.