Triple-wide coffins holding 300 pounds, increases in airplane passenger weight, and clubs rewarding customers that are a certain amount overweight, all responses to 60% of American adults being obese (Mackay and Mensah 36). Obesity's prevalence affects global issues as well as local. As Earths population increases, the need for food also increases resulting in a mass consumed mass produced society. This mass consumption has contributed to the increase in fast food establishments and higher calorie diets, resulting in less home cooked meals and more high calorie quicker options. Because of the prevalence of fast food options, people gravitate towards them because they are fast, portable, and cheap. The prevalence of fast food has distorted what young adults and children consider to be a well balanced diet. Because of the abundance of fast food options nationally and the mass appeal of them, college campuses include these options in their dining facilities to give students options that will have mass appeal. With multiple fast food chains available on college campuses less students eat well balanced meals because fast food is easily transportable and more appealing to students.

 Controversy stands with this issue because fast food establishments do contain "healthy options" like salads and grilled options on their menus, but many of those options are just as high calorie as typical entrees. Secondly, controversy stands with the education process of health and nutrition, and whether schools should educate students on what a healthy diet consists of. The addition of nutrition will increase the cost of education systems, and will also require universities to hire an educated professional to teach the course. It is also argued that regardless of education students still choose meals off of personal desire and nutritional information will not change meal decisions. 

Secondly, it is arguable that the prevalence of internet and easy attainable information allows students to obtain information about heath and nutrition freely instead of paying for education. However, I argue that education on nutrition needs to become a concern with University of South Carolina along with colleges nationwide because administrators are responsible to educate students to make them successful later in life. Extending education on nutrition and health would provide relevant education for students that will develop better eating habits during and after college years.

 The University of South Carolina needs to emphasize the benefits a healthy lifestyle provides because their job is to educate America's next generation and make future generations better than those now. USC should concern this issue into administrator's job title because it is their job to provide quality education to students, including education on how to live a healthy lifestyle during and after their experience at USC to reverse and eliminate obesity issues for years to come in the United States.

The evolution of food begins 1.9 million years ago with the invention of fire and cooking. After the invention of fire, cavemen found that "heat coagulates the collagen fibers that make meat tough and turns them brittle. Suddenly you've got something that you can eat pretty quickly" (Townsend 529), this evolutionary discovery increased the amount of nutrients humans obtained from food, but also made foods that were indigestible, digestible. As the population grows globally, producing enough food has become an issue and has resulted in mass producing food through the fast food industry. "In 1996, approximately 40% of the U.S. household food dollar was paid out on eating outside the home in 1986. This ratio increased to 47.3% in 2004, 48.7% in 2010, 49.5% in 2012 (Hwang and Cranage 520).  In response to the rapid consumption of fast food products, the United States must consider ways to regulate how food is advertised and produced.

Because of the major changes in foods and packaging, the United States attempts to pass laws to regulate advertising and what heath information is required to be told to consumers. In 1906 The Pure Food and Drug Act was passed to regulate misbranding and adulteration. "Food was considered to adulterated when it contained added poisonous substances or hid defects, and was considered misbranded when the label was deemed to be misleading" (Meijer, Franssens, and Meulen 435). Because of the increase in fast food consumption, the government currently has a harder time regulating labeling because items like human growth hormones and genetically modified foods have not been proven to have negative effects, therefore do not fall under misbranding or adulterated.

 As fast food options increase on a national level, they also become more prevalent in on-campus dining facilities like USC's dining halls. Fast food is a common choice for students and university administrators because it is a fast and cheap option that has mass appeal. In contrary to the rapid growth of fast food consumption, "people have increased their consumptions of fruits and vegetables and performed more regular exercises than before" (Hwang and Cranage 521).  This growth can be explained because home cooked meals is a custom that has gone out of style currently, but authors like Jessica Harris advocate for its benefits, which makes it more appealing. 

Harris elaborates on her childhood experiences in the 1950's in New Jersey and explains that "North and South alike, middle-class African Americans ate the same cornbread and friend chicken and chitterlings and foods from traditions of the African diaspora", but also "foods that expressed our middle classness and reflected our social and political aspirations" (Harris 540). This insight illustrates that in the 1950's food was an event and was more than consumption, it was a way to bring family and friends together. Presently the United States has highlighted the obesity problem and ways to reverse the affects the fast food industry contributes. In a response our society has a love for "vintage" practices and strive to bring back customs that were from outside of the current time period as a trend. This nostalgia for past customs potentially explains why vegetable and fruit intake has increased because even though fast food is readily available it is trendy to have home cooked meals instead. However, regardless of the increase of fruit and vegetable intake with more exercise the obesity rate in America is still increasing, highlighting that regardless Americans still consume high calorie meals.

Even though fruit and vegetables intakes have been increasing, they are still lower than previous years. Low fruit intake qualifies as "fewer than five servings a day" (Mackay and Mensah 36). Alternative life styles such as vegetarianism and organic farming have also emerged as a way to counteract America's mass consumption and obesity problem by creating dietary trends like organic farming and vegetarianism. Organic farming has become more trending as as healthier option because it is "products grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or growth hormones" (Dahm, Samonte, and Shows 571).  Graham Hill promotes weekday vegetarianism as a way to promote a healthier lifestyle and decrease animal cruelty and product waste. Weekday vegetarianism qualifies as "nothing with a face Monday through Friday. On the weekend, your choice" (Hill).  These alternative lifestyles are direct responses to abandon mass consumption, and highlight ways for Americans to change their lifestyle. 

Elizabeth Kiefer, Valerie Senkowski, and Paul Brandscum advocate that as electronic media increases so does the amount of information obtained by the internet. In a 2014 study, "58% search the Internet for health information for themselves and adults with a college education were more likely to search for health information" and "73.4% of college students reported using the Internet to find health-related information, and 27.8% report that they often or very often consulted the Internet for health-related issues" (Senkowski and Brandscum 232). This study illustrates that not only are college students using the internet as a primary source for research, but health concerns and interest's college students. This information highlights that USC students are interested in health issues and want more education, however students do not have the knowledge to differentiate nutritional facts from opinions.  

Currently when students are asked about knowledge on organic foods, only 29% of students bought organic foods regularly even though organic foods were perceived to be better tasting and healthier because their views were not strong enough to encourage purchases (Dahm, Samonte, and Shows 571).  USC offers an abundance of fast food options with only one fresh salad bar in the main dining hall in Russell House. The abundance of these fast food options limits students to only know mass produced high fat options and be unaware that local, fresh, and healthy foods can be offered not only in just salad form. However, the lack of fresh food in dining halls results in students eating what they are accustomed to, high processed unhealthy foods.

Fast food options are abundant across college campuses because they are quick and cheap options that have mass appeal to students and faculty. Kiefer supports that "college is also the place where you can start establishing good eating patterns that will last a lifetime" and good eating habits need to be a priority for students. USC's on-campus dining hall contains multiple hot-line options in addition to a second story that contains only fast food options. In addition to the abundance of fast food options researchers suggest that avoiding fast food options on-campus still does not result in the best nutrition because the hot-line options contain "higher fat and added sugar intake, similar to fast-food purchasing" (Pelletier & Laska, 80). This information suggests that even without consumption of fast food, students still do not have healthy options readily available. In order to encourage students to eat healthier USC must offer a healthier option. USC must be aware of the amount of sugar and sodium that are used in their hot line meals to ensure that healthier options are available to students and that they are actually the healthier option.  

The opposition stands with this claim because students are unadvised and regardless of education students will chose what they please. However, in a 2008 study, men and women were observed to determine if calorie information affected meal choice. This study concluded that "Women ordered fewer calories per meal and lower calories per item when calorie information was provided than when it was not. Men ordered equivalent numbers of calories per meal and calories per item in the two conditions" (Gerend 85). This study illustrates that caloric information and education are influential factors in meal decisions because women were swayed in their decisions when presented with caloric information. Women frequently have more education on diet and nutrition because of the amount of diets women go on, illustrating why men were not swayed by the caloric information. This claim is strengthened when students were involved in a study on the healthiness of food options and the students that had better education on nutrition were more critical of menu choices at restaurants and fast food establishments (Hwang and Cranage 521). These studies indicate that education on nutrition do impact what food options students chose, and the more educations students obtain the healthier options they chose. 

In an attempt to promote healthy living, nationally the United States can promote healthy eating by "taxing things like soda, French fries, doughnuts and hyper processed snacks" (Bittman 583). Adding a "two cent tax per ounce in Illinois would reduce obesity in youth by 18 percent" and a "penny-per-ounce tax on sugar sweetened beverages would generate at least $13 billion a year" (Bittman 586). This tax nationally would allow healthy options to become more affordable, encouraging low incoming people, like college students to eat more nutritionally. This tax also would affect the options that are included in vending machines because if high sugar and fat options are more expensive vending machines may include more options like fruits, trail mix, and whole grain snacks that are cheaper for the companies and studnets.

Locally, USC administrators must educate students on health and nutrition, while replacing high calorie option currently on-campus. When observing all the health topics searched by students on the internet, nutrition and exercise were on the top of the list (Dour et. all 288). USC students are interested in health and nutrition, however many are uneducated how they can implement a better lifestyle. I promote that USC include nutrition classes as electives available for all level students to learn about healthy eating habits, where to get healthier options, and different cooking cooking methods. Educating students on healthy options, while also illustrating different cooking methods could encourage students that healthy options are easily differentiated from high processed foods and can also be cooked in advanced and then reheated, making them quick options like fast food, with less calories.

Secondly, USC administrators may continue the produce market, but provide organic and locally grown options in addition to local stores. USC could promote organically grown food by including locally grown options in on-campus dining facilities to illustrate different ways fruits and vegetables can be incorporated into daily diets. Then, USC may offer recipes used in on-campus dining halls to promote students to cook healthy options at home, exemplifying that healthy foods may also be flavorful. USC's weekly farmers market may also sell locally grown fruits and vegetables with a discount to students to make organic healthy options more affordable affordable and convenient for students. The healthy farm market not only encourages students to buy these products, but they also encourage the education process students experience in class. Having the farmers available during the selling process allows for farmer to directly educate students as to why locally grown organic foods are a more sustainable option. The farmers also may persuade students to buy local products because it helps the local farmers stay in business.

Finally, I encourage USC to incorporate alternative food options in dining halls to promote diets filled with fruits and vegetables with less meat consumption. Grahm Hill encourages students in his speech to adopt a weekday vegetarian lifestyle, where Monday through Friday people live as vegetarians and on weekends it is their choice. Americans currently eat twice as much meat then they did in the 1950's. Through this program Americans would reduce the amount of meat intake by 70% helping to reduce animal cruelty, save money, and lessen the amount of obesity (Hill). Cutting down on meat consumption not only helps the obesity issue locally, but also global warming. "Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide  --  a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and which stays in the atmosphere for 150 years" Replacing meat consumption with vegetables allows for over 40% of the worlds land to be opened for other needs, while also allowing for 55% more water that is used on animal agriculture to be used for nations in need of water (Andersen Cowspiracy). Providing students with information about eating habits and global issues highlights that mass production not only affects the nutrtion of food in America, but also affects the Earth because land has to be available to sustain America's eating habits.

In a response to the rapid consumption of fast food products in the United States, obesity rates have increased tremendously within the past decade. University officials must be held responsible to educate college students on what a healthy diet consists of while also promoting healthy options over fast food convenience. Encouraging a healthy lifestyle to college students may potentially result in better health later in life, benefits to the local economy through locally grown products, and reversing ecological issues mass production contributes. To encourage a better life for the next generation, USC administrators must incorporate nutritional education into academic curriculum while including healthier options on campus to deter students from fast food consumption that increase obesity in America, but also destruct the planet.

