A Fast Food Ban Fails: Is Healthy Fast Food The Answer?

Healthy fast food is something most of us dream of. A place where we could get fresh, organic meals made with whole ingredients and no preservatives. But that place is a far cry from the-anything-but-healthy fast food currently on offer.

In an effort to protect their residents’ health, some governments have decided to go the other way, banning fast food chains from making further progress. Unfortunately, one such ban on fast food establishments in south L.A., has recently proven to be a big flop.

The hope was that the ban would stem the rise of obesity in the area, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. Between 2007 and 2012, when the ban was in place, obesity continued to rise and rose at an even quicker pace in south L.A.

These findings have led many to make some wild and exaggerated claims about how healthy fast food is and about how any ban on fast food is a terrible idea. Yet, such claims almost certainly oversimplify the issue and are incredibly misguided.

Don’t Ban Fast Food, Make Healthy Fast Food

The first problem is that the ban only applied to new, stand-alone restaurants. Already existing fast food establishments were allowed to continue operating and new chains were allowed to open in malls. The availability of fast food didn’t really change at all.

The second problem is that no better alternative was provided. The fact is that obesity and poverty go hand-in-hand. From 2007 to 2012 the area was hit particularly hard by the Great Recession. Foreclosures skyrocketed. Many people lost their jobs.

This was not a time when people had the luxury of worrying about their nutrition or weight. When you are struggling to survive, you eat what is offered. Whether that’s the carb-loaded, salt-heavy food from the food bank, or the Value Meals at McDonald’s.

It was an extremely stressful time, where people had very little choice or control over what they ate. Cheap, preferably free, and convenient were what mattered. The fact that a ban on a few new restaurants had little impact on obesity should be surprising to no one.

The Freedom To Eat Healthy Fast Food

The problem, in other words, is not that people are too free to eat fast food, but that they are too limited in their ability to get affordable, healthy food.

A ban of any kind is always going to be rejected by a country built on the ideas of personal responsibility and individual freedom. People don’t like being told what they can and cannot eat. And if you’re really only going to go halfway, like the city of L.A. did, you’re simply not going to see results.

A better approach would be to help people gain access to a healthy diet. Currently it’s still more expensive to eat organic, nutrient dense foods. Though the estimates vary, a healthier diet can cost thousands of dollars more a year, or 20% more each trip to the store.

It’s cheaper and easier to fill up on empty calories from soda, pop, chips, and candy. For many cost is still the most important factor in determining what they eat, and paying more is simply not an option. Limiting their options further by banning fast food, just doesn’t make sense.

Making Healthy Fast Food A Reality

The US does a particularly poor job of offering healthy alternatives to begin with. Fast food places in the UK, for example, have healthier options and generally include far less sugar and fewer chemicals in their meals. Fast food chains won’t change overnight, but we should put more pressure on them to do so.

In the same way, we should continue to demand more organic products. While prices have stayed stubbornly high, as demand increases for organic goods, they will become more affordable. Moreover, as they gain more widespread support, there will pressure on the US government to quit subsiding farmers producing GMO crops with harmful herbicides and pesticides.

Consumer demand for antibiotic-free meat is already having similar impacts on fast food chains, like McDonald’s, and large grocers, like Costco.

The Future of Healthy Fast Food

The best way to combat the rise of fast food is through our children. They form their tastes early in life and we are seeing the terrible effects a diet high in added sugar and unhealthy fats can have. It is important that we change our preferences, what we eat, and the way we live.

In the end, it shouldn’t even be necessary to ban fast food. People should stop going on their own, as the benefits of eating better become more and more apparent, and hopefully the cost of doing so comes down.

In the land of the free, people want more freedom, and that means the freedom to eat healthy food without worrying if they can pay their other bills. And if that food can also be made fast and be available just around the corner, well that would be even better.