Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

Christian Century, Dec 19, 2001 by Lillian Daniel

It's enough to steer you away from beef and turn you into a french fry goblin. But those who indulge in french fries may be interested to know that their flavor comes from chemically standardized potatoes, grown around the world to McDonald's specifications, frozen and then fried, up until 1990, in beef tallow. That gave the french fries more saturated beef fat per ounce than a hamburger. After protests, McDonalds switched to frying in vegetable oil and produced the beef tallow flavor through the miracles of modern flavor science.

Americans eat fast food mindlessly, scarfing down a burger in their cars, or feeding children in a hurry between soccer practice and ballet. Schlosser wants us to think about those decisions. "I've written this book out of a belief that people should know what lies behind the shiny, happy surface of every fast food transaction. They should know what really lurks between those sesame seed buns. As the old saying goes: you are what you eat."

To Christians, the words "You are what you eat" have added meaning, since our central act of worship gathers us around a table. We also follow a man famous for angering the wealthy by eating at the tables of the poor. Christians who read Fast Food Nation will be challenged to consider the plight of workers, as our nation moves from a manufacturing to a service economy. Do all these service jobs have to be low paying, or could we envision a world in which food service workers get more than the crumbs from the table?

Christians might also examine the American obsession with foods that do not really nourish the body. Are we trying to fill a spiritual emptiness with empty calories?

As the fattest nation on earth continues its attack on one of the skinniest, Fast Food Nation gives us food for thought.

Reviewed by Lillian Daniel, senior minister of the Church of the Redeemer (United Church of Christ) in New Haven, Connecticut.