In order to treat obesity something must be done about all of the fast food restaurants and the choices that people have on the food that they can consume and the food itself. 1 out of ever 4 Americans eats at a fast food restaurant each day. This is a 40% increase in a little over 30 years. Most fast food restaurants would not be nearly as bad as everyone makes them out to be if they would keep their portion sizes reasonable. Information shows that a normal fast food meal including a burger of some sort, a medium fry order, and a medium drink all add up to be 1600 calories. This is two-thirds of the recommended amount of total calories per day and it is all in only one meal. This also just happens to be double the amount of calories that the human body can process at one sitting while the rest is stored as fat (Obesity Epidemic). Over the years there has been a near exact correlation between increase in portion size and obesity. Many studies have shown that people will eat what is in front of them no matter what the portion size and no matter what their initial hunger was. “It's a pleasure-seeking activity that's prone to abuse, just like cigarettes, or cocaine, it gets right to the basic reward centers of the brain”, says George Blackburn a professor of nutrition at Harvard University (Obesity Epidemic). Also going along with this another study, performed by Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development had nearly the exact same findings, “Everyone responded to the increased portion size by eating more, including both men and women, dieters and non-dieters, fat people and slim, and those who habitually clean their plates as well as those who don't”, said lead researcher Barbara Rolls (Obesity Epidemic). Contrary to popular belief, Americans are not just super sizing their portions when they visit a restaurant. Investigations have shown also that Americans also now more prone to “super sizing” their portions even at home in order to match the portions that they are receiving from restaurants and fast food places which have also increased over time. In the past 20 years the average hamburger has increases its size by 23%, the average Mexican plate 27%, the average soft drink size by 52%, and the average salty snack by a shocking 60%. Many of the fast food restaurants, such as McDonalds, have responded to the publics comments by saying “We don't sell nutrition, and people don't come to McDonald's for nutrition,” (Obesity Epidemic). Even though many lawsuits have been filed against fast food places and lost, the fact that there are lawsuits being filed is a threat in and of itself. Even though Americans complain about being obese, they choose to do nothing about their habits when it comes to ordering foods while out to eat. In a study conducted by the National Restaurant Association about 95% of people feel obligated to order what they want and enjoy whatever they like at a restaurant and that two-thirds of then are sick and tired of hearing about what foods are good and what foods are bad for them (Obesity Epidemic). At the same time that people are complaining about weight loss and dieting, people are also complaining that some fast food restaurants are getting too healthy. This is primarily the reason why many healthy alternatives to items in fast food restaurants have flopped and have been discontinued and while people want to be healthy and fit the companies know not to push the healthy concept very hard because the people who eat the double meat and get the large sodas are consider to be the “core customer” (Obesity Epidemic).

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