Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food by Eric Schlosser

Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food Reviews

• 
  Angela

  so this book is turning out to be much like fast food nation.. but i thought i would post some facts about this book that really get the point across
  
  - 4 meatpacking companies control 84% of the market (tyson, swift and co., excel, and national beef)
  BUT ranchers only get 47 cents to the dollar spend on beef
  
  - 1991 - one billion fish killed in north carolina by disease linked to runoff form slaughter house
  
  -2004 - a 4 million pound pile of cow poop burned uncontrollably for 4 months
  
  - 4 chicken companies control half of the american chicken market
  
  -90% of chicken sold is no longer whole chickens but chicken that has already been cut into pieces (i.e. for mcnuggets)
  
  - a typical chicken farmer only makes $12,000 a year
  
  - chicken are fed (in the feed farms) anything from old pretzels and cookies covered in fat to leftover chicken parts.. making them cannibals
  
  -in feed lots chicken gain weight so fast that if a child grew at a proportional rate they would weigh 286lbs by the time they are 6.. this usually makes chickens unhealthy and many are dying of heartattacks before they can be killed
  
  - some chicken have trouble walking upright because they have been genetically altered to grow bigger breasts
  
  - in 2006 9 billion chickens went through the feedlots to be killed and eaten (a chicken only lives 6 weeks before they are killed.. and all that time they never even get to see the outside)
  
  - in slaughterhouses, 900 cattle are killed in an hour (on average).. that is 6 cows a minute
  
  - OSHA's maximum fine it may impose on slaughterhouses for violating working conditions which resulted in a worker's death is $70,000, compared to the 27 billion that a meat company (Tyson in this example) earns a year..think about the impications
• 
  Leslie Manning

  I don't know how I have read this book twice and rated it without ever giving it a review. So here goes:
  
  Let me start by saying that I have not eaten fast food in the last thirty years. Not McDonald's, not Burger King, not Wendy's, etc. The reasons are many, but none of them because of this book. I made a conscious effort not to partake in the fast food industry before ever reading Chew On This. The main reason I made this choice was because of waste, the yearly usage and dumping of tons of Styrofoam, whether in a trash site or on the side of American highways. The second reason I stopped was this: Way back in 1981, during a trip following my high school graduation, my friends and I stopped at a McDonald's drive-thru to eat in the car on our way to the beach. I ate my burger and fries, but left my ice cream Sundae sitting in its cup on the wide flat dashboard. A few hours later, we arrived at our beach motel. We cleaned out the car, and when I went to throw away the sundae, it was still cold and in-tact. It had sat on that dashboard under the sun for hours. At the time, I thought it was funny. But years later, when I found out that the ice cream was made of polypropylene glycol (think antifreeze), I made a vow never to eat fast food again. (Many food companies use this to prevent ice crystals from forming, but I do my best to stay away from those products, even outside of fast-food chains.)
  
  Chew On This is all about the fast-food industry. While it was written back in 2006, and some of the industry has changed (some for better, some for worse) this book is one I've used as a private tutor with middle and high school students, mainly so they understand where the fast food they love comes from. It also discusses how young people are at the crux of their marketing, as well as their hiring.
  
  All of my students have loved this book. It is written in a way that is understandable and entertaining, but beware: It can get graphic at times, including a photo or two. From the history of the hamburger, to the way a chicken nugget is made, to how McDonald's has revolutionized our eating habits, this book is one that has stayed with me long after reading. The LA Times called the book "eye-opening" and I have to agree one hundred percent.
  
  If you are looking to enlighten one area of your life or your child's life regarding diet, this book may be the one that helps you reach some healthier goals. If anything, it will offer some insight into one of the largest and wealthiest industries in the world.
  
  I believe there are two versions of Chew On This, one for adults and one for younger readers. I used the latter.
• 
  Ian Weitz

  I think that everyone should read this book. It is not a book that you are supposed to like and enjoy to read. It is meant to upset you to take action against the "fast food nation". This book describes how the major fast food companies got started, how they made there fortunes, and what processes they use to make their food. When, you read it you will realize a lot more about fast food than you thought anyone would even know about. It will probably be a quick read, if the book doesn't disgust you enough to stop reading, primarilly becuase this book is intented for pre-teens, not necessarilly for adults. Everyone should read this book, regardless if you are interested in this topic are not, becuase it affects everyone. Whether it is someone who chooses not to eat fast food to those whose culture was changed by fast food. Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson almost explains everything he talks about, in detail, and connects there discussions to real life experiences that people have encountered. In certain parts of the book, the authors make huge lists that usually took up about 75% of the page to emphasize major points. One story after another, and how each experience related to the other, allows the reader to not lose interest in the large amounts of information that is given. I tend to get lost in the middle of text when I have to deal with a lot of information at once. This book allowed me to connect this information to the stories. overall, it isn't an eloquent or a book that has philisphoical epiphany's, but is a great book becuase it greatly illistrates a need to force fast food companies to better there food content.
• 
  Saleh MoonWalker

  Onvan : Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food - Nevisande : Eric Schlosser - ISBN : 618710310 - ISBN13 : 9780618710317 - Dar 259 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2006
• 
  Emily

  This is interesting so far, because not only does it have the facts about food, but it also discusses it in a way that engages the reader and makes you actually want to Learn more.
• 
  Nate

  DO YOU LIKE FAST FOOD? DO YOU? WELL THINK AGAIN BECAUSE IT’S HORRIBLE FOR YOU AND IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD, ALL EXPLAINED IN CHEW ON THIS. in this epic non fiction novel (all true to life!) the author explains what fast food really is through photos, data and stories. Chew on this is an informational book about what happens behind the fast food counter. The author covers topics such as soda coloring, what makes fries taste so good, information about the invention of the hamburger, the life of a fast food chicken, and much more!!!!!!!!!!! This book is structured very well, with each chapter flowing well together and has great diagrams and photos. This book is meant to be read cover to cover.
  
  I think that anyone could love this novel, however I think it especially appeals to those who loathe non fiction because it is exciting and has many interesting short stories. The book is organized into small segments that are easy to read and kept me engaged. Short stories were used to make the information interesting, real and understandable. The author seems like a credible expert on the subject because all of his facts were backed up by examples and reasoning which confirmed their truth. Most of the stories the author shared were negative although I believe there are very few positive stories to be told. After reading Chew On This, you will know about the horrors of fast food like never before. I enjoyed all aspects of this book, and my only qualm is that it ended too soon. I would have liked to learn more about the mechanics of the fry cannon, a super powered gun that is used to shoot fries out of for uniform cuts. I think people who are forced to read non fiction and dislike reading non fiction will find it interesting. I also think teenagers who eat too much fast food should read this book because it will most likely destroy their addiction immediately. I would rate this book 3 Chipotle tacos and an Inn and out shake.
• 
  Cassie Marshall

  So, I decided to read Chew on This because as I have said previously in different reviews that I have always struggled with my weight. Luckily enough, I am not a huge fan of fast food because it makes me sick, although, I have always wondered why a salad from McDonalds costs $7.00 and a hamburger costs $1.00... That is the reason that America has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. As I read this book, I found it very interesting to know that although fast food places claim to have all natural ingredients, always fresh/never frozen ingredients, it is almost always a lie to get you to buy their product. In the back of my mind, I knew that it wasn't true, however, I wanted to believe that huge corporations such as McDonalds, Burger King, etc. wouldn't lie to the public, but they're really just in it for the money.
  
  Not to mention the cruelty to the animals. I've seen my fair share of documentaries about the inhumane way major Fast Food chains slaughter their animals and it makes me sick to my stomach. It brought me to tears just reading about the torture these animals have had to endure just to feed us... I was ready to quit reading as soon as I read it. Also, if I were thinking about eating fast food now, after reading about the addition of dead bug carcasses makes the food a lot less appealing...
  
  This book has really opened my eyes to some of the MANY horrors of the production of how this food is made. It shouldn't even be called food because of its lack of nutritional value; it should be called crap, because that is exactly what you are putting in your body when you eat it. Surprisingly, I feel a lot less inclined to eat at any fast food restaurant due to this book. I feel I should be thanking the author for hammering into my head how dangerous this stuff can be.
  
  I think it is really important for people, especially parents of younger children who have already been exposed to fast food, to read this book because if they can prevent even the slightest craving for fast food in their child, it will be better for them in the long run. Whenever I decide to have kids, I will not allow them to eat fast food.
  
  This is a must read!
• 
  Lainie Lawrence

  Chew on This is a nonfiction book that is a big eye opener to the fast food world. The hamburger started at a county fair in Wisconsin. A 15 year old named Charlie squished a meatball between 2 pieces of bread. It got modified over the years, but that was a start to the revolutionary hamburger today. Did you know that some fast food places were started by the weirdest people? A soldier from World War II created Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Donuts was founded by a high school dropout, and the founder of Domino’s pizza was an orphan. Oddly all of this places started by the people eating McDonald's. Of course there have been some major rebellions against McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC. When a vegetarian found out that McDonald's fries their fries in beef imitation flavor, he told a Hindu newspaper, which launched a big rebellion against McDonald's. People even threw cow poop on Ronald McDonald statues! It ended up with McDonald's donating 10 million dollars to Hindus and vegetarians. When you eat at McDonald's, you probably don’t think about how much the cow or chicken you’re eating suffered. This books explains how chickens are processed, and believe me it is disgusting! It explains the risks of working in meat slaughterhouses, like falling in a pit and turning into lard, or getting your arm caught in a meat grinder. Sometimes if you get obese, you get gastric bypass surgery, like a boy named Sam Fabrikant. Gastric bypass surgery is when they staple your stomach in half. It’s a big risk to do this surgery, there is a slight risk of dying. Some kids are becoming obese because of school lunches. A lady named Alice Waters noticed the horrible lunch in schools and created the Edible Schoolyard in Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. They put an enormous garden, a chicken coop and a wood burning oven outside so the kids could experience firsthand how to garden and cook. They kids even prepared the lunch! In conclusion I loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone who would want to learn the truth behind fast food.
• 
  Katie Brown

  Chew on This is a history book about all of the restraints that we all love. McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendys, Subway, you name it Chew on This has it. The start of the book is talking about the history of the ham burger and the changes one little sandwich can make on the world. When the first few restraints were made that’s when America started getting bigger. And no I don’t men in population or in size, but the amount of people that have become very over weight.
  McDonalds was the first big food chain in America. McDonalds was started by two twin brothers then stolen by a man named Ray Croc. As more and more fast food chains developed America was getting larger and larger. After McDonalds many other people that had no experience started fast food places. 1 year after McDonalds was made Wendys and Taco Bell had become chains as well and so forth with the other fast food places around the world.
  Lunchrooms in schools were becoming some of the most sold items in America. Once McDonalds thought that they should put one of their places in a high school café many other fast food chains joined into the “school sale”. After the first year no doubt that many high schools in America had over weight teens and children in their school.
  I would recommend this book to anybody who has a taste for history and of course, fast food.
  
• 
  Courtney Smith

  I really did not like this book. The authors came across to me as anti-progress and anti-technology and simply used fast food as their platform to argue this.
  
  While the authors did have a lot of data, they would also make statements as fact that had no scientific or numerical basis (i.e. Ronald McDonald is more recognizable than Mickey Mouse). I want data to support these "facts".
  
  If you really put some thought into some of their arguments, the logic made no sense at all. For example, they argued that a food additive was considered safe, but it caused allergic reactions in some people therefore it wasn't actually safe. Ummmm... I have multiple food allergies, my worst being peanuts. Should peanuts thus be considered unsafe for consumption because they cause allergic reactions in some people???
  
  It was also argued that fast food restaurants, in a round about way, are responsible for many of the Alaskan people losing their teeth. To me, the real problem was that they didn't have a good water source and lacked dental care.
  
  I'm not trying to say that fast food is good for you, but it takes the blame for much (too much!) in this book.
• 
  Seyoon choi

  I never knew that people started a mini-war because of hamburgers. Were hamburgers that unhealthy? unhealthy enough to urge people to blow up fast food places? By reading this book, I now know how 'toxic' a hamburger is, thanks to this wonderful book about radioactive fast food.
  
  I thought Mcdonalds were a clean place innocently serving hamburgers to hungry civilians when I was something like 8 years old. NOT. I am now absolutely disappointed about fast food places, because people triggered war with hamburgers, and people put poison in hamburgers discreetly in the olden times. Were hamburgers their enemy? I would rather consider it as dealing with unhealthy food using inevitable violence.
  
  This book showed a somewhat hamburger violence.
• 
  Shaun

  The book starts talking about how McDonald’s got started by Ray Kroc. Eventually, advertisers marketed to kids and then the toys came out so that it would entice the kids to buying more food in order to get the toy. It’s the branding of children, which almost seems like brainwashing, into mini-consumers.
  
  Along the way, however, the jobs at fast food places aren’t that great. One particular chapter I’ll go into detail about how they treat their workers.
  
  These little towns thrived on their own. But through industry, McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC came roaring in. With this, the suburbs came in. What’s so significant about those? They’re all the same. There’s no uniqueness, or special about these towns anymore. Fast Food thrives on new suburban sprawl, and they encourage more sprawl. Interestingly enough, McDonald’s became the world’s largest purchasers of satellite photos in order to see neighborhoods and see where a good location for the next McDonald’s should be.
  
  A teenager wakes up at 5:30 just to go to work. Now, fast food restaurants usually put pretty girls up on the front. Why? To deal with the customers.
  The teens usually don’t feel really awake until about 11:00. Indeed, the fast-food workforce thrives on teens. Why? They aren’t that skilled. So
  
  “instead of relying on a small, stable, well-paid, and well-trained workforce, the fast-food industry seeks out part-time, unskilled workers who are willing to accept low pay.”
  
  Think about it. Teens usually don’t have families to support, and their inexperience makes them easier to control. The fast-food companies don’t need skilled workers. It just needs people to do what they’re told. They can be hired cheaply. And you are substitutable. You don’t want to work here? Fine. We can easily replace you. Indeed, fast-food companies are the first to fight Congress that the minimum wage doesn’t need to be raised. Between 1968 and 1990, the years in which the fast-food chains grew the fastest, the real value of the minimum wage fell almost by half.
  
  “The real value of the US minimum wage is lower today than it was 50 years ago. The fast-food chains earn large profits as wages fall, because it costs them less money to hire workers.”
  
  Think about all these layoffs. Why are there so many layoffs, yet the CEO’s get a huge disproportion of the profits? Being on part of the “crew,” you are employed “at will.” If business is slow, you’re sent home. If it’s busy, you’re asked to stay longer. The managers’ job is to basically encourage “team spirit” and to work hard. Indeed, the word “McJob” has meant “a job that’s low-paying and offers little opportunity to get ahead.” There’s not much of a future.
  
  Jobs always seem fun at first. Why not quit? You need the money! You work so hard at a job that pays so little. These type of jobs become so monotonous and they don’t teach any real skills, that eventually it makes people hate jobs, and there’s skepticism that honest work will get them anywhere. Schlosser writes:
  
  “Studies have found that kids who work twenty hours or less a week during the school year usually benefit from the experience and gain self-confidence from their jobs. But kids who work more than twenty hours a week are much more likely to cut classes and drop out of high school.”
  
  On some occasions, teens have to stay until 2AM, even on school nights. With these jobs, when your shift is over, the managers ask you to stay and work for a few more hours. It’s because of the failure of other people not showing up. A particular teen worked a 19 hour shift. The manager gave her a thank-you gift: a bag of candy.
  
  A teen gets a job in a McDonald’s in Canada. A teen, Pascal, got the job and worked hard. Indeed, Pascal would even show up when other workers failed to show up. He was even employee of the month. Later on, he got a worker evaluation. Pascal only got a 2 out of a 4. Why? It turns out that the hardest workers get low grades. That’s because a worker’s pay is increased based on the grade. If the grades are kept low, then the company doesn’t have to pay that much. Workers had to stay late, and the workers were being treated with disrespect. Suddenly, Pascal and a friend decided to start a labor union. Eventually 75% of the workers signed the cards (you must get at least 50% to have an effect). However, one of the workers snitched. The snitcher got a promotion. All the sudden, McDonald’s hired 24 new crew members. Thus, Pascal didn’t have 50% of the workers. McDonald’s was blocking the union to form. McDonald’s spread rumors about Pascal (it sounds so high school, doesn’t it?) and McDonald’s promised workers free meals if they left the union.
  About a month before a court decision, the owner of the restaurant announced that it was going to be shut down. He claimed that the rent for the building had grown too expensive. The odds of a McDonald’s going out of business in Canada is 300 to 1. Amazing coincidence?
  
  The food is mainly derived of chemicals. The flavor of the fries is actually a chemical to smell (and taste) good. Some of these chemicals were really surprising. Methyl anthranilate is the grape flavor in Kool-Aid, for example. A lot of these chemicals are added to Pop Tarts, Hamburger Helper, Tang, Filet-O-Fish Sandwiches and thousands of other products. The strawberry flavor is a strawberry shake has about 64 chemicals (no strawberries).
  
  There are Bugs in the Candy. Adding color to foods isn’t just dye anymore. Cochineal extract (or carmine or carminic acid) is made of dead bugs from Peru. These bugs are collected, dried, and then ground into a coloring additive. Dannon Strawberry yogurt gets its color from carmine, so do many candies, frozen fruit bars, fruit fillings, and Ocean Spary grapefruit juice.
  
  Why add color? Adding color influences how you’ll taste or drink the product. Would you eat strawberries that weren’t red? However, these colorings have confused people. Kids drinking Windex for example.
  
  Yellow #5: studies have shown that it can cause hyperactivity, headaches, rashes, and asthma. Where is this located? Mt. Dew, Gummy Candies, Jell-O, Lucky Charms and other foods. It’s been banned in some countries but still used widely in the US and Great Britain.
  
  With meat, ranching and the cowboy life are being left behind by a new kind of ranching: factory farms. Ranchers are facing economic problems. McDonald’s is America’s largest beef purchaser. A while back it bought ground beef from 175 local companies. Today, it buys their beef from five companies. A lot of the ranchers have argued that the corporations have used unfair tactics by strangling the market which forces the price of the cattle to go down. Early in history, the trusts could stop these corporations from taking advantage; it was the beef trust. The purpose of the trusts was to break up companies that had grown too large, protect small companies from unfair business tactics so that the prices were set by the free market, not by corporate executives meeting in secret. Eventually, the beef trust was broken. Today, the top four meatpacking companies are: Tyson, Swift & Company, Excel, and National Beef. They control about 84% of the market. But because the companies have grown bigger and more powerful, independent ranchers can’t make a good income anymore.
  In another place, Greeley, Colorado, the smell is a combination of live animals, manure, dead animals being turned into dog food, it’s basically an invisible fog. By gaining a profit, the meatpacking firms cut their costs by cutting the wages of the workers. Meatpacking used to be the best-paying factory jobs in the nation; now it’s one of the lowest-paying jobs. Usually, they hire poor immigrants. Why? They don’t have much power, and they’re easy to manipulate. The cows don’t roam in pastures, but they’re in feedlots. They’re given a special grain to fatten the cows along with growth hormones. But with all this manure, it’s dumped into these lagoon pools which can be 15 feet deep. Sometimes, they leak sending it to rivers and streams. But they also emit gases which can be deadly.
  With chicken, it really took off when McDonald’s invented the Chicken McNugget. Interestingly enough, they have more fat per ounce than a hamburger does. Through this, Tyson company became the world’s largest chicken processor. But the farmer doesn’t get paid that much. Usually chicken farmers quit after about three years. Inside a chicken house, the building is as long as a football field, more than 30,000 chickens packed together. They would never see the outdoors. Their diet consisted of a mixture of old pretzels, cookies covered with fat, leftover meat, fat, blood and bones from chicken slaughterhouses. Basically, the chickens become cannibals. And chickens aren’t even meat-eaters! Chickens prefer grass but these chickens will never see grass in their entire lives. Chickens try to gain about 5.5 lbs. in about one month. That’s like a child weighing 286 lbs. by the age of six. But because these chickens get fat so quick, they can’t walk. Their legs are filled with fluid that they’re in constant pain. Indeed, most have heart problems. They can’t even exercise. Chickens are having heart attacks. If you open up a chicken, there’s a thick layer of fat around the chicken’s heart. The purpose is to fatten the chickens as much as possible.
  
  How were chickens killed in the old days? The farmers just grabbed them and chopped their heads off with an ax. Nowadays, you hang their legs from an overhead chain. The chickens try to wriggle free that they sometimes break their legs. What happens is that the chain moves and then it dips the chickens in water that’s charged with electricity? This is supposed to knock the chickens unconscious. However, there are some chickens that aren’t knocked out. So what happens next means that they feel it. Even McDonald’s has admitted that one or two out of every hundred chickens aren’t knocked out. The chain moves to a sharp rotating blade that cuts their throats. Now if the chickens aren’t stunned, they’re going to feel it. However, there are still some chickens that can avoid the blade, which means what happens next is even more painful. The chain then dunks the chickens into boiling hot water so that the feathers can be removed. This isn’t just boiling water, it’s scalding hot. Indeed, no chicken has been known to survive it. So the chickens who are still alive are basically boiled to death. A video was released showing what happens inside this chicken factory farm. Some of the workers would throw the chickens (like a football) against the wall. In other cases, the workers would jump on the birds or throwing them up against the wall again. One has said, “I like to hear the popping sound they make.” Why this cruelty? The production line is moving too quickly.
  
  Now you might say, “but that’s the only way to get the meat out quick.” Well, in Europe, they don’t have this process. They are kept in crates, then placed in a sealed chamber, then forced to breathe a gas that painlessly kills them unconsciously. So chickens never get boiled alive. A study has shown that this was more efficient than the electrified water, better welfare for the birds, and better for the workers in the plant, without affecting the quality of meat. However, it’s more expensive. Going back to Pollan, he checks out McDonald’s and was surprised with some of the foundings. (I was too.) For example, a chicken McNugget contains dimethylpolysiloxene. It’s a carcinogen. The McNugget also contains tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHG). It’s lighter fluid! Ingesting five grams of lighter fluid and kill. About 0.02 percent of TBHG is in the McNugget. With fast food, it’s doesn’t have that great savoring moment. After all, which would you rather have: fast food or a home-cooked meal? A home-cooked meal just feels (and tastes) more satisfying. Thus, people eat more and more fast food to try and get that “savory” feeling (and taste) that they once had.
  
  So much cattle comes in that human error can cause unnecessary pain for the animals, injure workers, and contaminate the meat. The workers are basically cogs. In the 1950s, unions had a lot of influence: they were the highest-paid jobs, got good medical care, they could speak their mind, and it provided a good wage. In the 1970s, fast-food became popular, so wages had to be cut, moved the companies to rural places to weaken the unions, and mainly hired immigrants (usually illegal). The production line was sped up. Nowadays, meatpacking is one of the lowest-paid jobs in the US. It’s now become the most dangerous. The line moves so fast that the workers who cut the cattle from an overhead chain sometimes accidentally stab another co-worker or themselves with the knives and hooks. In the old days, plants slaughtered about 50 cattle an hour. Thirty years ago, it was 175 cattle an hour. Nowadays, it’s about 400 cattle an hour. That’s about 7 cattle per minute. With the increase in pace, the chances of injuries goes up. Faster pace means higher profits. If a worker dies on the job, the maximum fine is $70,000. But these companies make billions every year. An executive has a better chance of winning the lottery than facing criminal charges for causing injury of a worker. However, the workers can’t complain. Why not? They’re illegal immigrants. If workers are injured, usually, you let them go. They usually quit, become injured, or cannot do manual labor. Thus, these workers often become trapped in poverty.
  
  In 1993, nearly 200 people were hospitalized, 4 people died from contaminated meat from Jack in the Box. Most of them were children. Other fast-food places were contaminated. McDonald’s in 1982. About 200,000 people are sick from something they eat everyday, 900 are hospitalized, 14 die. These increases in sickness is due to the way American food is produced. Usually, food poisoning was from a small outbreak: church gathering, family picnic, wedding receptions. Only one area of people got sick. But now, food is produced en mass that millions can get sick.
  
  What’s interesting is that if toys causes major harms to children, the government can demand that all of those toys be removed. But the government cannot order a meatpacking company to remove contaminated beef. The government can’t even fine the companies. Lobbyists are close to Congress. Cattle don’t get much exercise. They mainly stay in a certain place and live among their own manure. To slaughter the cow, you have to really careful about cutting the hide off. But because everything is moving so fast, sometime the job isn’t the efficient. The digestive system is pulled out by hand. A single worker pulls the guts out of sixty cattle every hour. That’s one cattle per minute. Doing it right takes a lot of skill; doing it wrong means you spill all of the contents everywhere. But we’ve already learned what the meatpacking companies hire? Are these skilled workers? No. Therefore, meat gets contaminated a lot. With ground beef, it’s usually old dairy cows, cows which are already sick and diseased in the first place. Cows can live up to forty years. Guess when they get slaughtered? Around the age of four. That’s when their milk production begins to fall. One patty at a fast-food restaurant can come from hundreds or even thousands of cattle. However, germs can easily spread. And E. Coli gets spread too because it mainly comes from one source: poop. That’s right. There’s poop in the meat!
  
  How many of you would eat dog? Why not? Pigs are actually more intelligent than dogs. The sows are confined in crates that they can’t turn around. Once the piglets are born, it’s even more crowded. The piglets, who are friendly by nature, start to bite and they bite off each other’s tails. Thus, the farmer chops off their tails. At the slaughterhouses, the ramps are really high and the path curves. Why? It’s so that the cattle doesn’t see what’s coming up.
  
  There has also been talks about gaining massive weight. The authors talk to two kids who have gained weight by eating fast food. One has already had gastric bypass surgery, the other was contemplating it. In high school, these kids usually go across the street and eat fast-food. Indeed, most fast-food companies have an “80-20 rule.” About 80 percent of their money that McDonald’s earns comes from just 20 percent of its customers. With this, the industry encourages people to eat bigger portions. Along with the health problems, the heart is full of fat, arteries are clogged, the spine isn’t as strong (because of osteoprosis) and the blood vessels in the brain is constricted. High schoolers are more likely to break their bones if they drink soda constantly. With sodas, some cities have their soda cheaper than water. Their teeth aren’t that great though.
  
  It seems like a great idea, but at the same time, the major critique has been: isn’t the individual in charge of whether s/he goes to a fast food place. If you don’t like fast-food, don’t go! So where’s individual responsibility in all this? The authors reply that while individuals should have the responsibility, it’s a different story when it revolves around children. With so much fast food around, and with the advertisements, it’s considered exploitation of children. Marketing to kids by bringing only fast-food and soda to schools doesn’t give the kids the full details about the problems behind these things.
  
  “But won’t McDonald’s go out of business if their whole system changes?” you might ask. No. The authors contend that there are a few places that treat their workers fairly, animals without suffering, and without the whole marketing campaign. In-N-Out Burger is one example.
  
  Finally, it talks about the globalization of fast food. When Iraq fell to the Americans, guess what was the first thing installed in Iraq? A Burger King. Imagine that. You bring democracy and freedom to a state, and you’d probably want the first thing there to symbolize the struggle, but it’s a fast-food joint. Throughout the world, everything is becoming part of the fast-food industry that political scientist Benjamin Barber has called it a “McWorld.”
  
  In the end, I think it’s a good book even though it’s written to a younger generation. There’s still some questions that can be brought up to the table, but I’ll let this review pass as is. Wow, I thought this would be a short review but it’s longer than I thought.
• 
  Horace Derwent

  of course i know what a chicken ‘nugget’ really is, it's made of mashed chicken heads, chicken claws, chicken necks, chicken wing tips and chicken asses (plus some chicken skin)
• 
  Franny

  (My reviews are intended for my own info as a language arts teacher: they serve as notes and reflections for teaching and recommending to students. Therefore, spoilers may be present but will be hidden.)
  
  SUMMARY: I was surprised at what a quick read Chew On This ended up being for a nonfiction text aimed at young adult readers. Jam-packed full of interesting facts about fast food, authors Schlosser and Wilson have put together a book that is both appalling and eye-opening: either way, there's no denying it is an engrossing informational text (with emphasis on the 'gross' in many parts!).
  
  Chapters contain information about popular fast food chains' histories, advertising campaigns aimed at children, workplace practices, food production and service, and impact on customers' health. Except for the chapter on the lack of healthy food and drink choices offered at fast food joints, the information was pretty new to me. The chapter about pop was the only one that lost my interest a little, as the authors strayed a bit from their focus on McDonalds and KFC, and instead went after Coca-Cola. (I don't have a problem with their views, by the way; it's just that this section seemed a bit disjointed as the authors jumped from fast food to soda to dental work to pop sales in Alaska and so on.)
  
  THEME: The authors present a clear claim that fast food has changed Americans' eating and even work habits for the worse, and that we should avoid giving these restaurants our business whenever possible. The afterword reveals that, following the publication and promotion of Chew On This, fast food executives (or their marketing companies, at least) and food industry groups went after their message with media appearances, websites, and letters to schools. I would love to have my students check out some of this anti-Chew propaganda to fact-check and compare the arguments made.
  
  READABILITY: Should be no problem for any middle-grade student. Sentence structure and word choice make even the more complex passages easy to comprehend. Some photos are present, which are helpful, and I actually wish there had been a few more to enhance some of the ideas and concepts.
  
  APPROPRIATENESS: I can't imagine any students or their parents having problems with this book...unless they are a part of upper management at Wendy's or something. The descriptions of the cattle and chicken slaughterhouses were not overly-descriptive, but they may make some a bit squeamish.
• 
  Brandy Simmons

  "Chew on This" by Eric Schlosser is a nonfiction YA novel about the history of fast food and the long lasting effects it has had on our culture. Schlosser effectively combines human interest stories with facts about the industry. Schlosser gives us the stories of the men who founded the fast food restaurants we have all come to know. Most of the novel focuses on McDonald's, which was the pioneer of the fast food kitchen and franchise. This novel covers a wide area of topics, from the fast food workforce to what is actually in the food. As a result, it forces us to think about how fast food has shaped our eating habits, our body, our children and even our jobs. This book goes beyond the unhealthy part of fast food (which, by now, we all know) and shows how it has changed our culture.
  
  "Chew on This" is a great read for students in 5th-8th grade. It encourages students to question the reality they have come to know. I appreciated the chapter regarding artificial and natural flavors. I am an avid ingredient reader and I have often wondered what these words meant. I had assumed natural flavor was the complete opposite of artificial flavor, when in fact, they are created in the same lab!!! My mind was blown when Schlosser indicated the same companies who manufacture many popular household cleaners and perfumes also manufacture these flavor additives. I began thinking about how this one company bombards two of my senses daily. I love all my household cleaners and candles because of the way they make my house smell. I love my body lotions, perfume, body sprays and specialty soaps because the way they make my body smell. I began going through my cupboard and discovered even some of my seasonings have "natural flavor" as the last ingredient. One of these was my all purpose seasoning I put on almost everything. Now I know why it makes everything taste so good! Even when I cook a fresh meal(which is most nights) I was adding fake stuff to my food without even realizing it. I felt manipulated on many levels. To think one manufacture was responsible for so many aspects of my life is frightening.
  
  My biggest criticism of this novel is the obvious bias. When writing nonfiction, I believe it is paramount to remain objective. It gives your story more credibility. After reading this novel, I would like more information about everything. I feel like I cannot accept this as full truth without some additional reading. Perhaps this was the author's intent!
• 
  David16

  Chew on This was a great book. I liked Chew on This for a couple of reasons. It has information that you would probably not know about unless you read the book. It had very long chapters but those chapters were split into mini chapters. The mini chapters kind of made the chapters more like sections or topics. Each chapter has one main focus and than has different stories about it. The chapters were about things such as where the meat comes from in your fast food and how the fast food industry is using children to their advantage. Even though I am not a big fast food eater and I am not really interested about fast food. The book was still really interesting to me and I think twice about eating and doing a lot of things now. It's not even all about fast food stores and factory's. This book goes over history of fast food, history of restaurants and knowledge about everyday food that almost everybody eats. It is a great nonfiction book.
  There are some parts in Chew on This where it does get a little boring. In my opinion all nonfiction books eventually get boring though. I just got a little tired of hearing the same stuff over and over again in the chapters. There were parts that I thought the author was running out of things to write. It all didn't sum up to anything either. I sort of ended. I didn't think that a book like Chew on This should have an ending that didn't show what the whole book really meant. I am not trying to say the book wasn't good though. If your. Interested in where fast food came from or want to read something you've never heard before, Chew on this is a good book for you. I am giving it four stars for all the interesting stuff I learned about it.
  
  
• 
  Julial

  In the informational non fiction Chew on This, Eric Scholosser and Charles Wilson inform the reader about the disturbing secrets and poor heath conditions caused by fast food. This informational non-fiction book details information on how the food at fast food restaurants ,such as McDonald's, is raised, slaughtered, and prepared; also, it has real scenarios of people that work or eat there regularly at fast food restaurants, and how their experiences effected them. Chew on This contains eye-opening information that will cause the reader to think twice before pulling into a McDonald's drive thru.
  
  I appreciated how the author wrote gruesome details about topics pertaining to things like slaughter and what substances are used in fast food. I learned that crushed up bugs were used to dye milkshakes pink. The author cleverly composed phrases that stick in your head such as, "The birds that somehow live to this point are boiled to death(181)." This quotation came from a chapter titled "Shocking", and I have found that it is the most memorable chapter in the book because it describes in detail how chickens at Pilgrim's Pride slaughterhouse (one of the major chicken suppliers for McDonald's) were outrageously killed. I found this book very informative, and I will keep this book in mind when I am deciding whether or not to stop at a fast food restaurant. I plan to live a long life, and not have major heath problems in my mid-twenties caused by the effects of fast food. I would recommend this book to everyone, because even if you have no plans to stop eating fast food you should know what you are putting in your body and what it can do to you.
• 
  Martyn

  This is a great book and although it's a kids non fiction title it was dense enough for an adult to get something out of reading it. At 260 odd pages it's not slight by any means, and does pack a punch in terms of research. The star off is for grammatical problems, i.e. using insure for ensure enough times for me to notice it.
  
  I have always had a fuzzy headed notion that the famous fast food places started out as innocent mom'n'pop restaurants that were changed by money men over time into the soul sucking establishments that we know and loathe today, but this book set me straight. It seems that the major fast food players were always after our money in return for very little, asking us to throw in our health, critical thinking and work security into the bargain.
  
  It's an eye opener, even for a jaded old soul like myself. I haven't passed beneath a golden archway for some three years now, and I haven't partaken of the "Real Thing" in all that time also, mainly for political reasons, but this book has challenged me to add a few more restaurants and soft drinks to my banned list. Rather fortunately, because my health could use it.
  
  I have very little personal will power when it comes to crappy food but I did feel a wave of nausea when passing a smelly fried chicken place after reading this - hey, maybe this book will genuinely save my life!