In today's society, fast food has become an important part of the lives of many Americans. With the growing number of obese people, it's hard not to draw a correlation between the increase in fast food and obesity. Most obese people don't want to be obese and wish they could lose weight, but they continue to struggle with their fast food consumption and obesity. This is due to advertising to consumers, the highly addictive food itself, and most importantly, the way advertising and addiction combine with children to form habits that will be carried over into adulthood. These factors explain why fast foods are responsible for increasing obesity and health risks across America. The government needs to step in and impose regulations on these fast food restaurants so they stop taking advantage of people's weaknesses. Before we can go into detail about how fast food companies are responsible for people eating too much of their food, it must first be proven that fast food is indeed the main problem causing the current obesity in America. Many people know how the number of fast food restaurants in America has increased dramatically over the past few decades, but it is difficult to calculate by how much due to the lack of historical statistics. Additionally, it is difficult to classify certain restaurants as fast food or not. However, a good way to get a sense of the growth of the fast food industry is to take a look at McDonald's, which has been America's most popular fast food chain for decades. In 1968, McDonald's opened its 1,000th American restaurant. This number increased to 13,800 restaurants in 2011 (McDonald's 1), which highlights how people are consuming more fast food compared to the past. Consider middle of paper ......iance on fast food. However, in this case, due to the legitimacy of fast food addiction, as well as too much advertising and the poor quality healthy menus offered, people have been unable to change and continue to go to the wrong direction. As a result, the government must step in, as it has done in the past with tobacco, and regulate the market in order to save people from themselves. By creating a universal standard for measuring the safety of a food, the government can then decide how much to tax certain menu items and, therefore, control their price and demand. Additionally, the government can decide which products will be declared as healthy choices and therefore which products can be advertised. Once the government takes these steps to solve the problems created by fast food, it can lead everyone on the path to a healthier nation..