Instant Gratification

In Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation he discusses the role that instant gratification plays in the consumption of food. First of all, fast food depends on visual cues to entice customers; Schlosser reports that “more than 70% of fast food visits are ‘impulsive’” (Schlosser 66). These visual cues are reinforced by the food itself, which more resembles “food products” than what we might consider ‘real’ food. Real food is food that doesn’t go through a process of mechanization and design to be eaten. It doesn’t contain chemical additives that are essential to it tasting good prior to consumption. It is hard to eat raw, uncooked food prodcuts, for instance, without heating them up. Likewise, it would be difficult to eat food products, such as Bagel Bites, if they did not contain all the additives that make them “taste” good to the tongue and brain, without actually being healthy for the body.


This manufactured taste plays an incredibly important role in food choice because it gives consumers an instant reward for selecting unhealthy food. This instant reward is "instant gratification." Even though the food is processed and specially designed to cover its flaws as a food product, the body cannot distinguish evidence of this process in the state. Instead, the taste is chemically satisfying and immediately gratifying. It’s a biological trick with alarming consequences for long-term health, both for individuals and for populations generally.

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