Fast Food and Violence in America

Do ingredients and contaminants in fast food contribute to violence?

Most people know that fast food is not a harbinger of health. While tantalizingly easy, fast, cheap, and tasty, fast food comes with considerable risks. Award-winning researchers such as Barbara Reed Stitt, author of Food and Behavior a Natural Connection, showed nearly three decades ago, that the low nutrient density of fast food was connected to a low level of Vitamin B and acts of violence in prisoners, serial killers, parolees, and high school dropouts. The science is clear, simply the lack of nutrition in fast food contributes to violence.

In addition, fast food contributes to health issues that can contribute to decreased capabilities which can lead to job loss, homelessness, and despair. Numerous reports have shown that fast food contains preservatives and contaminants that contribute to chronic disease, and they are cooked in oils that contribute to cancer and industrial chemical phthalates, contributing to endocrine disruption. There is a growing awareness that until 1992, McDonald’s cooked their french fries in beef tallow (fat). When restaurants and home cooks followed suit, GMO soybean oil consumption increased dramatically in the United States: It rose over 1,000-fold between 1909 and 1999.

The low-nutrient ingredients, industrial chemicals, and harmful GMO oils are not the only concerns. Moms Across America, during our fast food testing, found 39,206 ppb of Butanediol, a central nervous system depressant drug, in Jack in the Box burger and in 47% of 20 fast food samples. According to the manufacturer's datasheet, Butanediol causes “combativeness.”

Fast food has been tested and has been found to contain a wide variety of dangerous contaminants. Fast food companies supply a major portion of school meals, and while school lunches have not been tested for Butanediol (many other contaminants have been found), one could expect, based on MAA test results, for it to be present. This means our children could be being aggressive and unnecessarily drugged, not because they have behavioral issues due to a lack of responsibility, but because they are consuming a drug that causes combativeness.

Why is Butanediol in fast food meat? While the ranchers we spoke with were unsure as to the reason, RXList states: “Butanediol has been used to stimulate growth hormone production and muscle growth; and for bodybuilding, weight loss, and trouble sleeping (insomnia). Are factory farms using Butanediol to stimulate the muscle growth of cattle? The FDA has not responded to our inquiry and concerns.

There have been many concerns raised about banned or restricted drugs potentially appearing in the U.S. meat supply at trace levels.

The attempts to regulate the industry have been meager at best. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) tests meat samples for various drug residues but uses higher cutoff thresholds than some other agencies or experts consider appropriate.
Consumer Reports states some possible ways drug residues could end up in meat include:

Background exposure from environmental contamination
Improper use by farmers
Contaminated feed
Intentional misuse to speed growth or treat sick animals.

The Butanediol Safety Data Sheet and data on RXList raise serious concerns:

Side Effects

Butanediol is UNSAFE when taken by mouth. It has caused serious illness and more than 100 deaths.

Some side effects of butanediol are serious breathing problems, coma, amnesia, combativeness, confusion, agitation, vomiting, seizures, and very slow heartbeat. People who use butanediol on a regular basis and then stop may experience withdrawal symptoms such as sleep problems (insomnia), tremor, and anxiety.

Precautions

While butanediol isn't safe for anyone, some people are at even greater risk for serious side effects. Be especially careful not to take butanediol if you have any of the following conditions:

Pregnancy and breastfeeding: Butanediol is UNSAFE for both mother and infant. Don't use it.

A heart rate that is too slow (bradycardia): Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a chemical that is formed when the body breaks down butanediol. GHB can slow the heart and may make bradycardia worse in individuals who have this condition.

Epilepsy: Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a chemical that is formed when the body breaks down butanediol. GHB can cause seizures and might make epilepsy worse.

High blood pressure: Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a chemical that is formed when the body breaks down butanediol. GHB can raise blood pressure and might make high blood pressure worse.

Surgery: Butanediol can slow down the central nervous system (CNS). Anesthesia and some other medications used during surgery have the same effect. There is concern that using butanediol along with these other medications might slow down the CNS too much and cause extreme sleepiness. Stop using butanediol at least 2 weeks before a scheduled surgery.

Many hospitals have a McDonald’s in their facility, potentially exposing people who are about to or have just had surgery, to Butanediol. Clearly, the presence of this drug is extremely concerning from a health perspective. Headlines that feature a sixteen-year-old employee of a fast-food restaurant shooting his co-workers raise this tragic question. Could butanediol and fast food also be connected to the rise of violence across America?

Headlines of Violence at Fast Food Restaurants Across the Nation

In an industry article for Quick Service Resta urants ( QSR) author By Bayley Goldsberry,Marketing Content Writer, LVT

What are security issues in quick-service restaurants?

Security issues are one of the biggest reasons quick-service restaurants are struggling to retain employees and drive traffic to their locations. We’ve discovered some of the most common security issues that restaurants face today.

Threats

With the high value, volume, and number of employees QSRs have, they are an easy target for all types of crime. One study from QSRs in California found 77,200 accounts of violent or threatening incidents through an analysis of 911 calls over a four year period. For QSR employees, many of whom are being paid a minimum wage, it’s not worth it to put themselves in harm’s way. They deserve greater protection and safety in the workplace.

Parking Lot Incidents

Where many QSR locations lack a parking lot camera or any type of preventative security solution, parking lot incidents happen at an astonishing rate. This can include anything from trafficking, loitering, trespassing, vandalism, drug dealing, weapon trading, etc. Because quick-service restaurants aren’t typically monitored heavily, these parking lots become the perfect grounds for suspicious and dangerous activity.

Violent Crime

QSRs are the 9th highest location for violent crimes. Some locations are seeing 15,716 violent crimes per year. Imagine going to work each day and not knowing whether you’d be a victim or a witness to a violent crime. This is a preventable situation and QSRs around the country are catching on to how much of a problem violent crime is at their franchises. The same study from a California analysis of 911 calls found that 1 in 8 incidents at QSRs involved assault.

The undisclosed data regarding fast food customers is, once the consumers of fast food leave a fast food restaurant, possibly exposed to high levels of a drug that causes combativeness, are they contributing to the rise of violent acts in our roads, schools, homes, and in our communities? One would assume so.

There are communities such as Montpelier, Vermont, that wisely chose to disallow fast food restaurants from their neighborhood.

For those who have a fast food place on every corner, and whose soccer coach, policemen, neighbors, or babysitters might be jacked up on Butanediol, we urge you to bring this information to them, to educate your community. We also urge you to tell your elected officials to pass the Safe School Meals Act of 2024. Tell the FDA to do their job and regulate fast food and school lunches for drugs that contribute to violence. Just because a person cannot afford an organic meal, or cannot cook at home, does not mean that they should be increasing the likelihood they will be put in jail for a crime of violence.
Fast food restaurants provide a valuable service of food and jobs to our communities, however, our communities should not suffer their mental health and safety as a result. We urge all food manufacturers to clean up their act and batch-test their foods for heavy metals, pesticides, veterinary drugs, and hormones now. It’s time for fast food restaurants to take responsibility for food quality and reduce violence in America.

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shivaq smith commented 2024-11-22 12:25:38 -0500
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