“Americans will spend more than $110 billion on fast food this year, more than they will spend on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music combined.” (Fast Food Nation, 2002). Everyone knows that fast food is bad for you, but millions of people continue to eat it. McDonald's, arguably one of the most successful and well-known restaurants, has stores in 113 different countries and has opened nearly 34,000 locations worldwide. Why were they able to achieve so much success? It's well known that fast food is incredibly unhealthy, yet people seem indifferent to the damage they're doing to their bodies. Fast food isn't just unhealthy; it can be deadly, contributing greatly to heart disease and stroke cases across America. Fast food is a combination of substances that are fine when consumed in moderation, but incredibly harmful when consumed continuously. Fast food is harmful due to the high fat content of most menu items, sodium and sugar content. The Big Mac combo meal is touted as a smart, money-conscious decision, but is that really the case? Yes, money is saved, but at what cost. The fat in a Big Mac meal is 83% of your recommended daily intake. The calories in a big mac meal are 66% of your daily intake, and fat makes up a large portion of those calories. Unless someone is preparing for a marathon, it's hard to understand why anyone would consume more than one of these a day, but they do. Across America, thousands of people eat McDonald's or other fast food for nearly every meal. This isn't just doing a number on their weight, but also on their heart. A big contributing factor to hypertension is sodium, and boy, fast food has a lot of it... middle of paper ....../www.thehealthytrucker.net/big-mac-nutrition/Harris, W . (n.d.). The 10 most common ingredients in fast food. Retrieved from http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/10-ingredients-fast-food.htm Lee, M. (2012). Statistics on health risks from fast food consumption. Retrieved from http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/statistics-health-risks-eating-fast-food-3290.html Schlosser, E. (2002, January 31). Americans are obsessed with fast food: the dark side of the all-American meal. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-are-obsessed-with-fast-food-the-dark-side-of-the-all-american-meal/ Stossel, R. (2009, January 06). Why you should avoid fast food at all costs. Retrieved from http://www.naturalnews.com/025241_food_fast_meat.htmlWhite, J. (2013, February 22). Why fast food is bad for you. Retrieved from http://janicewhite.hubpages.com/hub/why-fast-food-is-bad-for-you