With the New Year upon us, many are making resolutions to eat healthier. However, when Revel decided to interview people on the street and collect surveys regarding fast food habits, the holidays were in full force with everyone doing last minute shopping and many falling victim to fast food meals. We asked, “What role does fast food play in your life?” The responses were broad from “no role” to “too much of a ‘roll’ (pun intended),” and some saying they only partook while traveling. It seemed we had more fast food users from our street interviews than those who took our survey. This may have been because the street interviews were held in Athens, Georgia, where the University of Georgia is located. There is a possibility that more students were questioned on the video and that the college lifestyle (late night eating, hangovers, etc.) promotes more fast food consumption. According to our research, the main reasons for eating fast food included time constraints and convenience. Other responses were, “it tastes good” and “I was drunk” or “starving.” So it appears the fast food industry has the alcohol industry to thank for some of their sales!

Then we turned to the subject of healthier options at fast food chains. Most people thought the options were great and considered them a “positive and brilliant change.” Others state that the healthier choices are not flavorful and that advertisements claim the food is healthy when, in fact, it is not. A third of our respondents say they chose the healthy options when eating fast food. When asked what options they chose, the most popular were salads and grilled chicken options from McDonald’s, KFC, and Wendy’s. Subway was mentioned as a favorite fast food establishment, even though there is no drive-thru (which, for us, is the factor that determines a fast food joint from a regular restaurant). Healthy options our respondents wish were available include, “Splenda-sweetened drinks and desserts,” “healthier pizzas,” “wheat wraps,” and “more fishy stuff.” One wrote that they shouldn’t change a thing: “Junk food is junk food and people like it for that reason.” This was the sentiment from several of our video respondents who feel that if they are going to eat fast food they might as well eat the cheeseburger and fries.

Realistically, it’s hard to imagine fast food companies would ever stop serving their original ‘tastier’ options, but with America’s growing obesity epidemic, we anticipate more pressure on the industry to produce healthier options.

Filed under: Focus Soup Results by admin Date 13 January, 2010