CST Handout

Catholic Social Justice Project
Fast Food and Health Issues
Prepared By: Jarrett Pace and Zhenyu Zhong


Our social justice issue is the prevalence of obesity and being overweight and the heath implications that are brought along as side effects. Obesity has become a huge issue with the ubiquitous nature of fast food today, and the fat filled foods that they sell; when combined with the sedentary lifestyle and the decreasing amount of physical activities that Americans go through today the results have been disastrous.

CST #1 Life and the Dignity of the Human Person

The dignity of the human and the rights that we should receive are paramount to the foundation of rational and thoughtful human society. We cannot sacrifice the well being of someone’s existence for self promoting gains or generally destructive outcomes. In the fast food industry, advertising has seen a change from gentle suggestion to relative programming. Advertising of fast food in schools is disturbing the right for self thought in our youth because it is scientifically known that a child’s brain is far less developed than a grown adult and in as such he or she is far more susceptible to foreign influences. Human life should and must take precedence over all other worldly things so big fast food has no right to be profiting off the endangered health of our race.

CST #2 - Call to Family, Community, and Participation

The Catholic Social Teaching of Call to Family, Community, and Participation says that the family is the base unit of the community and serves as the foundations. The family also has the responsibility of the well-being of the members of each individual member by providing certain necessities for survival and well-being. This is important because it should be the family that teaches the children healthy eating habits. This sort of advertising by the fast food industry is undermining the authority of the family to teach the children healthy eating habits for later in life when health problems can have even more serious.

CST #3 - Rights and Responsibilities

The Catholic Social Teaching of Rights and Responsibilities addresses the common good and the personal responsibilities for all people. The fast food industry is not upholding the common good nutritional data of their products and their stated nutritional values. The people should be able to trust the companies that they are getting accurate data about what they are consuming and the companies are betraying this trust. This is important because the people should be able to trust the fast food industry that they are getting what they are being told and that this trust should not be betrayed.

CST #4 - Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

The Catholic Social Teaching of the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable says everyone including the poor and the vulnerable should be given respect, dignity, and assistance. This is important because fast food is often much cheaper than healthier foods and the poor are drawn to the availability and price of fast food but this is detrimental to the poor's health because when people are depending on fast food, they are consuming much unhealthy foods that do not offer the healthy amount of nutritional values and are hurting their own health and lives. This amount of advertising that takes advantage of their developing nature and essentially sacrifices their health in exchange for profits and loyal customers. The option in this case is to change legislation to discourage or prevent the current system of disposable labor.

CST #5 - The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

The Catholic Social Teaching of the Dignity of Work and the Rights of workers talks about how it is necessary for workers to receive respect for the work that they are doing, and that workers should be compensated a just wage, as well as conditions that are not dangerous to the worker as well as other worker benefits. This is important because often in the fast food industry, workers are often treated as expendable labor and they are not taken care of by the company.. Workers in the fast food industry should receive just compensation for their efforts and be respected because they are all dignified human beings and deserve the same respect that all people do.

CST #6 – Solidarity

The Catholic Social Teaching of Solidarity says that people should citizens have responsibilities and that they should work together for the common benefit. This directly relates because the fast food industry depends on its customers and it should be a mutual beneficial relationship between the two because if the customers are taken care of, then they will keep on eating good and healthy fast food. This is currently a social justice issue because the fast food industry is not taking care of its customers in its responsibility for both just business practices as well as giving its customers the right information

CST#7 - Care for God's Creation

As Christians we are obligated and required to be stewards of our planet and our planet's children. In the fast food industry, the world's population of cattle is being gathered to provide for our food. In the long feedlots with thousands of cattle, meat production companies have created disgusting environments for the animals where their food trays are only feet away from their manure troughs. This quickly spreads disease but also harms our fragile ozone layer that is severely damaged by the massive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions that come from the manure.
McKenna, Kevin E. A Concise Guide to Catholic Social Teaching. Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria, 2002. Print.