(TIỂU LUẬN) IBD students intake 12 attitudes toward fast food

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT & ECONOMICS INTERNATIONAL BACHELOR DEGREE RESEARCH TOPIC IBD students Intake 12 attitudes toward fast food Student: Vũ Lân Trang Class: I12A2 Instructor: Mrs Lê Thu Hà (M.A) Hanoi, May 2017 Contents I Acknowledgement .2 II Introduction: Background & Rationale: Research objectives: 3 Research questions: Methodology: III Literature Review: The real situation of fast food consumption: Problem: Cause: Solution Critique and hypothesis: IV Major findings: The real situation of fast food consumption among IBD students Intake 12: 1.1 Frequency of having fast food: 1.2 Kind of fast food consumed: 1.3 Amount of money spent on fast food: .8 The reasons why IBD students choose fast food: .8 2.1 V Advantages of fast food: 2.2 Experiences with fast food: 2.3 Suggestions for improvement: .10 Bad effects of fast food: 10 3.1 Acknowledgement about fast food’s bad effects: 10 3.2 Effects on health: 11 3.3 Willingness to try again: 11 Recommendation: .14 VI Conclusion: 15 VII Reference .16 VIII Appendix 17 I Acknowledgement First of all, the writer would like give my grateful thanks to Mrs Thu Hà – our instructor, who has unconditionally taught and helped me to complete my project: “IBD students Intake 12 attitudes toward fast food” It would be unable for me to finish it without your guidance and advices In addition, the writer also want to thank all IBD students Intake 12 who have cooperated, answered my survey and supported me during the progress of this paper II Introduction: Background & Rationale: In recent years, as people are becoming busier and busier with earning a living, they have less time to prepare their everyday meals This results in the creation of fast food Fast food is a kind of processed food which is cooked and delivered in a short period of time Furthermore, there is a variety of choices of fast food for people to choose, including French fries, chicken, hamburgers, hot dog and so on In addition, the fast food industry is developing quickly all over the world, including Vietnam People choose it because of different reasons: fast food is delicious, cheap and, especially, convenient It takes one person only few minutes to have a have an appetizing fast-food meal Therefore, people have more time to focus on their own work or study However, fast food is coming under criticism for being unhealthy The writer strongly believe that consumers need to be acknowledged about both positive and negative effects of fast food so that they can make a smart decision for themselves Research objectives: This research aims to: - Understand the real situation of consuming fast food among IBD students Intake 12 - Find out the reasons why fast food is chosen by IBD students Intake 12 - Discover bad impacts of fast food - Give suggestions for IBD students Intake 12 about fast food Research questions: - What is the real situation of consuming fast food among IBD students Intake 12? - Why IBD students Intake 12 choose fast food instead of home-made food? - What are the bad impacts of fast food on IBD students Intake 12? - What are the suggestions for fast food? Methodology: In order to handle this research, the writer use primary data as well as secondary data Firstly, the primary source of data is collected by doing survey IBD students answer questions through both online survey and paper survey with the same questionnaire Their answers are later gathered and analyzed Secondly, the secondary data is collected from books and online articles, researches on the Internet in order to provide accurate information III Literature Review: The real situation of fast food consumption: In recent years, fast food is becoming more and more popular as its consumption is rising considerably According to an article on Palo Alto Medical Foundation (Ransohoff, 2013), over a quarter of Americans eat fast food every day Furthermore, there are approximately 50,000 fast food chains all over United States and McDonalds is found out to be the largest restaurant chain There are more than 500,000 fast food restaurants in the world Children in the ages from to 14 consume fast food 157,000,000 times monthly Ninety-six percent of students in school are familiar with the image of Ronald McDonald, the face of McDonalds Problem: A research on the impact of fast food stores on weight gain and obesity (Currie, 2009) discovers how changes in the supply of fast food cause health consequences The research points out the bad effects of fast food on the obesity rates of million school students and the weight gain of over million pregnant women Among 9th grade students, a fast food store, which is no more than a mile around the school, is associated with a 5.2% increase in obesity rates at least For pregnant women, a fast food restaurant within miles causes a 1.6 percent increase in the probability of a 20-kilo weight gain Moreover, the impact seems to be considerably worse for African-American and less educated women These findings about young teenagers and pregnant women are strong evidences to prove that fast food results in serious health consequences for these vulnerable groups of people Cause: According to the article about the reasons why fast-food is unhealthy (McDermott, 2017), this kind of processed food has bad impact on people’s health because of what it contains Fast food is found out to be high in sodium, which can easily results in high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney stones and even osteoporosis However, the most concerning substance in fast food is transfat due to its possibility of resulting in type diabetes, heart attack, and stroke High amount of sugar is also a reason why fast food is harmful for consumers’ health The risk of obesity and metabolic problem is raised as people eat too much sugar Although fast food usually contain high calories, it doesn’t offer much nutritional value at all Various health issues can be caused by fast food including weight gain, digestive problems and food poisoning Finally, the quality of ingredients is also a reason why fast food is not good for people’s health Beside protein, fat and carbohydrate, fast food also contains preservatives, artificial colors, and artificial flavors Solution As stated in an online article about solution for fast food option (Duncan, 2013), consumer should choose healthier alternatives in order to minimize the bad effect on health For instance, the grilled meat inside a hamburger is high in saturated fat and cholesterol, which can result in heart disease Instead of it, people can use salmon or chicken to fill in the bun and enjoy a healthier home-made hamburger Furthermore, salad or sliced apple can be used to replace fast food side dish like French fries Also, a bag of fruit or baby carrots are some other healthy suggestions Finally, people usually have fast food with soft drinks such as soda and milkshake, which are considerably high in sugar Another choices of drink to have during meal are unsweetened iced tea, fresh water or home-made non-soda, non-ice-cream beverage Critique and hypothesis: All things considered, these research and articles show how much and why fast food can cause health problems as well as the solution for fast food option However, there are still several questions which are left unanswered How fast food affects other groups of people, apart from pregnant women and school students, is not discovered and analyzed in Currie’s research Unhealthy substance in fast food is showed in McDermott’s article, but still, other reasons that lead to high consumption of this kind of food such as advertising and restaurant decoration are not mentioned In Duncan’s article, there are some suggestions to replace fast food However, this is not a long-term solution, as acknowledging consumers about bad impact of fast food would be a much better one IV Major findings: The real situation of fast food consumption among IBD students Intake 12: 1.1 Frequency of having fast food: Frequency of having fast food 3.80% 48.10% Less than times - times 11.10% 37.00% - times More than times The chart illustrates how frequently IBD students Intake 12 eat fast food during one week It can be seen that nearly half of them consume this kind of processed food -7 times weekly, accounting for 48% Only 4% agree that the number of fast food meal they have is more than This is also the lowest proportion In addition, more than one third of IBD students Intake 12 choose ‘2 – times’ when they are asked about frequency of having fast food and only 11% ‘less than times’ Overall, the number of fast food meals IBD students have in one week is average However, this tends to be increasing 1.2 Kind of fast food consumed: It is clearly shown that all kinds of food and drink in a fast food restaurant are consumed by customers, including IBD students Intake 12 All students confirm that they always eat main dishes, such as pizza, spaghetti, and hamburger These are the food which provides people enough calories they need for a meal Therefore, having these dishes is the most ideal option for IBD students to save time with enough energy to study and work French fries, chicken nuggets and other side dishes are consumed by 81.5% IBD students Intake 12 This kind of fast food is usually sold with main dishes in a combo so that customer could purchase both with a discount Only 18.5% students agree that they have dessert, such as ice cream and egg tart after a meal in fast food restaurant Beverage is also a common thing a customer purchases to have with main dishes Pepsi, Cola and soda enhance fast food’s flavor and make customers enjoy them more 1.3 Amount of money spent on fast food: Amount of money 3.7% spent on fast food 14.8% 14.8% 66.7% Less than 50.000 VND 100.000 VND - 200.000 VND 50.000 - 100.000 VND More than 200.000 VND The pie chart describes the amount of money is spent on fast food by IBD students Intake 12 It can be seen that a majority of students spend from 100.000 VND to 200.000 VND for a fast food meal This is not a small amount of money, especially for a student’s budget This, compared to home-made meal, is much more expensive Moreover, the figure from the chart shows that 14.8% IBD students Intake 12 spend 50.000 VND – 100.000 VND This is a reasonable price for a meal in a fast food restaurant However, the same percentage of IBD students confirm that they spend even more than 200.000 VND Although this is a high price, students are still willing to pay it in order to have a fast food meal The reasons why IBD students choose fast food: 2.1 Advantages of fast food: Advantages of fast food Inexpensive 22.2 Convenient 73.4 Delicious 66.7 Time-saving 63 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 It can be seen from the bar chart the main reason why IBD students Intake 12 choose fast food is because of its convenience, as shown by 73.4% This is also the most outstanding advantage of fast food which makes customers purchase for it It’s easy for everyone to get a take-away meal everywhere in the city due to the large number of fast food restaurants Furthermore, students choose fast food also because it’s tasty and it helps them save their time 66.7% students answered ‘delicious’ when asked about reasons why they decide to have fast food and 63% picked ‘time-saving’ as their choice Only 22% students agree that fast food’s price is why they choose it over home-made meal 2.2 Experiences with fast food: The answers gathered show that people have different feelings after they have fast food, scatter from terrible to excellent Overall, fast food is rated as good by a majority of customers, due to its food quality and services 37% students express that their experiences with fast food is only average and there’s nothing special Only 11.1% students agree that they had an excellent time at fast food restaurant However, this is not the least common opinion since the percentage of IBD students who choose ‘not good’ and ‘terrible’ to answer the question is much lower 3.7% students in IBD experience terrible time when they have fast food and just slightly more than 7% students are not satisfied with its quality 2.3 Suggestions for improvement: It is shown from the data collected that the price of fast food is the factor students want to adjust the most For student’s budget, fast food’s price is still more expensive than home-made food 88.9% students agree with this statement Food quality is also thought to need improvement, accounting for 77.8% On the other hand, serving time, restaurant decoration and shipping service are less likely to be chosen by IBD students Intake 12 25.9% students think fast food restaurant should adjust food serving time The proportion is the same for restaurant decoration The low percentage for these two categories could be explained by short meal preparation time and nice, colorful decoration in fast food restaurant Bad effects of fast food: 3.1 Acknowledgement about fast food’s bad effects: Acknowledgement about fast food's bad effects 3.70% 18.50% 33.30% 44.50% At school On social media Self-research No knowledge The pie chart indicates how students know about harmful sides of fast food In general, most students are aware of fast food’s bad impacts by doing their own research This is proved by 44% students in the survey In contrast, school education, which is supposed to be the highest percentage, only accounted for 4% in fact This figure shows a shortage in educating students about 10 bad effects of fast food Social media, such as facebook, twitter, is also a useful tool to get information about fast food’s disadvantages, as 33% students agree with it Surprisingly, nearly one fifth of IBD students Intake 12 don’t have any knowledge about how harmful fast food is 19% students confess that they don’t know about fast food’s bad impacts and this could lead to misconception about this kind of processed food 3.2 Effects on health: Bad effects on health Fast heart-beat Digestive problems Fast-food crave Easy weight gain 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% 100.0% Based on the answers collected, it is clearly shown that there are many symptoms students feel after they have fast food meal The most obvious one is easy weight gain 88.9% students agree that they get fat easily when they eat fast food This can be explained by the high amount of fat and carbohydrate in this convenient food These components seem to be additive as 63% IBD students Intake 12 still crave for fast food after eating it More than 44% confirm that fast food brings about digestive problems and affect their health On the other hand, only 7.4% have issue with heart beats Although this is not a high level, it is still considered one of the bad impacts that can seriously damage health and lead to other diseases 3.3 Willingness to try again: In spite of the fact that people acknowledged about bad effects of fast food, they still have excuses to eat it After analyzing the answers, it can be seen that more than half of IBD students 11 Intake 12 would still eat fast food when they don’t have time This is not recommended since a small amount of fast food still contains unhealthy components In contrast, 37% state that they will not eat this kind of food again after knowing its harmful effects Only 11.1% agree to have it despite the risk of bad health condition Also, 63% IBD students are not sure if they will suggest fast food to other people The percentage of people who are clearly aware of fast food’s bad impacts and will not suggest it to friends and family is lower, accounting for 33.3% Only 3.7% students will continue to introduce fast food to others 12 Conclusion: To sum up, after collecting and analyzing answers from IBD students Intake 12, the writer has come to these conclusion Firstly, fast food is highly consumed among IBD students Most students have fast food to times a day Dishes they usually eat at a fast food restaurant are main dishes (pizza, hamburger), side dishes (French fries, chicken nuggets) and beverages (soft drink, soda) 100,000 VND to 200,000 VND is the most common amount of money which IBD students spend on fast food per meal Considering the reasons why IBD students choose fast food instead of home-made food, it is shown that besides being convenient, fast food is also delicious and time-saving Most students have good experiences with fast food due to its quality and services However, IBD students think that fast food price is still more expensive than home-made food and it needs to be improved Lastly, although schools should educate their students about bad impacts of fast food, most IBD students know about fast food’s harmful effects on health due to self-research In fact, students can easily feel changes in their bodies after having fast food Weight gain is the most obvious symptom Even though this kind of processed food is unhealthy, most students will still have it if they don’t have enough time to cook 13 V Recommendation: According to the results of my research, the writer would like to give all IBD students Intake 12 some recommendations and advices on having fast food First and foremost, since fast food has considerable bad effects on health, students should avoid eating them as much as possible Less than times a week is suitable to protect ourselves Furthermore, 50,000 VND to 100,000 VND would be a reasonable price for a fast food meal according to a student’s budget Spending money on buying vegetable, meat, fruit and other fresh ingredients is cheaper and better for your health Secondly, although fast food’s advantages are undeniable such as its convenience and delicious taste, students are recommended to replace it with healthy home-made meal With fresh ingredients which students can easily get from market and supermarket with a reasonable price, a variety of dishes can be created which are healthy and delicious at the same time Different fresh, healthy food recipes are now able to be found online and are simple to make Moreover, preparing meal from the previous day is also a good idea This can help students save time while still can enjoy healthy food Finally, every student should be acknowledged about harmful effects of fast food Although these impacts on consumer’s health are obvious, there are students who are still not fully aware of it Therefore, schools and parents have the responsibility to educate their children about fast food, as well as its bad effects Furthermore, every student had better research online about this topic because it directly affects your health as well as your appearance Information is not difficult to find since it’s posted everywhere on the internet Also, everyone should give reminder to relatives and friends about how harmful fast food is so that they could be aware of how to protect themselves 14 VI Conclusion: All things considered, through this research, the writer clearly understand the real situation of fast food consumption among IBD students, as well as its advantages and disadvantages It comes to these conclusions: First of all, although fast food has appeared in Vietnam for over 10 years, its consumption is still increasing This paper has shown new and specific information about the real situation of how much IBD students consume fast food Normally, students in IBD have fast food meal -7 times a week and this is considered high level and may lead to different health problems Different kinds of dish including main dishes, side dishes, beverages and even desserts are served in fast food restaurant Fast food also costs students a large amount of money per meal compared to home-made food Considering the reasons why IBD students Intake 12 choose to have fast food, there are different advantages which can be listed such as delicious, time-saving, convenient Overall, students satisfy with the quality of food and services they experienced in fast food restaurant There are factors that fast food companies should improve in order to provide a better service, especially price of products and food quality Finally, bad effects of fast food on health are undeniable These information needs to be given to students when they are still in school However, many university students still don’t have any information about it They are acknowledged about these impacts mostly from the internet and social media Harmful changes are likely to appear right after people eat fast food, such as gaining weight easily in a short period of time Despite all these unhealthy effects of fast food, students still choose to have it when they are busy and don’t have time to prepare their own meal 15 VII Reference Ransohoff, J 2013, ‘Fast Food | Nutritional Advice for Teens’, Palo Alto Medical Foundation Available at: http://www.pamf.org/teen/health/nutrition/fastfood.html [26 April 2017] Currie, J, DelaVigna, S, Moretti, E & Pathania, V 2009, The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain, National Bureau of Economic Research McDermott, A 2017 ‘Reasons Fast Foods Are Bad for You’, Love To Know Available at: http://diet.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Fast_Foods_Bad_for_You [26 April 2017] Duncan, K 2013, ‘Solutions for Unhealthy Fast Food Options’, Food & Nutrition Available at: http://www.foodandnutrition.org/Stone-Soup/May-2013/Solutions-for-Unhealthy-Fast-Food-Options/ [26 April 2017] 16 VIII Appendix Hello IBD friends! I am Trang from class I12A2 Currently, I am doing a project named “IBD STUDENTS INTAKE 12’S ATTITUDES TOWARD FASTFOOD” Please help me answer questions in this survey! I promise that all your answers and information will be kept secret Thank you for your cooperation! I Part 1: The real situation of fast food consumption: How often you eat fast food a week?  Less than times  – times  – times  More than times How you know about fast food restaurant in your area? (You can choose more than one option)  Advertisement  Friends’ suggestions  Social media  Other: … What kind of fast food you usually eat? (You can choose more than one option)  Main dishes (pizza, hamburger, fried chicken, …)  Side dishes (French fries, chicken nugget, …)  Dessert (ice cream, cupcake, …)  Beverage (soft drink, soda, …)  Other: … How much you usually spend on a fast food meal?  Less than 50.000 VND  50.000 – 100.000 VND  100.000 – 200.000 VND  More than 200.000 VND 17 II Part 2: The reasons why IBD students choose fast food instead of home-made meal: Why you choose fast food?  Time-saving  Delicious  Convenient  Inexpensive  Other: … How you rate your experiences with fast food in general? (1: Terrible, 2: Not good, 3: Average, 4: Good, 5: Excellent) What you think need to be improved?      III Food quality Serving time Restaurant decoration Shipping service Price Part 3: Bad effects of fast food: How you know about bad impact of fast food on health?  I was taught about it at school  I heard about it on TV and social media  I did research on my own  I didn’t know about it What changes on health can you feel when you eat fast food?  I gain weight easily  My heart beats faster  I have digestive problems  I always crave for fast food  Other: … 18 If you know that fast food is unhealthy, will you continue to eat it?  Yes  Only when I don’t have time to cook  No Will you suggest fast food for your friends?  Absolutely  Maybe  Never Thank you for your cooperation! 19 ... consuming fast food among IBD students Intake 12? - Why IBD students Intake 12 choose fast food instead of home-made food? - What are the bad impacts of fast food on IBD students Intake 12? - What... - Find out the reasons why fast food is chosen by IBD students Intake 12 - Discover bad impacts of fast food - Give suggestions for IBD students Intake 12 about fast food Research questions: -... situation of fast food consumption among IBD students Intake 12: 1.1 Frequency of having fast food: 1.2 Kind of fast food consumed: 1.3 Amount of money spent on fast food: