Fast-food boom in Kenya double-edged sword

Opinion and Analysis

Cheeseburger with fries and icy soft drink. Researchers link fast-food to incidence of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes. Photo/FILE 

By Caroline Mugo

In Summary

• Entry of multinationals in the industry good for growth, but long term health risks may outweigh gains.

The fast-food revolution has made its debut in Kenya. Few well-known chains dot major streets in key cities, eyeing the rising free spend among the growing middle class.

 

Like the name implies, the fast-food industry is built around a model of convenience. Better than that, they aim to deliver this convenience at rock bottom prices.

Relatively speaking, the cheaper price impact has yet be realised, in Kenya. Fast-food is still priced beyond the reach of many ordinary Kenyans, unlike in other parts of the world, where it is actually cheaper than a meal prepared at home. This is bound to change as the industry grows.

The main distinction between fast-food businesses and other kinds of catering enterprises essentially lies in their marketing and promotion. Fast-food outlets basically market their brands and not so much the underlying menu.

As opposed to traditional restaurant businesses, fast-food businesses heavily advertise in mass and other media and hold their brands in high esteem charging astronomical sums as royalties and licensing fees to fly their flag.

It is this kind of spectacle that entices people into the world of fast-food, if only to associate with a larger than life brand, especially the young and impressionable.

They come in different forms — coffee houses, pizza stops, chicken and hamburger outlets.

Today, the fast-food industry is arguably one of the fastest growing sector in the globe, especially in the emerging markets.

As they begin a speedy entrance into our market, things stand to change. This is because the fast-food industry bears the uncanny ability to become entrenched in every facet of our lives, gradually changing life as we know it and in no time to become a way of life.

Those, however, who have had the opportunity to read about the effect of fast-food on human health, may have found that it has been linked to a myriad of health issues, top of the list being obesity.

Research into the content of food in fast-foods outlets shows unnerving quantities of fat and sugar.

These two ingredients have been linked to the rise in cases of obesity. Research has further blamed obesity for life threatening yet preventable illnesses such as heart diseases and diabetes.

The rise in the intake of fast-food is not the only reason behind obesity but there is our ever increasing sedentary lifestyle that helps it along — hence the term ‘lifestyle diseases’.

Over the past decade, in places such as the US and South America, obesity and obesity related complications have reached levels that can only be defined as an epidemic. And that is exactly how they are referring to the situation.

In a controversial film titled Super-Size Me inspired by two American citizens who went on to sue fast-food giant McDonalds, a film producer decided to conduct a risky experiment where he was the main subject of the experiment.