Can One Man Curb Teens' Fast-Food Obsession?

June 19, 2006— -- The best-selling author of "Fast Food Nation" has taken his message to some of the industry's biggest customers: teens.

"Ten-year-olds have been found to have cardiovascular damage already," said journalist and author Eric Schlosser. "In the last 30 years, alongside the growth of the fast-food industry, the obesity rate among preschoolers has doubled in this country. The obesity rate among children age 6 to 11 has tripled. This is a public health disaster."

Schlosser takes aim at the staggering amount of fast-food advertising targeted at teenagers -- $3.5 billion in TV ads this year alone -- and tries to convince young people to eat better.

He first sounded the alarm with "Fast Food Nation," which took a disturbing look behind the fast-food counters and inside the industry's slaughterhouses. The book has been made into a feature film that will debut this fall.

Schlosser also has a new version of his book aimed at young people, "Chew on This."

Schlosser focuses on the way fast-food meat is made, pointing out the inherent dangers.

Schlosser said that just 13 big slaughterhouses supply most of the nation's fast-food hamburger meat. The process mixes beef from hundreds of cows, he said, raising the risk of mass contamination.

McDonald's declined to comment, referring the inquiry to a spokeswoman at the American Meat Institute. She did not dispute the claim that a single burger contains beef from many different cows but said it was not a food-safety issue because "processing plants are extremely high tech and sanitary ... and meat today is safer than it has ever been in history."

Food-borne illness associated with contaminated beef is down 29 percent in the past eight years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"You know, I eat hamburgers and french fries. I have milkshakes, but I don't get it from the big fast-food chains," Schlosser said. "When I talk to kids, I don't try to make them hate Ronald McDonald or anything like that. I'm just trying to open their eyes about what's in the food and what it can do to their bodies."