[electronic beeping]
[static fizzling]
[female narrator] It's May of 2011,
and Don, a retired American prison guard,
reveals why he's probably McDonald's biggest fan.
When I was 19 years old, I had eaten my first 1,000 Big Macs.
I thought, like, "Man,"
-you know, "How long before I hit 10,000?" -[applauding]
[narrator] Thirty-nine years to the day after eating his first Big Mac,
he's just eaten his 25,000th,
almost 14 million calories.
Well, I plan on eating Big Macs until I die.
[narrator] Don might be an extreme example,
but he's far from alone in his love for fast food.
There are almost a quarter of a million fast food restaurants in the US alone.
Globally, fast food generates revenues
of over $570 billion each year.
That's more than the entire economy of Sweden in 2018...
and almost four times the amount NASA spent getting to the moon.
According to one survey, 96% of American children
-know who Ronald McDonald is. -[horn honks]
The only character more recognizable
-is Santa Claus. -[sleigh bells ringng]
[horn honks]
The rise of the fast food industry
is one of the most remarkable stories of the past 80 years.
But it hasn't always been pretty.
-[man] Shove it in there! -[narrator] If we are what we eat,
what does the enduring popularity of fast food say about us?
[rock music playing]
By definition,
fast food is food made and presented to customers quickly,
usually with preheated or precooked ingredients,
prepared in bulk and sold in packaging.
The concept has been around since the urban Automats
that were a hit from the 1920s to 1940s.
[man 1] Automats are cafeterias
where customers drop coins in a slot
and, in return, obtain food quickly.
[man 2] You can get almost anything out of a machine these days.
A drink before lunch and a good, hot lunch, as well.
They're obviously foolproof.
Anyone can work 'em.
[narrator] But the fast food industry as we know it today
really starts back in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas,
with White Castle, a burger joint
that pioneers a faster, cleaner system for cooking burgers.
But the idea doesn't take off, yet.
Throughout the Great Depression and World War II,
people still tend to eat their meals at home.
Wow. Does my mom cook 1,095 meals a year?
That's a lot of meals.
Well, that's just what she does.
[narrator] But after the war, the way we eat starts to change.
With more disposable income,
people start looking at dining out as a form of entertainment,
especially if it's tasty and served up quick.
[indistinct chattering]
In 1948, brothers Dick and Mac McDonald
use their Speedee Service System
to offer tasty burgers for just 15 cents,
about the equivalent of $1.60 today.
Their restaurant is a hit.
And over the next decade, new fast food chains
start blooming across the country.
[rock music playing]
In-N-Out Burger also gets its start in 1948,
with California's first drive-through burger stand
in a space barely ten feet square.
Colonel Harland Sanders opens Kentucky Fried Chicken
in 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
[chicken clucking]
Burger King launches in 1954 in Florida.
The Whopper arrives three years later.
Dan and Frank Carney start the first Pizza Hut
in Wichita in 1958,
after borrowing $600 from their mother.
[cow moos]
Many chains choose to franchise,
meaning individual owners can buy into a proven system,
using standardized machinery and ingredients.
Owners pay a fee to the chain,
plus a percentage of their monthly profits.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is one of the first to franchise.
In 1952, they start shipping
their top-secret, premixed chicken seasoning all over the US.
The fast food revolution is on.
One reason for their success,
in 1950s America,
car culture reigns supreme.
Drive-in movies and drive-in restaurants become all the rage,
taking convenience to another level.
You don't even have to get out of your car.
[man] I was glad I didn't have to get out. I'd forgotten which knob opened the door.
The waitress was pretty automatic, too.
A salad and a glass of milk, please.
[narrator] In the mid-60s,
a new technology for quickly heating up food
has everyone buzzing.
[man] When the customer chooses his meal,
it's taken from the deep freeze and placed in a special oven.
And here's the real breakthrough.
The oven uses radio waves at the frequencies used in radar.
This reheats the meal in an incredibly short time.
A complete meal in around 45 seconds,
a hot dog in 15.
[narrator] Fast food quickly takes advantage of the microwave
to thaw, cook, and sell food even more quickly,
while saving costs.
[surf rock music playing]
And that's when fast food
really starts to take off.
In 1976,
Wendy's, which only launched seven years earlier,
opens its 500th restaurant.
By 1978, around 60,000 fast food outlets
are scattered across the US.
-And the battle for hungry mouths... -[tires squealing]
...heats up.
[man] When you drive to Wendy's and order a Single,
you get more beef than the Whopper or the Big Mac.
-[tires squeal] -[horn honks]
Where's the beef?
[narrator] The huge increase in stores
starts having an impact on the way food is produced.
Chains centralize their processing centers,
so every patty and nugget going out to franchises
is the same.
It's not just good for cutting costs.
That consistency turns out to be one of the biggest appeals of fast food.
In any given restaurant,
you always know what you're going to get.
Meanwhile, as the US market becomes saturated
with new fast food chains,
the older ones start looking beyond America's borders
for new mouths to feed.
Soon, fast food outlets
are springing up in Australia,
the UK, and Japan,
becoming America's latest cultural export.
But they're not always welcome.
After a Kentucky Fried Chicken opens in Bermuda,
the government there blocks any more foreign franchises from opening,
to protect the charm and economy of the island.
But in the rest of the world,
fast food is welcomed with open arms and mouths...
even in China.
And by the 90s,
fast food has really gone global.
Chains start appearing in the most unlikely places.
After the Soviet Union declares its new policy of perestroika,
allowing foreign businesses
to operate on Soviet soil,
the ultimate symbol of American capitalism
opens its first outlet in Moscow.
[man] Twenty-five thousand people applied to work in the Moscow McDonald's.
Outside, inevitably a queue.
Some have been waiting for two and a half hours.
And because this is Moscow,
not everyone knows why.
This woman joined the line knowing something must be on sale here.
She thought it was ice cream.
[narrator] But in Soviet Russia, McDonald's has a problem:
finding a high-quality, reliable supply of food products.
So they operate their own processing plant
and work with local businesses to shorten supply chains.
All over the world, the arrival of McDonald's
has a huge impact on local businesses,
igniting a massive demand for large-scale food production.
[percussion music playing]
When McDonald's opens its first restaurant in South Africa,
after the end of apartheid,
80% of the food
is supplied by local farms and producers.
This is the 86th country opening for McDonald's.
And it's been a long road for us to get here.
-[crowd cheering] -But we finally made it.
-[boy] I am home. -This is American food.
-South Africa is home. Mmm. -This is the best.
This is the new South Africa right here, baby.
[indistinct chattering]
[narrator] In the decades to come, American fast food chains
can be found in almost every country on the planet.
[trilling]
McDonald's has nearly 38,000 restaurants worldwide.
[crickets, frogs chirping]
But the prize for the most outlets in 2019
goes to Subway,
-with over 41,000 stores... -[cheering]
...nearly 24,000 of them in the US...
but just one in Croatia.
Every year, an estimated 3.6 million Japanese households
celebrate Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Fast food has even made it off the planet.
In 2001, Pizza Hut became the first chain
to deliver to the International Space Station...
-[cash register rings] -...at a cost of over a million dollars.
But even as fast food is going global,
in the 1990s,
it starts coming under increasing fire
for a different kind of expansion.
In 1950,
just 12% of Americans were obese.
But by 1994, it's catapulted
to 23%.
And being overweight or obese is a major risk factor
for diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
As waistlines expand,
alarm bells start ringing among nutritionists and doctors.
And they point the finger at fast food,
loaded with high levels of sugar,
fat, and salt.
And we know that slim folks come to America,
and here they grow fat.
And that's not genetic. That's lifestyle.
It's not only ridiculous, but it's irresponsible
for the fast food industry to say
that they don't contribute to obesity.
[narrator] Worldwide, obesity has nearly tripled
since 1975.
In the same time frame,
the number of fast food restaurants
has more than doubled in the US alone.
A 2016 study estimates that, globally,
more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight.
That's 39%.
Over 340 million children and adolescents
are now overweight or obese.
[speaking indistinctly]
It's not just the high levels of fat, salt,
and sugar that's the problem.
-[man 1 speaks indistinctly] -Awful lot of calories in it.
-[man 2] Bienvenido. -[narrator] Critics also point out that,
to attract customers, fast food outlets have maxed out their portion sizes.
[indistinct chattering]
In 1954, an average hamburger is 3.9 ounces.
In 2006, on average,
they're three times bigger,
a whopping 12 ounces.
In 1955,
sodas were served in seven-ounce cups.
Now, you can gulp down
up to 38 ounces in some places.
The average person needs 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day
to maintain their weight.
But a Double Whopper with fries and a chocolate shake
will get you to over 2,000 in one sitting.
[alarm sounding]
But despite the growing criticism
about fast food's impact on people's health,
the industry continues to boom
throughout the 90s.
Because those same unhealthy levels of sugar, fat, and salt
also make the food delicious and addictive,
people just can't get enough.
[indistinct chattering]
As for those huge portion sizes,
they're extra appealing to those on a budget.
When McDonald's introduces the Extra Value Meal in 1991,
a burger, fries, and a soda are just $2.49.
It's a huge hit.
Still, by the 2000s,
consumers start waking up to the health dangers of fast food
and start looking for healthier options.
So the fast food industry starts obliging them,
offering up not just healthier options,
but their regular fast food
made with healthier ingredients.
[man] This is healthy fried chicken.
It's steamed,
and then it's fried in a healthier alternative,
rapeseed oil, before being prepared and served to customers.
[rock music playing]
[narrator] In 2002,
Burger King becomes the first national chain
to serve a veggie burger.
McDonald's ditches their Supersize menu in 2004
and introduces salads the same year.
They also add sliced apples to the menu.
And with their massive reach,
they soon account for 10% of all sliced apples sold in America.
[man] Salads, yogurts,
grilled chicken sandwiches.
There's also corn and whole fruit.
Eight additions in part to address health concerns.
[narrator] But despite more options,
many still consider burgers, fries, and a soda to be a meal,
especially kids.
The truth is that children being born today could become
part of the first generation in American history
to live shorter lives than their parents,
because so many are eating too much of the wrong things.
Fried potatoes, including french fries,
make up almost half the vegetables eaten by children
between the ages of two and 19.
[indistinct chattering]
[narrator] But parents, especially, remain drawn to fast food.
After all, it's still convenient, cheap,
and the kids will always dig into it.
Hoping to educate consumers about the health risks,
in 2018, the FDA starts requiring all fast food chains
to publish their calorie counts.
I had no idea how many calories were in it until I saw it.
I was like, "Oh, my gosh." It was a little bit of a surprise.
[narrator] Laws are also passed restricting the size
of sugary drinks that chains can offer.
People can now make wiser choices.
Of course, that doesn't mean they do.
I just don't care. I just... I love the food.
And I have one life to live, so I'm eating it.
[narrator] This last decade has seen another pushback
against the fast food industry,
not just to save calories,
but the planet.
[birds chirping]
2015, 16, and 17
-were the warmest years on record. -[sizzling]
One of the reasons for this are greenhouse gases like methane,
that trap the Earth's heat.
And guess what one of the largest producers of methane is.
Cow herds.
-[farting] -[mooing]
America is the world's biggest beef producer.
Billions of burgers
means millions of cows.
-[farting] -[mooing]
As a result, the fast food giants are being pressured
to figure out a way to reduce the livestock industry's global emissions.
And that's not all.
Takeout orders account for around 269,000 tons of plastic waste,
polluting the oceans.
Now, environmentalists are calling
for fast food companies to reduce their waste
and use more eco-friendly packaging.
Black plastic like this is really hard for recyclers.
Plastic cutlery wrapped in more plastic.
None of this will get recycled.
[narrator] McDonald's has phased out all its foam packaging.
And other companies, like Starbucks,
are ditching their plastic straws.
One thing's for sure, fast food isn't going away.
And for the economy, that's a good thing.
Globally, fast food is a half a trillion dollar business.
As of 2019, more than 3.7 million people work in the industry in the US alone.
And because most franchises are locally owned and operated,
they provide real economic opportunities,
often in low-income areas.
And the industry is quick to point out that it doesn't only provide
important entry-level jobs for young people,
but that fast food franchises
are increasingly providing part-time work for the elderly,
which is important, as the general population ages.
The reason fast food continues to thrive
is that, in pursuit of quick profits,
the industry has always swiftly responded
-to shifts in how people eat. -...and your keto bowl.
[narrator] With millions of vegans worldwide,
Pizza Hut now offers dairy-free cheese.
KFC is trying out meatless wings and nuggets.
And in 2019, White Castle,
Carl's Jr., and Burger King all roll out versions
of the vegan-friendly Impossible Burger,
made entirely from plant products.
No cows required.
[man] We have created a burger that tastes like beef.
The consistency's about the same.
The color is the same. The texture's the same.
And it bleeds, and it sizzles, which is really revolutionary.
[narrator] Fast food continues to put smiles on faces
all over the world.
But it's also very likely hammering our health.
And it's not exactly great for the planet, either.
But the fast food industry has shown it's hyperresponsive
to consumer demands.
They watch what we buy and what we eat
more carefully than we do.
So what happens next
is in our hands.
[rock music playing]