In today's society, fast food has become an important part of the lives of many Americans. With the growing number of obese people, it's hard not to draw a correlation between the rise of fast food and obesity. Most obese people do not want to be obese and want to lose weight, but still struggle with fast food consumption and obesity. This is due to the advertising placed on consumers, the addictive food itself, and most importantly, the way advertising and addiction combine with children to form habits that are maintained once they become adults. These factors are the reasons why fast food restaurants are responsible for the increase in obesity and health risks across America. The government needs to step in and regulate these fast food restaurants so that they stop taking advantage of people's weaknesses. Before we can go into detail about how fast food companies are responsible if people eat their food, it needs to be proven that fast food is actually the main problem causing obesity in America today. It is known to many that the number of fast food restaurants in America has increased enormously in recent decades, but it is difficult to calculate by how much due to the lack of historical statistics. Furthermore, it is difficult to classify some restaurants as fast food or not. However, a good way to get a sense of the growth of the fast food industry is to take a look at McDonald's, which has been America's most popular fast food chain for decades. In 1968, McDonald's opened its 1,000th American restaurant. This number rose to 13,800 restaurants in 2011 (McDonald's 1), which really shows how much more fast food they consume than in the past. Let's consider the... middle of the paper... on fast food. However, in this case, due to the legitimacy of fast food addiction, along with too much advertising and the poor healthy menu alternatives offered, people have been unable to make a change and continue to head in the wrong direction. As a result, the government must step in, as it has done in the past with tobacco, and regulate the market to save people from themselves. By creating a universal standard to measure the healthfulness of a food, the government can then decide how much to tax certain menu items and consequently control their price and demand. Additionally, the government can decide which items will be declared as healthy choices and therefore which items can be advertised. Once the government takes these steps to solve the problems created by fast food, it can put everyone on the path to becoming a healthier nation.