Supersizing Urban America

How Inner Cities Got Fast Food with Government Help

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology, Urban, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book Supersizing Urban America by Chin Jou, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Chin Jou ISBN: 9780226921945
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: March 15, 2017
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Chin Jou
ISBN: 9780226921945
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: March 15, 2017
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

More than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are over 112,000 obesity-related deaths annually, and for many years, the government has waged a very public war on the problem. Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona warned in 2006 that “obesity is the terror within,” going so far as to call it a threat that will “dwarf 9/11.”
 
What doesn’t get mentioned in all this? The fact that the federal government helped create the obesity crisis in the first place—especially where it is strikingly acute, among urban African-American communities. Supersizing Urban America reveals the little-known story of how the U.S. government got into the business of encouraging fast food in inner cities, with unforeseen consequences we are only beginning to understand. Chin Jou begins her story in the late­ 1960s, when predominantly African-American neighborhoods went from having no fast food chain restaurants to being littered with them. She uncovers the federal policies that have helped to subsidize that expansion, including loan guarantees to fast food franchisees, programs intended to promote minority entrepreneurship, and urban revitalization initiatives. During this time, fast food companies also began to relentlessly market to urban African-American consumers. An unintended consequence of these developments was that low-income minority communities were disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic.

​In the first book about the U.S. government’s problematic role in promoting fast food in inner-city America, Jou tells a riveting story of the food industry, obesity, and race relations in America that is essential to understanding health and obesity in contemporary urban America.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

More than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are over 112,000 obesity-related deaths annually, and for many years, the government has waged a very public war on the problem. Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona warned in 2006 that “obesity is the terror within,” going so far as to call it a threat that will “dwarf 9/11.”
 
What doesn’t get mentioned in all this? The fact that the federal government helped create the obesity crisis in the first place—especially where it is strikingly acute, among urban African-American communities. Supersizing Urban America reveals the little-known story of how the U.S. government got into the business of encouraging fast food in inner cities, with unforeseen consequences we are only beginning to understand. Chin Jou begins her story in the late­ 1960s, when predominantly African-American neighborhoods went from having no fast food chain restaurants to being littered with them. She uncovers the federal policies that have helped to subsidize that expansion, including loan guarantees to fast food franchisees, programs intended to promote minority entrepreneurship, and urban revitalization initiatives. During this time, fast food companies also began to relentlessly market to urban African-American consumers. An unintended consequence of these developments was that low-income minority communities were disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic.

​In the first book about the U.S. government’s problematic role in promoting fast food in inner-city America, Jou tells a riveting story of the food industry, obesity, and race relations in America that is essential to understanding health and obesity in contemporary urban America.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Learning from Madness by Chin Jou
Cover of the book Difficult Reputations by Chin Jou
Cover of the book China's Hidden Children by Chin Jou
Cover of the book Baroque Science by Chin Jou
Cover of the book Making an Issue of Child Abuse by Chin Jou
Cover of the book Plant Sensing and Communication by Chin Jou
Cover of the book The Racial Order by Chin Jou
Cover of the book Irrevocable by Chin Jou
Cover of the book This Radical Land by Chin Jou
Cover of the book Mies van der Rohe by Chin Jou
Cover of the book The Man Who Stole Himself by Chin Jou
Cover of the book Secularism in Antebellum America by Chin Jou
Cover of the book Democracy against Development by Chin Jou
Cover of the book The Mosaic Constitution by Chin Jou
Cover of the book The Returns of Fetishism by Chin Jou
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy