RyansWorld: Beef

'''Special Note: Please note that this scenario is meant to be read as entertainment, not as an accurate prediction of the future. Also note that the viewpoints and opinions that may come across in this scenario are not necessarily the viewpoints and opinions of the author.'''

Beef is considered one of the primary factors for causing obesity in Western civilization.

People have eaten the flesh of bovines from prehistoric times; some of the earliest known cave paintings, such as those of Lascaux show aurochs in hunting scenes. People domesticated cattle around 8000 BC to provide ready access to beef, milk, and leather.

Summary


Despite this factor, all-beef restaurants like Tony Roma's, Harvey's, and various restaurants that prepare steak and/or hamburgers will continue to garner profits off both their gullible patrons and the male cattle ranchers. The power of beef to make people obese is proven when 4 soy burgers have the same number of calories as a single beef hamburger. Sporting events like Major League Baseball and NASCAR entice the people with freshly-made beef that may or may not be raised locally.

Since the burger chains and steak restaurants refuse to experiment with soy burgers, individuals need to pressure the management to add soy burgers to the menu by discouraging their friends, neighbors, relatives, and themselves from ordering beef hamburgers. Also, governments and private corporations should start to provide tax incentives for restaurants to start using non-beef based hamburgers. Even if the privately owned restaurants are unwilling to make the change, then the cafeterias of government-funded public schools are trying to get young people to eat healthier with their lunch money. Many high schools in North America sell chicken burgers alongside beef hamburgers. Although chicken burgers have slightly less fat and calories than beef hamburgers, they can still cause obesity when consumed in excess amounts consumed on a near-daily basis by an average high school student with a sedentary lifestyle.

While vegetarian burger restaurants are popular in some of the larger cities (Hamilton, Toronto, New York City, Los Angeles, etc.,) the media needs to find a way to make soy burgers as popular with the rural and suburban crowd as junk food and beef hamburgers are to them now. This task would not be easy as rural folks are conditioned to eat beef as early as their toddlerhood. While some stores in smaller towns and communities sell vegetable-based burgers and soy burgers, their sales are nowhere near that of the beef hamburger. Buffalo-burgers will also exist for some time as an a less fatty and more lean alternative to normal hamburgers, but soy and vegetables should replace them by 2025.

However, the high calorie and carbohydrate count of beef can be counteracted by a fitness regime started either by a medical doctor, workplace unions, employers, politicians, and/or by the individual.