Topic 2 &quot;You are what you eat.&quot; Is a common phrase that is usually interpreted as an individual's diet. For example, eat too much bacon strips and you'll end up looking like Porky the Pig. In &quot;<a href="/keyword/fast-food-nation/" >fast food nation</a> &quot;, Eric Scholsser interprets the quote differently. When the fast food industry boomed, there was a lot of competition going on in between the major fast food companies. They resorted to shady business tactics such as franchising. People are always on the lookout to earn the big bucks quick while taking huge risks. This is where the different interpretation lies. Beef patties. Just in case anyone was wondering , beef patties are a mixture of grinded leftovers from a slaughtered cow, in which they were under control of their owners. This is much like franchising in the fast food industry. A franchise is where a major fast food company sells their brand and supplies to an independent owners and share profits from each other. If all goes well, the company gains coverage for their brand while the independent owner gets rich off of the brand. When things go wrong though, as Scholsser states, the franchisor almost always wins. A great example of this is where &quot;encroachment&quot; occurs. This is where the fast food chain becomes so famous that restaurants in the same chain are opening extremely close together, dividing the customers and driving sales down to once popular chains. To the franchisors though, this meant the more coverage they have, the more sales they'll get. Despite that fact, the franchisors may legally terminate any franchisees should a better suitable owner open a new chain nearby. Golden fries. Delicious slices of potato, a popular item due to the nature of being over-fried for extra flavor, do not provide any valuable nutrients, despite all the work that has been put into serving it. Even worse, it's obviously deteriorating our health in the long run due to the amount of trans fat. This is much like the lifestyle of a typical employee in the fast food industry. It is a popular choice by many college students, yet it doesn't provide much for the student's future. Despite the fact, they still work hard in the back room, putting together meals in front of the furnaces/microwaves all for the minimum wage. Yet having this job may be deteriorating the student's education, cutting their study hours and turning it into money commonly spend on the latest iPods and other gadgets. Coke. It's sweet, it's addicting, lots of stars drink it on commercials, and everyone wants to be like them. In a similar sense, near the end of chapter four of &quot;<a href="/keyword/fast-food-nation/" >fast food nation</a> &quot;, Scholsser talks about several employees from Little Caesar's that went to a business convention where many special guest speakers were appearing. To me, the whole convention seemed a bit fake. The tickets themselves cost $90 each (paid for by their boss) and once they were inside the arena, the employees were hit with many advertisements on how to be &quot;successful&quot;. The speech themselves were made up of effective encouragements and infomercial-like persuasions like Peter Lowe recommending one of his tape series, &quot;Success Talk&quot;. Still the crowd raves with the speakers thinking they'll get rich someday. The quote is pretty much true for the most part, people really are what they eat. Fast food companies are killing off franchisees like cows in the slaughter house, while employees are being consumed like French fries, wasting their precious time on an unfair wage, and optimists are truly inspired to get rich quick like young teenagers seeing Britney Spears on a Pepsi commercial. People are convinced that their plans of getting rich with the food industry, but in the end, it is a waste of time and for the most part, their plan backfires. Near the end of the convention for those Little Caesar's employees, Christopher Reeves says &quot;I see people who achieve these conventional goals. None of it matters.&quot;