When I was growing up eating at Shakey’s, Hot Shoppes, McDonald’s, and other fast food outlets was still something of a treat. Most meals were made at home.

It’s different now. Almost all the eating spots within walking distance from my job are national and local food chains. Many parents taking their kids home from sports practice or band rehearsal stop for take-out. The food is tasty, the portions big, and the meals are convenient. And the fast food price wars between the major chains like McDonald’s and Burger King are tipping the economic scales-if not the health ones--toward fast food.

Is it any wonder that obesity is a growing health worry? Nearly a third of the population is classified as medically obese. Health specialists calculate that obesity and a sedentary lifestyle account for some 300,000 premature deaths a year, second only to smoking.

What is behind the trend toward obesity? Economic factors are critical to the remarkable proliferation of the fast food restaurants that dominate street corners around the country. Developments in the labor market and technological advances account for our propensity to overeat.

Take the dramatic social and economic shift of women moving from laboring at home to working for a paycheck over the past quarter century. Incomes are up smartly for two income couples, so the cost of eating out isn’t a deterrent. No, the scarce commodity is time. Incomes for single-earner households, especially single working women with children, have lagged by comparison. But as any single mother or father will tell you, time is also scarce. More hours at work and less time at home are driving more people to carry out food, eat a quick meal at a restaurant, and zap frozen food in the microwave.

Thanks to technology, fast food is also relatively cheap and easy to make. Take the lowly potato. Americans ate huge quantities of potatoes before World War Two, usually boiled, mashed, or baked. The French fry was relatively rare since fries are time consuming to peel, cut, and cook. But the French fry has become America’s favorite vegetable in the post World War Two economy. Potatoes are peeled by sophisticated machinery, frozen, and shipped to restaurants and grocery stores. French fries are cooked in a deep fryer, oven, or microwave. I know this all too well, since I eat a lot of them.

As a general economic rule, lower prices, more consumer choice, and technological advances are good. The standard economic perspective largely holds when it comes to the food preparation industry. Still, obesity is a worry and, it won’t be easy to remedy considering the broad economic forces at work.

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