Why Fast Food is Bad for You

If you've ever wondered why fast food is bad for you, this hub page will let you have it in no uncertain terms! The dangers of fast food cannot be understated as the world's population is increasingly becoming overweight.

This is thanks largely to a shift in diet from a wholesome, home cooked diet as little as 40 years ago to a diet rich in processed, unwholesome and additive laden foods. With the ever growing proliferation of fast food outlets and restaurants coupled with huge advertising budgets, its no wonder that more and more people are flocking to eat their highly attractive products.

However, while these products might look appealing and tasty, they contain a wealth of hidden heath hazards which are not only dangerous if eaten in large quantities but are a major cause of obesity, especially in children.

Here's Why Fast Food is Bad for You

By fast food, I'm not just talking about products that are processed and pre-prepared so that they can be cooked fast and handed over to the customer within a matter of minutes, such as is popular in the almost omni-present burger and fries restaurants that are advertised on TV all the time. I'm also including a lot of stuff that you buy at the supermarket that you pop into the microwave and have a ready meal for the family in a matter of minutes.

Convenience foods, or foods that require no preparation or traditional cooking by busy mothers trying to juggle a full time job with looking after a family are equally as unhealthy and unwholesome as the burgers and pizzas you get from fast food outlets. Here's why.

Foods that are processed and made into what can best be described as ready meals often contain few in any nutritional ingredients. They are bulked out with pasta, breadcrumbs, corn flour, processed potato, processed egg and milk products as well as hydrogenated vegetable oil, saturated fats, gums, sugar substitutes etc, then made to taste good by the addition of herbs and spices, salt, monosodium glutamate and sugars. They also contain artificial colours and preservatives as well as some artificial flavourings just to complete the unhealthy package!

What is the Health Impact of Fast Food?

The impact to health from fast food is quite staggering when it is consumed on a regular basis. Unfortunately, an ever growing number of households are doing exactly that, as fewer and fewer families rely on someone doing any conventional cooking using fresh food ingredients. Far too many households feed themselves on a constant, daily diet of microwaved ready meals with very little or zero fresh fruit or vegetables. Then they "treat" themselves to a meal out, by visiting a burger or pizza restaurant, or if they're feeling in need of a healthy meal, a steak and fries restaurant!

Here's what's wrong with that.

When your diet is lacking in fresh fruit and vegetables, your intake of essential nutrients that are derived from these sources is almost zero. Your intake of dietary fiber is also low to nonexistent.By replacing fresh wholesome food with processed, additive laden food, you do the following things to your body:

• Raise your blood pressure
• Increase the levels of bad (LDL) cholesterol
• Retard your metabolic rate (the rate at which you digest, process and eliminate food)
• Weaken your immune system
• Destabilize your blood sugar levels
• Reduce the ability of your colon to function properly

What all this does to your body is it increases your fat storage, especially if you lead a sedentary lifestyle.

It places you at risk of strokes from high blood pressure, type II diabetes from irregular blood sugar levels, heart attacks from raised LDL cholesterol levels, cancer of the colon because it cannot process the waste products properly, more frequent illness as your immune system is compromised and a greater chance of contracting other cancers as your levels of antioxidants is so low.

It increases your chances of contracting arthritis and other inflammatory diseases at an increasingly younger age as your overall body acidity rate increases, lowering your ability to process and remove excess uric acid from your bloodstream.

It also leads to weight gain and obesity, further increasing the likelihood of strokes and heart attacks.

All in all, it paints a pretty gloomy picture. So what can you do to redress the balance?

You need to cut out most of the fast, processed food from your diet food delivery system and replace it with traditional, home cooked meals prepared and made from fresh vegetables, meat and fish. You should include fresh fruits and berries in that diet and switch to wholemeal bread and pasta to increase your body's intake of the all-important dietary fiber.

You may have spent years doing untold amounts of damage to your body, but that damage can be undone and fixed by switching your diet. Its never too late, unless you're about to check out of the hospital in a wooden box. So don't let it come to that and make the change now!

If you don't care about doing it for yourself, at least do it for your children. Show them you love them and give them a chance at living a healthy and long life by cooking them good wholesome food like your grandmother used to make for your parents and if you were lucky enough, like your parents did for you.