Eating too much fast food is considered to be a leading cause of obesity, hypertension, and heart disease.
Fast food restaurants are popular because they serve tasty convenient foods for a reasonable price. Many people visit these restaurants frequently to eat their main meals. They don't realize that these type of food items are bad for health.
Here are some reasons why fast food is bad for your health.
Fast food contain more calories.
Majority of junk foods are loaded with calories. Large portion size and high fat content are the main reasons for the high energy content.
An average person need to consume about 400-600 calories in a mealtime. (If he takes 3 main meals and 2 snacks.) The calorie content of many items are far more than that level.
For example; KFC chicken pot pie have 790 calories. If you eat that and drink 300ml of Pepsi, which contain 170 calories, you will have a total of 960 calories.
A McDonald's Big Xtra Hamburger with cheese have 810 calories. A Burger King's Club Chicken Sandwich is loaded with700 calories.
Think that if you eat 220 more calories a day, you will gain one pound of extra fat in your body in two weeks time. That means, 24 pounds in one year. That is a lot of weight gain. So, don't visit those restaurants more than once a week.
Fast food contain more unhealthy fat.
Most of the convenient foods contain high levels of saturated fat. This type of fat is mostly derived from animal products such as meat, eggs and butter. Palm oil and coconut oil also contain significant amounts of saturated fat.
Eating too much saturated fat can increase bad cholesterol level in the blood. Elevated levels of cholesterol is the main cause of heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular diseases.
Another type of fat presents in these food is called trans fat, which is the worst type of fat. We do not need to eat trans fat, even in tiny amounts.
Consumption of trans fat is linked to elevated levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) in the blood. In addition, it can lower the amount of good cholesterol (HDL) in you body.
Fast foods are high in sodium.
Sodium plays several important roles in our body. We need to consume certain amount of sodium everyday.
However, taking too much salt is bad for the body. It can cause high blood pressure, obesity, and osteoporosis. In addition, experts believed that over-consumption of salt is linked to increased risk of developing bowl cancer.
An average adult need to consume about 1200mg sodium per day. Many of the convenient foods contain far more than that amount.
For example; KFC double down sandwich contain 1880 mg of sodium. Similarly, McDonald's Angus bacon and cheese contain 2070 mg of sodium.
Imagine you eat one of these items for your one meal time. then what are you going to eat for the rest of the day?
Eating too much fast food is bad for your health because they contain more calories, more unhealthy fay, and more salt. They can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, and coronary heart diseases.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Some people disagree that fast food is the cause of obesity and believe the real cause is the parents or blaming others for obesity. Yes, fast food is not the only cause of obesity, however, fast food restaurants are the leading cause of the obesity problem. There are numerous fast food restaurants that offer a variety of foods (e.g., burger, tacos, pizza). These fast food restaurants might have other foods to pick from; however, these foods are made of the same fattening ingredients, which is still obviously unhealthy. Most fast food ingredients contain fattening ingredients: saturated fat, carbohydrates, and more sugar than natural foods that are considered healthy. Because of these less healthy ingredients and the levels of fat and sugar…
- 149 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
The fast food industry has been part of our American Culture for nearly seventy years. What started from a single McDonalds has grown to become a huge organization. Since fast food has become such an easy answer to a lot of our problems, most people do not stop and think about what they are putting into their bodies and the long-term effects it will have on their health. Therefore, the fame of fast food has caused Americans to experience an increase in adverse medical problems.…
- 574 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Saturated fats and trans-fats are known as bad fats because they increase your risk of disease and elevate cholesterol. These bad fats can be found in high-fat cuts of meat, packaged snack foods, butter, cheese, vegetable shortening, fried foods, and candy bars. Foods containing trans-fats, or trans fatty acids, are harmful because they are known to increase the risk of heart disease, increase total cholesterol levels, and cause your healthy HDL (good) cholesterol levels to drop. They are also responsible for clogging arteries and causing obesity. Saturated fat is a fat that contains only saturated fatty acids, is solid at room temperature, and comes mainly from animal food products. Some examples of saturated fat are…
- 714 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
If an individual consumes too much saturated fat it can increase an individual’s cholesterol, therefore increasing their risk of heart disease, a heart attack, stroke and atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries.) Functions In The Body: Saturated fat helps the body to absorb the calcium for bone health. Furthermore, it covers the lungs with its slippery substance which makes breathing easier.…
- 2436 Words
- 25 Pages
Good Essays -
Both saturated fats and trans fatty acids are bad for you. Saturated fats are almost always found in foods that also contain cholesterol, so saturated fats offer a "one-two" punch to heart health. On the other hand, trans fatty acids not only increase LDL cholesterol, they also decrease HDL cholesterol. So while nobody can say yet definitively which is worse, it does…
- 438 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
As DeAngelis stated in her essay, easy access to fast food is one of the major environmental factors that contributes to obesity (Page 291). Today, there are close to 160,000 fast food restaurants in United States. These restaurants are fast, fun, inexpensive, and can be found almost everywhere. When people look a quick, easy meal to grab on the go, fast food is the common solution. It’s far too easy to choose fast food over cooking a healthy meal at home and when it comes to eating out, temptation often wins. Fast food is the driving force behind the epidemic of obesity. It contains large amounts of fat accumulates in your body. You will gain weight and that could lead to obesity. The more weight you gain, the more you will be at risk for serious chronic illnesses such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease and debilitating conditions.…
- 730 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Because there are not enough lipase enzymes to digest all the fats in the fast-food, all the superfluous fats are stored under your skin and this causes obesity.…
- 513 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
. Instead of people buying healthy food at the supermarket, an overwhelmingly amount of people choose Fast Food Instead. People who regularly eat at fast food joints have or are likely to have obesity, diabetes, cancers and heart problems. In addition to being tragic that people get sick or die young, it also causes…
- 283 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Over the years fast food has become a major contributor to obesity in America. The United States has become one of the most obese nations in the world due to the fact that fast food contains many fattening ingredients and that fast food is so easily obtainable. About one out of four people eat fast food every day, and there are about fifty million people who eat at a McDonald’s restaurant each day (Obesity Facts). Three reasons that fast food is contributing to obesity are fast food is higher in calories, it contains, more unhealthy fats, and it is higher in sodium.…
- 665 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
According to Face the Fats the bad fats are trans fats and saturated fats, both of these fats raises bad cholesterol levels in the blood. Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats can lower bad cholesterol levels and are beneficial when consumed in moderation. Taking in too many fats regardless of what kind they are can eventually lead to to many calories which can lead to weight gain. High levels of saturated fats or trans fats can also lead to having a stroke and heart disease. Saturated fats come from animal products like meat, dairy and eggs, these fats are solid at room temperature. Unsaturated fats: Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated…
- 627 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The outcome of eating a lot of fast food is harmful. All the unnecessary sugars and fats it…
- 746 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
2. Fatty Foods – While dietary fat is not nearly as dangerous as sugar (as the marketing for ‘low fat’ food implies), the risk level depends upon the balance of your diet. And there are many fatty foods, including hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, breaded foods, and more. A Western cultural tradition of eating many animal based fats without a proper balance of plants contributes to a variety of health issues both mentally and physically.…
- 1491 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Trans fats are also known as unsaturated fats and they are obtained by chemical processing. It can be found mostly in vegetable oil, cookies and margarine. Also they affect on our health by increasing level of bad cholesterol and decreasing of good cholesterol. By rising of bad cholesterol we are more susceptible to clogged arteries that can cause heart attack or even a stroke.…
- 537 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
‘Fat’ can sometime be a word that gives people the chills when they hear about it. It is one of the three main sources of calories to our diet and a major part of ones dietary requirement. There are three kinds of fat: saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. The degree of saturation is dependent on the amount of double and triple bonds in the chemical makeup. Saturated fats are known to increase the body's levels of serum (blood) cholesterol. Along with cholesterol, saturated fats can deposit on the inner walls of blood vessels; a condition known as atherosclerosis. When the heart's arteries become clogged with cholesterol and fats, blood flow can be restricted or totally blocked, leading to severe chest pain and heart attack. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats actually have a cholesterol-lowering effect. By substituting polyunsaturated fats for the saturated fats in your diet, you can actually help control cholesterol levels. Too much dietary fat can also contribute to overweight. Being overweight can aggravate high blood pressure, place excess strain on your heart, and make it more difficult to stay active and physically fit, thus having a negative impact on your overall cardiovascular health.…
- 567 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Fast food can be defined as any food that contributes little or no nutrient value to the diet, but instead provides excess calories and fat. Nowadays, there are millions of fast food restaurants in the world that offers their costumers plenty of different meals with a special price. Fast food can be a good way to save time ,but it is not the proper way for nutrition. Researchers found that eating fast food meals more than twice a week was associated with double the risk of abnormal glucose metabolism. Also, those products cause a great gain in weight and may cause many heart diseases. Burgers, French-fries, soft drinks are just a few examples of junk food.…
- 1326 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays