Use of Gimmicks

A lot of restaurants and other businesses use gimmicks, like cuddly cartoon characters, to promote their product. Mascots like Grimace might encourage more kids to like to eat at McDonald's. Although saying that "Grimace is evil" is a little extreme, it is true that we have to make an effort to look past the cute purple Grimace and ask questions such as "What am I actually eating?" and "What is this going to do to my health?". The following information will help you to answer these questions.

Know What You're Missing

Although what is in the fast food that we eat can cause health problems, what is not in that food is also an issue. The Canada Food Guide tells you how many servings of each food group you need every day. Looking at the guide, it is clear that eating fast food is not a good start to getting the balance of nutrients that you need. For example, people between the ages of nine and thirteen need six servings of fruits and vegetables every day. The traditional burger from a fast food restaurant will only provide you with a slice of tomato and a pickle and maybe some lettuce, but not enough to even amount to one serving.

One fast food meal in a week or a couple meals in a month will not be a big problem with your health. However, if you are regularly eating those burgers, you might find that in doing that and not following the food guide, your health suffers noticeably. Please check out the New Canada Food Guide link on the side of the page to view the nutrients that you require, but that fast food is not able to provide you with.

Know What You're Eating

You need to know what you are eating when you go to fast food restaurants. That's the only way you can begin to make healthier choices about the food you eat. To help you out with this, the amount of trans fat in some fast food meals are listed in the Trans Fat article below. The link to "Calorie Counter" will take you to a site that easily allows you to find out how many calories your favourite fast food meals have. Please keep in mind that the suggested amount of calories to consume per day is around 2000, depending on your age, gender, and physical activity.

Apart from fast food, you need to be aware that the unhealthy ingredients that are found in those meals might also appear in other foods. Although it is true that the food that is sold in grocery stores cannot exceed a certain amount of trans fat (according to rules that fast food restaurants are not required to follow), that doesn't mean you can't consume too much fat from that food as well. When you are looking at food labels, trans fat can be listed as hydrogenated vegetable oil of any kind, partially hydrogenated oils, vegetable oil shortening, or vegetable margarine, such as canola margarine (this refers to margarines used by food manufacturers; some margarines on store shelves are now non-hydrogenated).

Trans Fat

There are four kinds of fat in food - polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, saturated and trans. Small amounts of trans fat are found naturally in some foods, but mainly this kind of fat is created when liquid oil, like vegetable oil, is made into semi-solid fat, such as shortening or margarine.

This is the type of trans fat found in fast food meals, and it can have a big impact on your health. In fact, five grams of fat consumed every day for years can raise the risk of heart disease by 25%. Although the World Health Organization recommends lowering your personal trans fat intake to 3 grams each day, people in the 15-25 age group average 38 grams each day. That is an amazing difference. Think of how much people have to change their eating habits so that their level of trans fat is only 3 grams.






Let's look at the trans fat factor in fast food. The percentages shown in the chart below represent how much a person's risk of heart disease increases when the meal is eaten every day for a few years.

Average meal at:
KFC......................18.6 grams of trans fat.........................100%
Burger King..........13 grams
Wendy's................5 grams................................................25%
McDonald's...........1.8 grams

Even though some of McDonald's meals would contain more trans fat than Wendy's, this sample accurately shows how much fast food can affect your risk of heart disease. However, we must remember that this shows what will happen when the meal is eaten every day, not when it is just eaten once in a while.


This is not the only health problem that can result from too much trans fat. Sometimes, the fat can cause problems with a child's brain developement. I think that is even worse than the increasing risk of heart disease, because the child is not the one choosing what he or she eats. Adults have to watch what their children eat as well as what they themselves are eating.

The Facts and Statistics

I've heard that there is a statistic to prove every statement. Whether this is true or not is beside the point, but there are certainly many facts and statistics that show how people eat too much fast food.


Seventy percent of Americans eat dinner at home on a regular basis. However, almost half of those meals are actually fast food, delivery or takeout from restaurants. Every day, one out of four Americans eats a meal at a fast food restaurant. People are eating at these places so much that in 2005 in the United States, people spent more money on fast food than education. Think of how cheap fast food is compared to how expensive some education is, and that's unbelievable.

Making Healthier Choices

The whole point of this is that people need to make better choices about factors concerning their health. People need to know what fast food restaurants are doing to them, and then they need to do something about it.

Since fast food restaurants are generally not good for your health, the obvious solution is to stop going to the restaurants so often. However, there are some fast food meals that are more healthy than others. Many fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King have introduced healthier choices to their menus. An example of this are the salads that you can usually get there. If you still want a burger when you go to McDonald's, take notice of the size of your meal. Smaller portions mean less trans fat and calories.

Don't feel guilty if you eat at a fast food place a few times every month. The idea is to only eat this kind of food in moderation and to try to eat the healthier items on the menu - or at least not to eat the worst ones.

Bibliography

1.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060609/tansfat_charts_060612/20060613/
2.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976732488
3.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fast-Food-Nation-All-American-Doing/dp/0141006870
4.
http://www.fastfoodchoices.blogspot.com