When you think of fast food, you may only think of the fact that it’s a way to avoid cooking. But there’s more to it. Fast food usually has cheaper ingredients such as high fat meat, refined grains, and added sugar, instead of the nutritional ingredients it should have. This could lead to people wanting fast food more than home cooked meals. For example McDonalds, one of the biggest fast food restaurants in the world, has sold nearly 1.5 billion happy meals toys every year. According to “Eat This, Not That”, “McDonald’s has sold more books to kids as part of Happy Meals than are housed in the Library of Congress.” This just proves that fast food restaurants aren’t only good at making “better food,” but also good at convincing people to eat it.

The real question is : what makes fast food unhealthy? To begin with, the amount of calories in a fast food meal really affects you. Eating too many calories can lead to unwanted weight gain and most likely heart problems. Bad calories also “don’t provide your body with good nutrition. These come from things like processed foods, sugars, refined flours, unhealthy fats and artificial ingredients,” as stated on the website, Good Calories & Bad Calories. 

Fast food and drinks are also loaded with carbohydrates with little to no fiber. Eating too much fast food can increase your blood sugar which can lead to type 2 diabetes and threaten your body with insulin resistance, which is when cells in your muscles, fat, and liver don’t respond well to insulin (peptide hormone), and can’t use glucose from your blood for energy. To add on, it also affects your respiratory system. Some respiratory problems can include asthma and shortness of breath. It also may make it harder for one to breathe due to obesity caused by the excess calories in fast food meals. 

But beware, an extreme amount of junk food in a human body can lead to way more concerning things such as depression, digestive issues, heart disease, stroke, cancer and or early death.

As said from someone who had these personal issues, principal Edgar Flota, “Fast food is unhealthy. It has very little nutrition and as I get older, my cholesterol levels rise and can lead to heart attack or stroke if I don’t take care of my body due to high cholesterol caused by a poor diet.” Given these health affects, Flota  has stopped eating fast food.

Fast food can be addicting sometimes, but here are some ways to avoid it! Plan your meals ahead of time. For example, let’s say you want to make a meal for the whole workweek, on Sunday you go to the grocery store and get all the stuff to make your meals with. This will help you make healthier choices, instead of eating leftover pizza or ordering a burger. You can also try fruits and proteins, such as fish, nuts, beans, vegetables, etc.

Want to cut down on eating fast food?  Check out these tips:

Tips to avoid fast food