Fast Foods: The Dangers Are Enormous - Stan Onodu
Fast food restaurants and joints seem to be ubiquitous in the cities these days. In my own part of the world, Nigeria, these foods were virtually unknown, not until the 80s. What used to be were 'akala' balls (beans cake) and 'moi-moi' - all from beans - and 'agidi' from corn. Those, to a large extent, are healthy fast foods. And then, gradually and steadily, fast food restaurants started filtering in. Popular amongst them are Mr. Biggs, Chicken Republic, Genesis, Tantalizers, just to mention a few. Unbelievably, these joints have become the 'hot' spots in the cities they are located. The foods have become the in-thing. They are in vogue. People take their families out to those restaurants.
To make matters worse, the state of the world economy added insult to injury. There is a rat race to make ends meet in a Global recession. As a result, most families have both parents working, making it near impossible for anyone to find time to sit and prepare family meals. Therefore, even families have resorted to fast foods. It has become common these days to see taxi cab drivers, truck drivers and those doing businesses on the go, eating these kind of unhealthy foods even as they drive and do their businesses. We live in a fast world, you know!
But from the trends, it has been discovered, more so in the advanced world, that fast foods are really dangerous to health. They seem to make our lives fast, and we die young as a result. The dangers associated with them are, therefore, just too serious to be ignored.
- Sickness. Fast foods are acid foods. They can change your system from alkaline to acidic. And once this happens, you start getting feelings of unwellness. When you consult with your family doctor, he prescribes some drugs for you, you get well again but in a couple of weeks, you're down again because you just continued with your unhealthy diet.
- Overweight. Just take a casual look around you, right now. You'll definitely see grossly overweight people including men with pot-bellies. Unfortunately, kids are not left out. What is the cause? Fast foods, which is synonymous with bad eating habits.
- High Blood Pressure. Fast foods have a lot of insoluble fats that clog your arteries and veins. Mostly, they have high salt content. All these increase your blood pressure, and high blood pressure, ultimately, means stroke, heart attack and sudden death.
- Short Lifespan. Living on fast foods is like living fast, may be looking good and then, dying young. James Dean once said - 'Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse'. That holds true till today because people who live on this kind of unhealthy diets quickly gather unwanted fats, become obese, become hypertensive and die of heart attack, leaving overweight corpses.
- Questionable Hygiene. Can you imagine the 'behind the scene' sanitary conditions of most fast food restaurants? Because the owners of these businesses are more interested in cost-cutting and maximization of profits than in your well-being, the 'healthy' conditions of the fast food products cannot be guaranteed. They hire untrained and uncaring workers to prepare and manage the foods. That is a big threat to your health!
From the foregoing, eating fast foods regularly will definitely pose serious risks to your health. Today, you can commit to healthy eating in and from your home. It will take just a little discipline on your part. Prepare a couple of meals during the weekend. And the next time you want to eat, simply cut a portion and warm. I bet, you'll notice great changes in your life - healthwise.
What is that health condition that constitutes a burden in your life? Do you know that through healthy eating you can overcome it? You can learn a lot more here: http://www.healthyeatingpalace.blogspot.com/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stan_Onodu Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5880674