Cause and Effects of Fast Food
Today, fast food restaurants have appeared in large quantities all over the world. Many fast food companies such as McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King have business everywhere. A variety of people, especially youth, prefer to eat fast food such as hamburgers, fried chicken, or pizza than cook at home. Fast food is convenient for people’s lives, and has become popular in the world. However, fast food is making the world unhealthy and unwilling to wait or/ impatient for meals. The appearance of fast food restaurants represents the fast pace of the world’s lives. There are several reasons as to why fast foods have risen in popularity at a substantial rate. Different people go there for their own reasons. The causes for fast food popularity arise from the quick service and convenience provided. The effects of fast food are addiction and health concerns.
One of the reasons is that the restaurants usually offer fast services. (For example McDonald’s) The preference for fast food restaurant is due to the time consuming task of cooking. Many people usually find themselves to be late for work or school; therefor they find it very difficult to prepare food in their homes since they believe it takes a lot of time, which causes them to go for fast food. It is more beneficial to spend five minutes in a fast food restaurant for food than to spend time preparing and cooking food. The amount of time that dining restaurants take before food is ready can be from around 30 minutes to as much as a hour. Fast food restaurants save time and effort for busy people living their lives.
Another reason and perhaps the most common which causes people go for fast foods is that they are lazy to cook or are just too busy to do so. They do not have time to drive to the store, buy ingredients, drive back, unpack them, prepare them and cook a nice home meal. It just takes too much time and effort. People eat fast food because it is quick and much easier than cooking. It is also really cheap People don't have that kind of time, so they turn to McDonald's and KFC.
Everything has pros and cons so fast food is not an exception. The pros of fast food are convenience and speed. The cons of fast food are addiction and hazardous to health. Majority of the population who eat fast food do not know the nutritional balance of the foods they take, and this is a major risk to health. The most negative or dangerous thing that comes with eating fast foods is that it causes some diseases. Research indicates that fast food lead to addiction. The effects of fast food on the brain are the same as what happens with narcotics. However, the addiction that comes with it is not that strong as the narcotics but its social consequences are bad. The addiction is serious and has some consequences for health. Some health problems are obesity, addiction, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and many more. These are serious conditions and you can die from it.
The three main reasons why fast foods are bad for you is, first being that fast food contains more calories than needed. An average person needs to consume about 400-600 calories in a mealtime. (3 main meals and 2 snacks.) The calorie content of many items is far more than that level. For example; KFC chicken pot pie has 790 calories. If you eat that and drink 300ml of Pepsi, which contain 170 calories, you will have a total of 960 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.
Second, fast food contains 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.