Walk into any town in America and you’ll see it– a big and tempting sign of fast food like McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s on nearly every corner. These food chains promise quick, crave-worthy meals at prices that seem too good to be true; however they don’t tell you they are nutritionally poor and horribly high in calories. Medical News Today reports, “Evidence demonstrates that overeating commercial fast food products can negatively impact health in both the short- and long-term.” While fast food seems to be very convenient, it is damaging people’s health and creating dangerous eating habits that are being passed to next generations.
Ultra processed foods are items packed with artificial ingredients, preservatives, and refined sugars. In regards to fast food, WebMD explained that burgers, fries, and shakes “usually have more fat, calories, and highly processed carbs than your body needs in one meal.” Consequences due to the constant consumption of these types of food are weight gain, dental disease, blood and heart problems, memory loss, skin breaks and risks of infertility. It should be a concern for society that fast and ultra-processed food now makes up more than half of the average American diet, despite experts’ warning about the negative impact of it. Fast food lacks the vitamins and nutrients your body needs, and according to an article by McLean, “When the body lacks these essential nutrients, you may experience symptoms like depression, anxiety, irritability, and cognitive impairment,” highlighting that the damage caused by fast food doesn’t stop at the body, it also affects your mental health.
Additionally, fast food companies address mostly younger people by presenting colorful advertisements with celebrities and offering meals that come with toys. AMA introduced Dr. Devries, who shared a professional overview, “Recent data shows that 57% of caloric intake in adults comes from ultraprocessed foods. For children it’s sadly even higher, with 67% of children’s daily calories from relatively empty ultraprocessed foods.” Many parents, tired after long hours at work, often choose fast food either out of convenience or because their children insist on meals they have seen advertised on TV or social media. However, this convenience comes at a cost, as teenagers are facing diseases that used to only affect adults, such as high blood pressure, chronic fatigue and fatty liver disease, “fatty liver disease was considered an adult disease. But it has become much more common in children and teens,” the American Academy of Pediatrics explained. The truth is that people in today’s world demonstrate being ignorant about their own health by choosing convenience over nutrition, by treating fast food as an ordinary part of life, by normalizing extra sugary snacks and by not questioning what is actually in the food they eat.
While it is very easy to blame people because of their “poor choices,” some experts argue that many low-income communities reside in areas where healthy options are less affordable. Supporters of this idea argue that greasy meals are cheaper than a salad, and because of that, they are “tempted” to choose what is accessible. However CNN contradicts this statement, explaining the normal price of a meal in a fast food restaurant is over US$8. CNN said, “$8 is a lot for a family living under the U.S. poverty line, which for a family of two is about $44 per day.” They continued adding, “It is doubtful a poor family of two would be able to regularly spend more than a third of its daily income eating fast food.” Therefore, the high consumption of fast and ultraprocessed food is not due to the area you live in or how much you earn, “is shared across the income spectrum, from rich to poor, with an overwhelming majority of every group reporting having indulged at least once over a nonconsecutive three-week period,” CNN reported.
The change starts with awareness. Recommended solutions are preventing exposure to the problem, especially by regulating marketing and zoning for fast food places while increasing access to healthier alternatives. Besides, kids should be taught how to read food labels, and parents should plan meals and stock homes with healthier options. Small changes like drinking water instead of soda can help you save your life. It is time to rethink what “normal” looks like on our plates. We are not just what we eat, we are also defined by our habits and what we allow to become okay in our lives.
