Fast food chains do not intend to harm our health at all. Their goal is to make it tasty, beautiful and cheap. Cheap, of course, for them. You should like it and definitely come back. This is business - and nothing extra. But this formula does not contain the word “safe”. Because if you make food safe for the human body, it will cost much more. And this is a different business – a restaurant business. A real one, where there is a chef and sous-chef, where vegetables are bought in the morning at the market, and oysters are brought from France. But such restaurants are not affordable for everyone. Fast food is mass production. And it requires different recipes and ingredients, a different attitude towards products. Do you want fast and cheap? Then see what you get.
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Salt
Table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) is vital for humans. It is involved in the production of hydrochloric acid, an important component of gastric juice. Its deficiency, as well as its excess, negatively affects the body. But fast food contains too much salt. For humans, the physiological norm of consumption is five grams of salt per day. So if you take one Big Mac (2.3 grams of salt) and a medium serving of French fries (0.55 grams of salt), that will already be more than half the daily value. If you stop there and don’t over-salt it at home, then good. And if not? What are the dangers of excess salt in the body?
Excess salt leads to high blood pressure (hypertension), and this, accordingly, leads to headaches, pain in the heart, tinnitus, and visual impairment. Salt retains water in the body, which complicates the functioning of the kidneys and heart. Excess salt leads to swelling of the hands and feet. Other adverse effects are excess weight, osteochondrosis, gout, urolithiasis, nephrolithiasis and cholelithiasis.
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Sugar
While salt has been known to man since ancient times, sugar is a relatively new product. If in the middle of the 19th century the average annual consumption of sugar per person in Europe was 2 kg, then by the beginning of the current century it was already 37 kg. Sugar, or scientifically sucrose, is an artificial product. And although it is made from natural raw materials, this should not mislead you. In the human body, sugar is broken down into glucose and fructose, which immediately enter the blood. However, if glucose is a vital substance for humans, then fructose, according to scientists, has no nutritional value. Although it is twice as sweet as glucose, it is what gives the sweet taste to your favorite foods.
Fructose even poses a serious danger to the body. A study conducted by scientists from the University of California found that fructose can cause diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and various cardiovascular diseases. We must immediately talk about fructose in fruits. This is the same fructose, but it does not enter the body alone, but with cellulose (indigestible fiber). Thanks to her, it bypasses the stomach, is not absorbed into the blood and reaches the large intestine.
Now look at the composition of the Big Mac. The sauce contains high fructose corn syrup. Some time ago, fructose syrup was also included in the list of ingredients for the Big Mac bun. If we talk about sugar in general, it is found in carbonated drinks and cocktails, cakes and ice cream. And excessive consumption of sugar, both glucose and fructose, is a direct path to obesity and diabetes.
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Conclusions about the dangers of fast food
Today we have discussed a very important topic, in my opinion, because... this shapes our further eating behavior, and therefore improves our quality of life.
In general, if you take the product itself, let’s say a burger, then consuming it, prepared with your own hands, on good products at home, most likely will not cause any health problems, especially if consumed a couple of times a month.
But if you consume store-bought, relatively cheap fast food on an ongoing basis, you will definitely end up with serious health problems.
As always, there is medicine in a spoon, poison in a cup.
You can eat everything, but not everyone and in different quantities.
High calorie content
Another main disadvantage of fast food is its high calorie content and low nutritional value. Calorie content, or otherwise energy value, is one of the most significant characteristics of food products. For each person, the daily calorie intake is individual. It depends on the height, weight, gender and age of the person. Lifestyle plays an important role. Those who lead an active lifestyle need more energy, those who move little need less, and accordingly, the calorie content of the diet will be different. In general, an adult man of average build needs about 2500 Kcal per day, a woman less - only 2000 Kcal.
Excess calorie intake is the main cause of obesity. If you consume more calories than your body can burn, it leads to the formation of fatty tissue. But the danger is not only in high calorie content, but in its carrier. Fast food contains a large amount of light carbohydrates, they are also called fast carbohydrates. They are quickly absorbed by the body, but are not spent on maintaining vital functions, but are put aside “in reserve”. After a while you will get hungry again. Hamburgers and hot dogs contain virtually no complex carbohydrates, which take a long time to digest and provide you with energy relatively evenly throughout the day. Therefore, you will have to eat again to get the energy your body needs.
A research group of scientists from Boston Children's Hospital, led by Dr. David Ludwig, concluded that easily digestible carbohydrates are more dangerous than fat. Food that contains such carbohydrates promotes the production of insulin, which “forces” the body to store fat.
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Healthy fast food
Fast food items should be avoided whenever possible. In principle, you should not expect any benefit from food of this quality; in addition to the fact that fast food is very heavy and fatty food, the quality of its preparation most often leaves much to be desired.
However, there are situations when you have the option of either fasting or eating something quick. Of course, fasting, especially during physical activity, is very undesirable, so it’s still worth going to the cafeteria and choosing some kind of middle ground, combining the most healthy and tasty dishes. There is no need to get lost in a cafe and order only vegetables; even fast food has dishes that you can eat without worrying about your health and diet.
Cafe with local cuisine
The best option of all available is to go to our domestic canteen and eat approximately the same thing as at home. Buckwheat is a very good source of carbohydrates; it is noteworthy that buckwheat porridge is offered only in a few Slavic cuisines - Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. In most other countries, no one has even heard of this amazing cereal. So, you ordered buckwheat porridge - an excellent source of carbohydrates, and with it you can safely take a chicken chop and a steamed cutlet. Try to take chicken or beef meat, if available.
Various pancakes, dumplings or dumplings are perfect for a good snack. They contain enough carbohydrates and very little fat; of course, there is not enough protein in such dishes, but as a snack, it is quite enough. The filling can be any - meat, mushrooms or cottage cheese, to your taste.
In general, try to take from Slavic cuisine what is familiar to you - porridges and side dishes will perfectly fill you up and will not harm your training.
Pizza
Choosing the right pizza will also give you maximum benefits with minimum harm. The only condition is that the pizza must be thin crust, and the ingredients must be as healthy as possible.
Pizza “4 cheeses” is made from yeast dough, but the layer is always very thin, the ingredients are healthy and safe, the best types of cheese are collected in this pizza.
Hawaiian pizza is very tasty and a pretty good option, the dough is again thin, which is undoubtedly a big plus. The filling here contains very healthy and tasty ingredients - pineapple, chicken, mushrooms and ham.
Pizza “Assorted Meat” is a real abundance of meat components; veal, ham and chicken are always present in this pizza.
So don’t be afraid to eat pizza, just choose the right ingredients.
The protein content in a piece of pizza is 120-140 g.
| Type of pizza | Squirrels gr. | Carbohydrates gr. | Fats gr. |
| Hawaiian | 20 | 30 | 13 |
| Cold cuts | 25 | 28 | 13 |
| 4 cheeses | 23 | 30 | 17 |
The range of pizzas in pizzerias is simply amazing, and we have considered only the most healthy ones, but this does not mean that you need to choose them, just try to choose those with fewer calories and more healthy ingredients.
Eastern cuisine
When many people hear the phrase oriental cuisine, they immediately associate it with shawarma. But now we won’t consider it, because it’s impossible to say anything good about this “dish”, it’s just disgusting, harmful disgusting. Eating shawarma leads to the fact that the body wants to cleanse itself as soon as possible, and it doesn’t matter in what way. Cleaning is, of course, good, but the method is not very successful.
In oriental cuisine we will immediately include the cuisines of several countries - Turkish, Uzbek and some others. Real Turkish cuisine means maximum fresh vegetables. The only drawback is that you don’t really get enough of raw vegetables. Therefore, be sure to take meat with vegetables.
A very big advantage of oriental cuisine is the obligatory presence of good meat. Such cuisines never use pork. Few people use lamb as a meat ingredient for most meat dishes - it is very expensive meat, leaving only beef and poultry. And this meat suits us very well.
The most suitable dish for a good and healthy snack is pilaf. Of course, to enjoy all the splendor of this dish, you need to go to a good oriental restaurant, and fast food pilaf will only allow you to quickly get enough and give you the maximum benefit from high-quality rice, meat and various spices. By the way, it is very good to take pilaf with various dried fruits and additives - you will like the unusual but pleasant taste, and there will be much more benefits, since dried fruits are a storehouse of vitamins.
Far Eastern cuisine
We go deep into the East, where the cuisines of China and Thailand await us. The main dishes here are rice or egg noodles. The best choice is egg noodles. Meat dishes here include pork, beef, seafood and even poultry. You should avoid pork right away, but beef, seafood and poultry can be a good addition to the side dish. By the way, the portions are often quite large, and the prices for dishes of this cuisine are very reasonable.
All roads lead to McDonald's
Even in a fast food restaurant like McDonald's you can find normal products that you can fill up on without ruining your diet. By the way, McDonald's is the only fast food that provides a complete list of the amount of nutritional components in its dishes. For obvious reasons, we won’t even consider French fries, but you can take note of some products and safely order them.
| Name | Calorie content, kcal | Proteins, g | Fats, g | Carbohydrates, g |
| Hamburger | 250 | 12 | 9 | 31 |
| Cheeseburger | 300 | 15 | 12 | 33 |
| Chicken McNuggets (6 pieces) | 280 | 14 | 17 | 16 |
| Filet-o-fish | 380 | 15 | 18 | 38 |
Some useful tips - it is best to take ice cream or pie as dessert. To reduce the amount of carbohydrates by half you need to take 2 hamburgers and remove 1 bun. Filet-o-fish contains a lot of unhealthy fats due to mayonnaise; if you try to clean it out, you can get an equally healthy, but less high-calorie dish. Eliminate soda from drinks and take either plain water or a cocktail.
Disruption
Even the most experienced bodybuilders broke down and ate everything that they had spent months building with diets and exercise. But fortunately, such breakdowns very rarely lead to loss of shape, some even noticed this pattern - after a good breakdown at McDonald's, the shape improves significantly, it would seem that this is impossible, but in fact everything is easily explained.
The hormone leptin performs a very important function in the body - it, like some other hormones, burns fat. During various diets, the amount of leptin in the body drops, naturally fat is burned, but more slowly. In addition, leptin is responsible for the uptake of glucose into skeletal muscles, which means that fat is burned more slowly and muscles lose their volume. This is where you can see the relationship between breaking down in fast food and getting in shape.
Lee Priest once said: “I was working, and then I suddenly snapped, went to McDonald's and ate everything. I went to bed with a terrible feeling of guilt, and when I woke up, I realized that my shape had improved a lot, I looked much better than before.” It turns out that you can sometimes afford breakdowns, but they are small and rare. If you feel that you might have a breakdown, then it is better to provoke a breakdown at home, where you yourself can prepare what you have been wanting for a long time, but at the same time exclude harmful ingredients - sugar, mayonnaise, etc.
Fats
Fats are an integral component of our diet and an essential ingredient in cooking. Fats themselves consist of so-called fatty acids, which come in two types - saturated and unsaturated. The former are of animal origin, the latter are of plant origin. Molecules of natural unsaturated fats are in the so-called cis form, they are also called cis fats. You rarely hear about these fats. Their “doubles” are commonly heard – trans fats. They are sometimes, of course, found in nature, but a much larger number of trans fats that enter our body are of artificial origin. They can be found in margarine, spreads, mayonnaise and, of course, in many products from fast food establishments - French fries, hamburgers, pasties, donuts.
Such fats, compared to cis fats, have an irregular molecular shape and are not able to properly perform the functions inherent in fats in the body. At the same time, they are quite attractive to the fast food industry. Fats based on unsaturated fatty acids (and these are usually vegetable oils) have a significant drawback - they are difficult to store. To increase shelf life, a hydrogenation method is used, as a result of which most unsaturated fatty acids are transferred from the cis form to the trans form. Various margarines and hydrogenated oils are produced in this way. They last longer, can be used repeatedly for frying, and are also quite cheap compared to animal fats. That is, they have everything that is needed for use in the fast food industry.
At first, no one noticed the harm from such fats. But already in 1993, studies appeared confirming that eating foods high in trans fats increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Trans fats behave differently in the body than their natural counterparts. In addition to the heart, trans fats also damage the pancreas - leading to the development of diabetes, as well as the appearance of chronic inflammatory processes.
Consumption of trans fats leads to obesity. At the same time, trans fats are difficult to remove from the body; according to some data, this requires at least 2 years, provided that a healthy diet is maintained during this period.
Don't assume that saturated animal fats are safe. They are also used in abundance in the preparation of fast food. Their excessive consumption creates a huge burden on the liver, negatively affects the heart and leads to obesity.
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Some interesting statistics
Let's talk a little about numbers.
According to statistics, every second Moscow resident consumes fast food at least 2 times a week, and the average bill is 650 rubles.
From the above we can conclude that the monthly market volume IN MOSCOW ONLY is equal to: (6.15 million people * 650 rubles) * 8 visits per month = 31,980,000,000 rubles.
Almost 32 BILLION, friends, per month! And this is only in Moscow.
Just imagine the volume of fast food sales per year IN THE WORLD! This is a colossal number.
Here are some more fascinating statistics for the USA (the country that is the leader in fast food consumption in the world), expressed in infographics:
A huge, multi-billion dollar industry that is only growing year after year, despite all the reliable research on the dangers of this food.
McDonald's is the MOST POPULAR fast food chain in the world.
Mac has more than 36 thousand restaurants worldwide and sales of $35.4 billion a year.
There are hundreds of fast food brands, and this article is not enough for me to list them all, and in general, that’s not what we’re talking about.
It would seem, what is the harm in this diet, because it is all made from vegetables, bread, and meat...
Yes, it should be so, but are you sure it's true?
Taste and aroma
In the process of going through the entire technological chain: long-term storage, freezing and thawing, heat treatment, products lose their natural taste. But you don’t want to buy a bland and tasteless Big Mag, do you? They will make it tasty and aromatic for you.
The main producer of flavors and aromas for the McDonald's fast food restaurant chain is International Flavors & Fragrances. It is thanks to this company, whose headquarters are located in New York, and not to the skillful hands of the chef, that all the food in McDonald's restaurants is so tasty and attractive. The company was founded back in 1833 and deals not only with flavors for the food industry. Among its clients are manufacturers of personal care products, household chemicals, perfumes, and cosmetics.
Food flavorings and flavoring additives can be both natural and synthetic. But artificial ones are cheaper. In general, due to their small amounts, these substances do not pose a major health threat. But in high concentrations and long-term use they can lead to liver disease.
When talking about the taste properties of products, one cannot fail to mention monosodium glutamate. This food additive increases the smell and taste of any dishes and products. Monosodium glutamate was isolated in its pure form in Japan at the beginning of the 19th century. Today it is actively used by fast food manufacturers. It is often hidden in a product called MSG (monosodium glutamate). In addition, it has a European code (number) - E621. Excessive consumption of products containing this food additive can ultimately cause Alzheimer's disease, kidney failure, digestive problems, bronchial asthma, and various allergic reactions. Excess glutamate also affects vision - the structure of the retina is disrupted. And, of course, monosodium glutamate can cause food addiction. A person stops accepting natural food and can no longer do without adding monosodium glutamate to food.
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