Food

Fast food is food that can be prepared and served very quickly it is any food that is quick, convenient, and usually inexpensive. Fast food is simply not what meals should be about it is convenient but not always clean. Today fast food is becoming even faster thanks to the Internet and wireless communication. 

Fast food is becoming the family cook despite shortcomings. The problem is that fast food is just plain worthless when it comes to nutritional value. Fast food is low in basic fibers, nutrients, and vitamins needed to maintain good health.  Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-throughs, at stadiums, airports, zoos, high schools, elementary schools, and universities, on cruise ships, trains, and airplanes, at K- Marts, Wal-Marts, gas stations, and even at hospital cafeterias. It is now so commonplace that it has acquired an air of inevitability, as though it were somehow unavoidable, a fact of modern life. 

Fast food isn't the only reason people are gaining weight, but it contributes to it. Fast food is heavy on fat, salt and sugar, and reduced nutrient. Modern commercial fast food is often highly processed and prepared in an industrial fashion and many scientists insist fast food is contributing to rising rates of obesity.

The capital requirements to start a fast-food restaurant are relatively small, particularly in areas with non-existent or poorly enforced health codes. Healthier fast-food alternatives are available. Subway has marketed itself as a healthy alternative to other fast food chains, and has been largely successful in this.  Many other chains (especially McDonalds) have altered their menus to include healthier options in order to prevent loss of customers.

Fast Food Restaurants

Small, individually-owned fast-food restaurants have become common throughout the world. Fast food restaurants with higher sit-in ratios, where customers can sit and have their orders brought to them are known as fast casual restaurants. Fast food has been losing market share to so-called fast casual restaurants, which offer more robust and expensive cuisines.

Common menu items at fast food outlets include fish and chips, sandwiches, pitas, hamburgers, fried chicken, french fries, chicken nuggets, tacos, pizza, and ice cream, although many fast-food restaurants offer "slower" foods like chili, mashed potatoes, and salads. Fast food restaurants are popular because the food is cheap and it is served within a few minutes. Government studies show that today's family spends about 65 percent of its home food budget on prepackaged processed foods (up from 30 percent in 1959) and that children eat half their meals in fast-food restaurants.

Healthy Fast Food?

Healthy fast food is becoming a necessity in Europe; unhealthy eating is cited as the second biggest killer after smoking..  In our age of processed, pasteurized, and devitalized products, it is critically important to include in the diet a fair amount of traditional healthy food. Remember: There are many healthy food choices that are easily available, tasty, and don't cost very much that can be eaten on the go. Keep healthy snacks in your car and home to defeat the urge to stop at fast food joints.

The trade-off for economy and convenience is having to eat food of poor quality without much nutritional value. The Subway chain, though, has had a major impact on the fast food industry, by showing that food can be mass produced in the American manner without compromising taste or nutritional value. 

Many fast food restaurants have their nutrition information available on-site or on the internet; take a look at it to help you choose healthier options. For sure, fast food restaurants are not exactly at the top of the good nutrition pyramid, but you can at least make the visit healthier. Fast food does not have to be unhealthy, but most of the time it is; consumers often order foods with more fat, calories, sugar and sodium, and less nutrition and vitamins than is necessary. There is no problem with eating fast food occasionally, but if you are eating it more than once a week, consider ordering some healthier options that are more nutritional.

Meal Implications

Meals devoured in the car or at our desks are replacing home cooked fare enjoyed with family and friends. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, such as TV dinners, typically the term refers to food which is cooked in bulk in advance, kept warm or reheated to order, and sold ready-to-eat from an outlet. One of the first things that strikes an American tourist in Paris is how the French can eat so much (four and five course meals), drink wine every day, and yet stay so thin. They are eating healthier food and their portions are a lot smaller.

Fast food is quick and easy and working parents resort to it, it's no fuss and you get a toy. It's true that fast food is usually high in fat, calories, cholesterol, and sodium, but eating fast food every once in a while is not going to cause you problems.  From onion rings to double cheeseburgers, fast food is one of the world's fastest growing food types. The side effect of a constant diet of fast food is that society pays in the long run in medical costs. Yet even though fast food is known to be of poor nutritional quality, the fast-food industry claims it can be part of a healthful diet, researchers said.  When people all over the world are looking for a quick, easy meal to grab on the go, fast food is the common solution.

© Copyright: Magriet Du Plessis

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