6 negative effects of eating fast food

1. Fast food has a very high energy density. About 65 percent more than a typical diet and twice that of recommended healthy diets, causing us to eat more than we would otherwise. Energy density refers to the number of calories a food contains in relation to its weight. Foods that are high in energy density confuse the brain’s appetite control systems, which rely solely on portion size.

2. British researchers from the Medical Research Council Center for Human Nutrition and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have determined that people who eat repeatedly at McDonald’s, KFC or Burger King are more likely to gain weight and become obese. This is because fast food not only contains many more calories than traditional food, but is also more likely to undermine normal appetite control systems.

3. When you eat a Big Mac and French fries, your body consumes almost twice as many calories as if you ate the same weight of pasta and salad. Fast food restaurants fuel the obesity epidemic by causing people to eat many more calories than they need through persistent advertising.

4. McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King menu items using nutrition data from fast food restaurant websites, found that when we eat energy-dense foods, we don’t reduce portion size, so we get plenty more calories than we need. need. Our current society has a weak innate ability to recognize foods with a high energy density. Food intake is assessed by serving size, however a fast food contains many more calories than a similarly sized serving of a healthy meal. The bottom line is that we are all being tricked into eating too much food.

5. People get fat eating regular portions, but because food has a high energy density, people gain weight. In evolutionary terms, the human appetite was designed for low-energy-dense foods. In other parts of the world where these foods are still staple foods, obesity is virtually non-existent. Our bodies were never designed to cope with the energy-dense foods consumed in the West. That is one of the main reasons why fast food contributes to the great increase in obesity.

6. Another fact is that fast food can increase people’s risk of clogged arteries that can lead to heart attacks. Researchers at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Francisco have shown that a certain type of fat, called oxidized fat, can accelerate the buildup of plaque in the arteries. And many types of fast food, such as hamburgers, pizza, and French fries, are loaded with oxidized fat. The bottom line is that fast foods are high in saturated fat and low-quality carbohydrates, white bread, and lots of soft drinks. Our bodies require fiber and healthier types of fats. Fast food represents a dietary pattern contrary to what is recommended for a healthy body.