Freshman Sheridan Patterson walked into Chick-fil-A to order her usual combo with large fries and a large soda before pausing for a second. She decided to change her order to something different.
She had seen salads on the menu before, and after learning about how healthy items can be beneficial, she tried one for the first time.
“I wouldn’t normally have even thought about my health while ordering, but we had been working on healthy food choices in health class, and when I thought about it, I realized it might be a good idea to get a salad,” Patterson said. “So I did, and I ended up enjoying it.”
An article on the disadvantages of eating fast foods on the Livestrong website states that people see fast food as a time saver or an opportunity to satisfy their taste buds and don’t think about the health consequences. Eating fast food often does have an adverse effect on a person’s health and weight.
“I would still eat at Zaxby’s after seeing how the food is prepared,” Katie Soto, a former employee of Zaxby’s said. “The food is prepared well and cleanly like it should, but obviously it’s fried food, so it isn’t going to look pretty while it’s cooked. It’s done well and done like it should be, but it’s still unhealthy because it’s fried food.”
Weight gain is not the only problem connected to fast food. An article on Love to Know Diet.com by Stephanie Stiavetti states that fast food can increase the risk of obesity, the development of diabetes, high cholesterol, certain types of cancers and heart disease.
Fast food containing high fat and sugar can lead to irritated skin because of a biological process called exogenous glycation, which occurs outside of the body. This irritation occurs when sugar reacts with fats or proteins.
With all of these health problems, there are plenty of ways that an individual can avoid health issues while eating fast food. Help Guide, a website for health challenges, suggests salads, fruits and vegetables as great choices for fast food items that are healthy, nutritious, satisfying in taste and inexpensive.
“We advertise healthy alternatives all the time,” Andrew Guffey, an employee of Chick-fil-A said. “Sometimes we have contests where you try to advertise what you sell. We will have a chicken nugget contest or a chicken sandwich contest to get it advertised, and we sometimes do it at birthday parties, too. People order salads a lot because you can get (chicken) strips on them, so it’s just like a sandwich, but a salad.”
As the rate of childhood obesity escalates in America, so do health problems that are a direct outcome of eating fast food. As stated in Health Food Guide, 10 to 15 percent of today’s children are already obese, and this statistic does not include the children that are quickly becoming obese. Research suggests that children who eat fast food two to three times per week add an extra six pounds to their weight in a year.
Another article from Health Food Guide on childhood obesity said that adults should consume about 2,000 calories each day. An order of large fries, a large soda and more can amount to 1,760 calories and 63 grams of fat. In an average fast food meal, a person can consume almost as many calories as is he or she is recommended for one day.
“The fact is that many of us, and many of the folks that we know and love, have struggled with our weight,” Michelle Obama said before the Congressional Black Caucus. “And often it becomes the kind of thing that we just sort of accept as part of our daily lives, as something we know we should do something about, but we always push it off until later.”
