Fast Food And Health Problem All Over the World - Essay Example

 Fast Food “Fast food is an eponymous term - it's food and it's fast. Fast food operators function in a hyper-efficient mode because volume, not price, drives the bottom line” (Pruger, 1998). Fast foods are gaining immense popularity at present because of the changing life styles and attitude of people towards food. Current generation does not have enough time to spend in kitchens. Majority of the husbands and wives are working professionals at present and they are not much interested in cooking foods after a heavy workout session in their workplaces. Fast food is a blessing for such people. Lengthy cooking procedures are not necessary for fast foods and it can be prepared in no time. Moreover fast foods are comparatively cheaper than conventional foods or organic foods. At the same time there are many people who argue against fast food culture. In their opinion, fast foods contain harmful ingredient to health. Many of the ingredients used to improve the taste of fast food have detrimental effect on human health. Often, I function on very little sleep and to gain enough energy to power through my day, I eat fast foods that are high in carbohydrates. Even though we all need carbohydrates to survive, too many can cause impediments to a healthy diet and lifestyle.  “The problem with fast foods in America is that Americans tend to be people who get extreme--they either like something and want it all the time or they don't like something at all and never want any of it” (Fast Food And Health Problem, n. d). The above attitude or life style is not so positive when we consider the long term problems associated with fast food. A healthy lifestyle includes a routine sleep pattern and an adequate amount of sleep so that energy and resilience are accessible throughout one's workday. Fast foods can make a person happier for a temporary period and in the long run, it can cause severe health problems. According to Sara Clark (2010), “The obvious advantages of fast food are its speed and its cost” (Clark, 2010). As mentioned earlier, the major advantage of fast foods are the less time for cooking and cheaper price. The life styles are changing rapidly at present and life at present is moving much faster than the life in the past. In order to keep in pace with the rapidly moving life, people forced to change some of their traditional life styles including food habits. Kitchen was one area in which people spent a substantial portion of their life in the past. Current generation has not much time for spending in kitchens. Under such circumstances, fast foods serve as a blessing to them. At the same time, many studies have pointed out that many of the ingredients in fast foods are causing damages to health. In other words, fast food culture is a big problem to human health even though it appears as a solution which avoids time wastages in kitchen. Now the question is how to find an answer to this problem. One way of dealing this problem is reducing the usage of harmful ingredients in fast food so that the consumers may not develop any health problems. Oil, sugar and other food additives are used extensively in fast foods. Plenty of studies proved beyond doubt that these additives are causing health problems such as cholesterol, blood pressure, coronary problems, diabetes, obesity or over weight etc. At the same time, reduction of these ingredients may reduce the taste of fast foods. When the taste and life of fast foods become suspicious, people will naturally try to find more time for spending in kitchens for cooking conventional foods which is more nutritious than fast foods. A healthy lifestyle includes a balanced variety of carbohydrates and proteins so that muscle and fat are within reason based on height and weight recommendations. Only the conventional foods or organic foods can provide balanced variety of carbohydrates and proteins. Fast food is cheap, convenient, filling, and to many of us it tastes good. If you are eating out, a fast food restaurant is often the cheapest option, but unfortunately not a healthy one. Eating just one fast food meal can pack enough calories, sodium and fat for an entire day or more. Eating fast food on a regular basis can lead to a host of different health problems, both physical and psychological (Paul, 2011) Another major attraction of fast foods is its cheaper price. It should be noted that one of the major spending areas of current population is food and drinks. Current generation is facing severe financial crisis as a result of recession and they cannot think in terms of spending too much for their foods. The so called organic foods and conventional foods are better than fast foods, but the problem is that such foods are much more expensive than the fast foods. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to reduce the price of conventional food or organic food. Then only people will think seriously about increasing their organic or traditional food consumption. The time required to cook raw food items is immense and unaffordable for the current generation. That is why people are going after fast foods. Current generation is leading a stressful life because of their increased personal, professional, family and social commitments. They are struggling to find enough time to fulfill their commitments. Failure of fulfilling commitments may develop immense mental stress. Mental relaxation or leisure time activities are necessary for the people to release their stress. Uncontrolled accumulation of stress can cause lot of physical as well as mental problems. In other words, people rely on fast foods even though they are aware of the dangers associated with it in order to save time. The solution for above problem is to educate the people the importance of time management. Majority of the people struggle to find enough time for their activities because of poor planning and improper time management. Judicious usage of time will help the people to find enough time for all their activities. Cooking in kitchen may not become a problem then. A healthy lifestyle gives me choices so that I can feel empowered about my diet and exercise. Taking time to more adequately plan my routines and define what a healthy lifestyle is for me is just as important as actually participating in a well-laid out plan.  To conclude, the attitude of the public has to be changed a lot in order to find solutions for fast food related problems. People, who use fast foods quite regularly, should give more importance to their health and for that purpose social organizations can play a vital role. Awareness against fast food culture should be developed in order to wipe off fast food culture from our blood. References 1. Fast Food And Health Problem (n. d), Retrieved from http://healthfood-guide.com/fastfoodandhealthproblems.aspx 2. Pruger J. (1998). The pros and cons of fast food tenancy, Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_n42_v44/ai_20805385/ 3. Paul M.W. (2011). Healthy Fast Food. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/life/fast_food_nutrition.htm 4. Clark S. (2010). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Fast Food, Retrieved from http://www.fastfoodnation.co.uk/advantages-disadvantages-fast-food.html Read More