Avoiding Fast Food: Choosing Healthier Options - Essay Example

A large fries will do it. So will a Big Mac, a Whopper, a Burger King Chicken Sandwich, or nine Chicken McNuggets” (Goldstein & Goldstein, 2002, 163). These foods, like French fries, hamburger, or fried chicken, are always cooked fast. If you want slowly cooked foods you should go to a restaurant, not to a fast food. Is All Food Served Quickly in Fast Food? Is All Fast Food Bad For You? The answer is yes. Before McDonald’s created fast food, some food chains did serve food fast. These food chains hired fast cooks, who were trained to cook food in a short period of time.

Then McDonald’s made the fast food. McDonald’s and other fast food outlets have kitchens especially made for cooking food quickly. For example, burgers are cooked in a big grill, French fries are cooked in a large fryer, there are soda machine for drinks, and there are counters where customers make and get their orders. But even though fast food is convenient, affordable, and fast, it is not healthy. In average, many of the calories in fast foods are taken from fat. The main sources of fat in fast food are cheese, mayonnaise, and fried foods.

Even fish and chicken, which do not have too much fat, could be filled with fat when they are fried and covered with butter. So, avoiding or cutting down on these main sources of fat can make a fast food healthy. Some good replacements for mayonnaise are salsa or mustard. Low-fat cheese is more okay than ordinary cheese, and steamed, broiled, grilled, and baked foods are more okay than fried ones. Fast food is also high in sugar and salt. The main sources of sugar are shakes and sodas while fast-food sandwiches have too much salt.

But not all fast food is bad for us. We can eat healthier or nutritional fast food. An ordinary grilled hamburger that could be bought at a lot of fast food outlets most possibly has a healthier level of salt and calories if it is requested without cheese or mayonnaise. Wendy’s is popular for offering more nutritional foods like different salads, low-fat sandwiches, and baked potatoes. Fast food can be healthy. It is just a matter of choice. I usually eat at fast food chains but I make sure that what I order are the healthier ones.

The following shows how I avoid unhealthy fast food: (1) I usually order pure baked potatoes; (2) I do not eat salads that are floating in mayonnaise; (3) I always eat sushi because it is low-fat; (4) because of their large servings, I usually share my fast foods to my friends or whoever I am with; (5) I usually order baked or steamed foods, not fried ones; and (6) I eat light yogurt for dessert. It is important to remember that meaning of ‘fast foods’ can be widened to also mean some quite simple healthy options.

We can have fruits for our fast food. Other nutritional fast foods are dried fruit, raisins, and plain pretzels. It is just a matter of getting rid of high levels of salt and fat. I have three possible solutions to fight unhealthy food choices. First, avoid eating at fast food chains; make food in home. Second, try to exercise as regularly as possible. And third, make plan for your food. Home cooking for me is still the best. In this way you can choose carefully what to eat. You also have more control over how your food is made.

I have my own garden where I can pick fresh vegetables like fresh tomatoes and squash. All of a sudden, I felt my responsibility to be an adult, and that meant taking care of my diet. As days go by, I became very good at