Harmful substances in fast food. Why is fast food dangerous? Why fast food is bad: getting acquainted with the composition of fast food

Hello! Today we will talk about the dangers of fast food. The topic is very important, because. fast food sales are growing fast, and the problems associated with the consumption of fast food are only gaining momentum.

Some interesting statistics

Let's talk a little about numbers.

According to statistics, every second resident of Moscow consumes fast food at least 2 times a week, and the average bill is 650 rubles.

From the above, we can conclude that the monthly volume of the market ONLY IN MOSCOW is: (6.15 million people * 650 rubles) * 8 visits per month = 31 980 000 000 rub.

Almost 32 BILLION, friends, per month! And this is only in Moscow.

Just imagine the volume of sales of fast food per year IN THE WORLD! This is a colossal number.

Here are some more fascinating statistics for the USA (the country that is the leader in fast food consumption in the world), expressed in an infographic:

A huge, multi-billion dollar industry that is only growing year by year, despite all the credible research on the dangers of this food.

McDonald's is the MOST POPULAR fast food chain in the world.

Mac has over 36,000 restaurants worldwide and generates $35.4 billion in annual sales.

There are hundreds of fast food brands, and to list all of them, this article will not be enough for me, and in general, this is not about that.

It would seem that what is the harm of this food, because it is all made from vegetables, bread, and meat ...

Yes, it should be so, but are you sure it's true?

What is fast food

Fast food is food fast food.

And, it would seem, everything is correct, because there are no harmful products there, or at least they should not be there.

Are you sure, friends?

It's one thing if you took wholemeal flour, baked buns from it in your oven, put freshly picked lettuce leaves, cucumbers, tomatoes, cooked from homemade meat cutlet, prepared a sauce of egg yolks, sour cream, olive oil, and then ate.

In this case, yes, there really is no harm, and if there is, then it is minimal.

But it was not in vain that I told you at the beginning of the article about the numbers and sales volumes for this industry.

If something is happening in this world, then you should always ask the question, who benefits from it?

And this is beneficial, first of all, to sellers and manufacturers of fast food.

Manufacturers of semi-finished products are interested in the maximum margin of their goods, and sellers in the margin of their final product.

The most fun is when the manufacturer and seller are within the same company.

Manufacturers are trying to create semi-finished products (in the case of burgers: sauces, buns, cutlets) with the maximum margin for themselves!

How to do it? There are two ways:

1. Increase the price of semi-finished products.
2. Reduce product quality.

There is no third.

If we increase the price of semi-finished products, then we do not win the tender from the distribution network and remain without orders ...

It remains only to reduce the quality of manufactured goods, then you can leave low price, but keep a good margin, because production is getting tricky.

You can make a cutlet from pure beef meat, for example, Black Angus, then the price of such a cutlet will be, conditionally, 400 rubles (for example, including the costs of raw materials, electricity, oil, labor hours, etc.).

This means that the sale of these cutlets must be done with a price of more than 400 rubles.

Add here the price for the production of buns, sauces, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, etc.

Get a good 600-700 rubles minimum, and this is the COST OF A BURGER!

And we still need to earn something from sales, so we add at least another 15-20% (or even more!) to the cost price.

We get 800-850 rubles for a quality burger.

I think you understand that all prices are conditional, but reflect the very essence.

There is another problem, SALES OF FINISHED PRODUCTS.

But, there are very few retail chains that strive purely for quality and do not take into account the price.

Because, roughly speaking, most people are not ready to pay more than 300 rubles for a burger (and this, as we remember, is less than the cost of our cutlet), it is in this price segment that the main sales take place.

We have low demand, respectively, little sales and low earnings.

Therefore, most fast food chains seek to reduce the price of the product by reducing the quality.

Therefore, in these three hundred rubles, he needs to keep within the price of cutlets, and the price of buns, and the price of everything else, and even taking into account the fact that 30-40 percent (not 15-20, as a rule) needs to be wound up in order to earn.

So we end up with what we have.

Cutlets that are made from.

Cheap flour rolls, vacuum sealed to keep longer.

Frozen vegetables. The cheapest sauces containing a huge amount of low-density lipoproteins (bad cholesterol).

And much more…

The cost price of such a burger fits into 120-180 rubles, and is sold for 300. The margin is crazy, there are a lot of sales, the marketing machine is running.

Separately, I would like to say about marketing.

After all, it was McDonald's who introduced mandatory rules that enormously increase sales.

Here are some of them:

1. Cheerful clown - Ronald McDonald, balloons, bright colors, Happy Meal - what is it for? "For children!" someone will answer. Yes, my friends, but not for children, but for parents who are ready to give their children anything, if only they were happy. Mac plays on people's feelings maternal instinct, attracting children, who, in turn, drag their parents to such institutions, with wallets.
2. There are practically no attractive waitresses in Mac. Moreover, waitresses are not allowed to wear makeup. Why? In order not to scare away married couples. A man will not stare at a waitress, and an enraged wife will not rather drag her husband with a wallet from McDonald's so that he does not look at a pretty person.
3. Always offer upsells to customers. An upsell is an additional sale. Have you noticed why you are always offered a pie or asked "Anything else?" at the end of the order? It was this phrase that was able to tremendously increase sales in the Mac, according to research from the marketing department.

In general, there are many more such rules. I have no purpose to list them all, I'm just talking about all this so that you understand that the goal of the Mac, and indeed any fast food restaurant, is - profit increase!

And in a war, even if in a war FOR THE CLIENT, as they say, all means are good.

Quality reduction for the best price, aggressive marketing, playing on people's feelings and much more.

Why is fast food bad?

Let's list why fast food is harmful and what consequences of fast food you need to know.

I will only cover the most basic problems, but I want you to understand that there are many more problems arising from these basic ones!

Problem #1: Calorie Excess and Obesity

It would seem that you eat a large piece of food, if you put it on a plate, and most likely you for a long time don't want to eat. What is harmful here?

Logically, it seems like it should be.

But in reality it turns out completely differently.

A burger, due to its composition, forces you to eat more (due to sugar, salt, flavor enhancers, aroma, appetite, etc.).

I have prepared an interesting infographic for you so that you can compare how many calories are in healthy food and in fast food:

The conclusions are obvious.

And so, we have the following problem.

Problem #2: You're Eating More Than You Want to Initially

This problem is associated with substances found in fast food products.

Flour products, including burger buns, are products with a high glycemic index! Those. products, after entering the body of which, we have a large amount of sugar in the blood.

In flour products, by the way, there is a huge amount of sugar and salt, which we will talk about later.

Coca Cola, which contains a huge amount of SUGAR, pumps your body with glucose, which causes a surge of insulin, a transport hormone that transports glucose and other substances to the places of use.

Insulin is an antagonist of somatotropin (growth hormone), it stops the action of the latter and stops fat burning.

And, as we know, on a diet, the first thing to limit is SUGAR. Sugar is a kind of appetite enhancer.

Sugar causes an increase in the level of DOPAMINE (the hormone of joy), and this leads to the fact that you start to eat more.

Also, sugar affects blood levels (hunger hormone). Hunger remains in place, and fat burning is stopped due to the large amount of sugar and insulin production.

Add, for example, a little sugar to cottage cheese with sour cream, and you will notice how you ate a much larger portion than you planned.

The next thing that encourages you to eat more is FLAVORS and TASTE ENHANCERS!

All of these substances also encourage you to eat more food. And they are found in burger buns, "meat" and sauces.

The next is SALT, which is found in large quantities in processed foods (soy meat for burgers) and in sauces. It stimulates appetite, besides, salt leads to fluid retention, which makes us edema, especially in the morning.

We can eat much more salty foods.

That's why you can gobble up two Burger King Baconizers or a Mac Big Tasty at a time. Try to eat the same amount of cottage cheese without anything or buckwheat. Not sure it's going to happen.

Problem #3: Cardiovascular disease

Smoked (bacon), fried (soy meat from McDuck) and other similar foods increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

For several reasons.

Firstly, these products contain a huge amount of low density lipoproteins. Someday, I'll tell you about it in detail.

Briefly, cholesterol, if you say in a rustic way, is "good" and "bad".

What is the difference?

Cholesterol is used to transport fat in our blood.

These are peculiar containers for transporting fat molecules.

So, if a moderate amount of fat enters the body, then the body transports it in dense, small containers of a small volume.

Everything goes well. Such containers easily pass through all the branches of blood vessels, so the body does not create any additional load.

These containers are called HIGH DENSITY LIPOPROTEIDS, in other words, GOOD CHOLESTEROL.

The body needs it, because. helps to transport fat safely to places of use.

But what happens when the body begins to fail to transport the incoming fat into the body?

This can happen when we overindulge in too much fatty foods.

The body in such a situation begins to produce larger containers - LOW DENSITY LIPOPROTEIDS.

Fat in such containers can be transported at a time more, but it's bad luck, when there are more of these containers, congestion begins to form in the places where the vessels branch, and in other words, CHOLESTEROL PLAQUES.

When these cholesterol plaques clog the branches, the blood begins to look for another way, which entails an increase in pressure, numbness of the limbs, and ultimately HEART and STROKE.

This is called atherosclerosis.

Heart problems are the most common cause of death in the 21st century. Out of 4 people, three die from heart problems, which are caused by many factors (overeating, malnutrition, lack of exercise, genetic predisposition, etc.).

If we eat fast food with you all the time, then this multiplies our chances of killing our blood vessels by clogging them with fat.

Do you think this is the only problem with eating fried soy meats and smoked meats?

Well, of course not.)

Secondly, this is BUTTER, or rather, margarine, on which all these semi-finished products are fried.

And if in Mack and other large fast food chains they still somehow monitor the number of frying cycles per one boiler of oil, then in small eateries - yeah, good luck)

If you fried meatballs in oil once, then nothing particularly terrible will happen, and if the second time, then the amount of carcinogens in the meat doubles.

After the fifth frying cycle, real poison is boiled in the cauldron, which leads to heart problems, the risk of oncology, stomach ulcers and other unpleasant moments.

Such an oil with a modified structure is called.

I'm not talking about the quality of the oil in such establishments. Are you sure that expensive, high-quality, refined oil is used for frying?)

I'm not here. Looking at the production volumes of burgers and other fast food products, I would like to hope that they are fried at least not on diluted spent engine fuel) And on that, thanks to the chef)

But seriously, I think you understand the scale of the tragedy.

Problem #4: Development of Type 2 Diabetes and then Type 1

As we said above, fast food causes a sharp increase in the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood.

Add sugary drinks like cola or sugary smoothies to this meal, and consuming all of these at least a couple of times a week, and we have kilos of sugar consumed every month.

In the normal case, when a person does not abuse sugar and high carbohydrates, then in response to the entry of glucose into the blood, the body responds by stimulating the pancreas to produce insulin.

If you often (at least a couple of times a week) eat fast food, then your pancreas works under heavy load - it is forced to pump insulin in large quantities.

Over time, it begins to fail to cope with the regular excessive load and breaks down. Those. in response to the received glucose, insulin is produced in insufficient quantities.

Blood sugar rises and we get type 2 diabetes.

If the situation with the consumption of carbohydrate foods and high level sugar continues, then the pancreas practically fails, and we become insulin dependent, because. forced to inject themselves with insulin to lower their blood sugar levels.

It always seems that the problem does not concern you if you are young, for example, but it is better to warn than to realize it later.

You don't have to be consumerist about your health.

Other problems…

I will not list all the problems here, as I said, because. there are a huge number of them.

Most of them come from the problems above, for example:

• Depression(loosening of the hormonal background with bursts of dopamine due to sugar, which is stopped by stress hormones).
• Decreased testosterone levels in the blood(increase in fat mass, decrease in insulin sensitivity, shift in the body's equilibrium point and increase in the level of estrogens in the blood).
• Deterioration in sperm quality(the organism ceases to see for itself the expediency of reproduction, because it has health problems, and weak offspring is a deterioration of the subsequent genome).
• Caries(The bacteria that cause cavities feed on sugar, because it is a great breeding ground, so fast food, which is literally stuffed with sugar, causes problems with the teeth).

And much more…

Conclusions about the dangers of fast food

Today we have considered a very important topic, in my opinion, because. this forms our further eating behavior, and hence the improvement in the quality of life.

In general, if you take the product itself, for example, a burger, then using it, cooked with your own hands, on good products at home will most likely not cause any health problems, especially if consumed a couple of times a month.

But if you use store-bought, relatively cheap fast food on an ongoing basis, you will definitely end up with serious problems with health.

As always, in the spoon is the medicine, in the cup is the poison.

Everything can be eaten, but not for everyone and in different quantities.

P.S. Why do people keep bullying themselves

In general, the problem is much more global than just the consumption of fast food.

This also applies to the consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, overuse etc.

All this happens for a variety of reasons, but the most common of them does not lie on the surface, namely: THE DESIRE TO GET PLEASURE HERE AND NOW.

It so happened that as a result of anthropogenesis (part of human evolution, when “homo sapiens” appeared - a reasonable person), the part of our brain responsible for the rational component became slightly thicker than that of other animals.

This gave us the ability to LONG TERM PLANNING.

Another thing is that compared to hundreds of thousands of years of being predominantly in animal form and the same state of the brain, these several tens of thousands of years cannot completely make us think rationally.

The animal inside of us says, “I want this food right now!” and the mind says, “It will lead you to obesity, insecurity, health problems.”

So far, the animal component within us is much stronger, so the vast majority of people are weak in terms of willpower, and willpower has just developed as a result of the emergence of reason.

The mind has taught us to limit ourselves now in order to receive more later.

Do not eat everything that lies badly, so that later you can feel confident on the beach and be healthy.

Set aside some money to make big purchases later.

Do not sleep with everyone in a row in order to meet a more highly competitive partner.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, a small number of people can do this.

I'm glad you are one of them. These are the people who move humanity forward.

P.S. Subscribe to blog updates. It will only get worse from there.

With respect and best wishes, !

Fierce battles between adherents of the notorious proper nutrition(P) and people who are not going to expel french fries from their diet have been on the Internet for 20 years.

Why food itself, which was created to quickly satisfy hunger, causes such a huge negative, is generally understandable: it is considered that it is extremely unhealthy and has caused many diseases.

The logical link "cheap = bad" also works.

What is fast food anyway

Strictly speaking, the name "fast food" itself (from the English fast food - fast food) does not mean a fatty burger with Coca-Cola. The same cottage cheese is quite included in this category: it does not need to be cooked, it quickly satisfies hunger and is convenient for a working person.

The first mention of fast food is found in the ancient world. For example, in Ancient Rome often built houses without kitchens - residents mostly bought prepared food in the bazaars, they ate it there or carried it home.

The ancient Roman cheeseburger is flatbread made from yeast dough, lubricated with olive oil. Yes, now it is in the arsenal of any healthy lifestyle, then it was used because of its cheapness, prevalence and “gluttony”. The filling was chosen the one for which there was enough money.

In fact, these cakes were used as disposable plates, which, after use, could be eaten. Gradually, such a plate with a variety of products was transformed into a pizza.

According to Professor Philip Fernandez-Armesto, the ancient Romans ate much more fast food than the inhabitants of the 21st century!

In the history of any country, one way or another, fast food can be traced: in China, for example, they sold noodles in the markets, in India, these are cakes with spices and chicken, even in Russia, judging by Russian folk tales, in the bazaars they sold gingerbread, pies and rolls.

Fast food turned into the richest industry in America at the beginning of the 20th century: in 1921, White Castle opened in Kansas, and in the 1940s, the first McDonalds appeared. As early as 1870, hot dogs appeared, and in 1793 they began to produce soda.

Why is it important: we want to convey to you that fast food is not only McDonald's and Subway. This is any food that can, relatively speaking, be eaten on the go without spending time cooking. The purpose of such a meal is to give you satiety for relatively little money and save time.

This includes the pies of your beloved granny, and, as we wrote above, cottage cheese, yogurt, sandwiches with avocado and salmon. Fast food is not the same as the so-called. industrial food from giant corporations that aim to make humanity fat and sick.

Moreover, fast food does not mean processed food for a long time. Even for a snack on the run or breakfast on the way to work, there are now plenty of choices, especially in big cities: ready-made oatmeal, fruit pudding in a convenient jar, a banal boiled egg.

Harm and benefit

We want to remind you that in fact there is no harmful or healthy food, it all depends on the amount and frequency of consumption of a particular product. People often forget about this, starting to argue their dislike for fast food with similar arguments: “well, if you constantly eat it, you will be fat / sick / scary (underline as necessary).

But no one offers you to eat such food 24/7. Let's take modern recommendations on nutrition from WHO: they advise reducing the number of industrially processed foods in the diet so that macro- and micronutrient deficiencies do not occur.

The Canadian Diet Guide says it's important to cook your own meals more often, eat slowly, and enjoy your food. With this approach, the concept of fast food is more contrary not even to the composition of homemade or any other “slow” food, but to the recommended leisurely meal format.

This is all true, but nevertheless - a complete refusal and a ban is not mentioned anywhere. In our diet, it is much more important to maintain a variety and balance of macronutrients, choosing high-quality and tasty food. In fact, people who actively adhere to pp are themselves making an important mistake.

The diet of a healthy person, and in addition a losing weight person, as a rule, turns into an endless repetition of the same dishes with the same products (it’s good if the recipes are taken at least a little different).

Rate your diet according to the table below - how varied is your diet? The human body is a very complex biological system that requires the constant availability of building materials to renew, strengthen and maintain shape and beauty. And our task is to receive them.

The term "balanced diet" suggests that your regular menu covers your energy costs and contains everything necessary funds for construction and protection. A balanced diet reduces the risk various diseases, many of which arise due to an excess or lack of specific nutrients.

So, on one side of the scale - everything you need, and on the other - your food - and here it is the balance! But how to achieve it? Variety - keyword.

And yes, the variety also includes conditional "harmful" foods and dishes. 2 snacks in a fast food chain once a week will not harm your health, but it will bring joy and psychological comfort, a feeling of life free from restrictions.

If you look at the composition of the most popular dishes, there is nothing wrong with it: a cheeseburger contains 300 kilocalories, 15 gr. protein, 33 gr. carbohydrates and 12 gr. fat. The content of sodium and saturated fat corresponds to 28% of the recommended daily allowance.

If you want to argue that the calories from buckwheat are healthy, and those from Big Mac are harmful, then it’s better not to, because this is not so. A calorie is always a calorie. This unit of energy does not depend on the quality of food, there is no less "energy" food, which, all other things being equal, will give you "poor-quality energy" - this is nonsense.

Even carbohydrates in fact are not slow and fast - this is an old myth. Since the mid-80s of the twentieth century, they began to publish Scientific research confirming that such a classification is absolutely incorrect. Intestinal absorption of all carbohydrates occurs in the same period of time, approximately equal to 30 minutes, regardless of the complexity of their molecules.

Wolkvist's work confirms that the peak of glycemia occurs at about the same time for all types of carbohydrates, regardless of whether their molecular composition is complex or simple. As the curve in the graph below shows, carbohydrates of any group (regardless of the complexity of their molecules), eaten separately and on an empty stomach, are absorbed in 25-30 minutes.

Yes, the level will be different, but the time is the same! It all depends not on time, but on the amount of glucose in the product!

It doesn't even matter for your figure: in a 6-month study of 390 participants, one group ate a diet high in complex carbohydrates and the other group ate a diet high in simple carbohydrates (with equal amounts of calories and carbohydrates).

At the end of the experiment, it turned out that there was no difference in fat loss or muscle mass retention. The diets were also identical in their effects on blood lipid levels. In support of these findings, other studies have shown that diets with different amounts of sugar resulted in the same changes in body composition.

A recent meta-review of the literature on the effects of fructose on body weight concluded that substitution of fructose for other carbohydrates given the same calorie content does not cause weight gain.

We have covered this in more detail in the following articles:

We do not argue that you do not need to stop your diet on the menu from McDonald's. But we categorically refuse to consider such food as "poison", "garbage" and the like.

In the context of weight loss: Of course, fatty and sweet foods are much easier to sort out in calories than vegetables and herbs. But this does not mean that your diet should be like that of a rabbit. The most important thing in losing weight and in health is moderation and variety!

We also want to point out that even though a home-cooked diet is generally lower in calories, this does not mean that home-cooked food is better than store-bought.

Homemade meals can also have an excess of calories, fat, sugar and salt, and fruits and vegetables may be clearly not enough. New Year in Russia or Christmas in the USA and European countries - a holiday primarily of homemade meals and at the same time a period of massive overeating and problems with the gastrointestinal tract.

Food for the poor?

Often fast food is considered low quality food for lower class, however, as the results of a large study in the United States show, the higher the income, the more people eat fast food.

In a study of 605 people, the most common reasons for visiting fast food establishments were: it's fast (92%), the restaurant is close (80%), tasty food(69%). People with a high level of education more often chose fast food because of the lack of time for cooking, and the unemployed - because it is an opportunity to have fun and spend time with loved ones; about half of the participants confirmed that fast food is something of a reward for them.

Big Issue: Judgment

In New Zealand, 50% of 1,017 people surveyed reported eating junk food emotionally and feeling guilty afterwards. Fast food consumers in general often admit that they would not like to run into someone they know at a fast food restaurant, and the reasons range from “embarrassed because everyone will think that I eat like this all the time and from it full” to “embarrassing that I , young, beautiful and athletic, I buy myself such a muck.

Of course, it's just disgusting - that's how they appear. You can not divide food into bad and good, demonize or vice versa, worship it.

You don't have to feel guilty about eating French fries or feel proud of yourself because of every serving of cottage cheese. You are much more than the food you eat. You don't become a "weak-willed fat man" or a "motivated superman" just because you eat or don't eat certain foods.

It's okay to crave something delicious. We explained this to you in an article about - such food quickly gives food to the brain and energy to the body, it is not surprising that it causes the release of dopamine to consolidate such behavioral factor.

However, this leads to a nasty obsession: you want this food - you are ashamed - you break down - enjoy the food - feel shame - endure - want this food. Those. in such a situation, food both relieves discomfort and carries it.

The cycle can be interrupted ceasing to divide food into “forbidden” and “permitted” and abandoning many stereotypes associated with weight loss and health.

We often receive comments in the style of “I can’t eat as much as you advise, but I’m losing weight”, “it’s like eating sweets while losing weight, it’s not right, I’m psychologically uncomfortable”, etc.

It is generally accepted that losing weight is very, very difficult and difficult. You should be sweating at the gym and eating exceptionally clean, low-calorie foods. You simply have to feel hungry, because .... hmm, we don't know why, we just have to.

In fact, all this is complete nonsense. We have described in detail here, do not be lazy and read.

According to studies, a balanced diet makes us happier (dietary modification is even being tried to treat depression), and this does not depend on weight loss and general weight changes.

Adequate indeed. healthy eating should be flexible and convenient. There is no need to starve and cry with grief if you want to eat, and there is only Snickers nearby and nothing else. Eat it and enjoy, not stress.

You don't need "bad" food bans - yes, they work, but only as long as you have the strength to control yourself. Sooner or later, you will want / fall for the fast food that you love. And there is nothing terrible or unhealthy.

The division of food into black and white is possible only when we are talking about fresh and spoiled foods, allergies and personal intolerances. In other cases, these are unnecessary, complicated and stressful restrictions.

There is no shame in wanting to be tasty - food should be enjoyable.

The harm of fast food is usually explained by the fact that these are high-calorie fast food and low quality. But is it?

From this article, you will learn how fast food is harmful to health and what fast food products can be consumed for the benefit of the body.

1. It is a high calorie food that leads to obesity.

All menus of fast food establishments consist of high-calorie dishes consisting of fats and sugar with a low content of nutrients and vitamins. This diet leads to obesity.

• Lunch at such an establishment, usually consisting of a sandwich, salad, cocktail and french fries, contains more than 1,500 kilocalories, which is almost a daily calorie intake for a person with a sedentary lifestyle.

1. Fast food dishes are prepared on the basis of trans fats

Fast food chains are prepared using trans-fats, which can contribute to the occurrence of cancer.

According to WHO, the safe consumption of trans fats for a person is no more than 1% of the total diet, while a serving of french fries contains 30-40% of such fats.

Also, fast food contains a lot of saturated fats of animal origin, which put pressure on the liver, contribute to hypertension, blockage of blood vessels and the appearance of cholesterol plaques.

1. Contain a lot of fast carbohydrates, little fiber and protein

Fast food products are rich in fast carbohydrates and fats, but contain almost no fiber. This leads to the fact that the feeling of satiety quickly passes and you need to go to the poppy again. And the worst thing is that due to the lack of fiber in food, they easily penetrate through the walls of the intestine and enter the bloodstream. After 15 minutes, these carbohydrates enter the fat depots and thus we accumulate excess weight.

1. Eating fast food contributes to overeating

Fast food chains are trying to sell more and for this they come up with marketing ploys such as “two for the price of one”, “buy a Coke and get a potato for free”, and so on. This leads to overeating, you consume more than planned. And all the extra calories again fall into fat depots and it is always difficult for the body to digest large amounts of food.

1. Fast food is bad for high sugar content

Separately, you need to highlight carbonated and sweet drinks:

• First, sugary sodas and drinks contain a lot of sugar, for example, a can of cola contains about 6 teaspoons, which is the daily amount of sugar for men. Women should not consume more than 4 tablespoons per day, children - only 1 spoon. Sugar and all fast carbohydrates are a source of fat accumulation in the body, which leads to obesity and diabetes.
• Secondly, the harm of carbonated drinks lies in their ability to act as diuretics (diuretics), which can lead to dehydration. To be healthy, a person needs to drink about 2.5-3 liters of water per day. But sugary drinks are not yet water, but a liquid that needs to be purified to obtain water, which takes additional energy from the body. Therefore, it is better to drink pure water.

1. Fast food can cause beriberi

The nutritional value of such products is very low and at the same time you quickly get used to it. As a result, a person receives little nutritional micro and macro elements, metabolism is disturbed, obesity and diabetes develop.

1. Fast Foods Contain Harmful Additives

To prepare fast food and give it a brighter taste, flavors, flavor enhancers, dyes and other additives are used. These additives do not benefit the body, but can be harmful.

Healthy fast food

Fast food items should be avoided whenever possible. In principle, one should not expect any benefit from food of this quality, in addition to the fact that fast food is very heavy and fatty food, the quality of its preparation often leaves much to be desired.

However, there are situations where there is an option to either starve or eat some fast food. Of course, fasting, especially during physical exertion, is very undesirable, so it’s still worth going to the cafeteria and choosing some golden mean combining the most healthy and delicious dishes. No need to get lost in a cafe and order only vegetables, even fast food has dishes that you can eat without fear for health and diet.

Cafe with local cuisine

The best option of all available is to go to our domestic canteen and eat about the same as at home. Buckwheat is a very good source of carbohydrates, it is noteworthy that buckwheat porridge is offered only in a few Slavic cuisines - in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. In most other countries, no one has even heard of this amazing cereal. So, you ordered buckwheat porridge - an excellent source of carbohydrates, and you can safely take a chicken chop and a steam cutlet with it. Meat try to take chicken or beef, if any.

As a good snack, various pancakes, dumplings or dumplings are perfect. They have enough carbohydrates and very little fat, of course, protein is not enough in such dishes, but as for a snack, it is quite enough. The filling can be any - meat, mushrooms or cottage cheese, to your taste.

In general, try to take in Slavic cuisine what you are familiar with - cereals and side dishes will perfectly saturate you and will not harm your workouts.

Pizza

Choosing the right pizza will also give you maximum benefit with minimum harm. The only condition is that the pizza should be on a thin dough, and the ingredients should be as healthy as possible.

Pizza "4 cheeses" is made from yeast dough, but the layer always turns out to be very thin, the ingredients are the very benefits and safety, the best views cheese are collected in this pizza.

Pizza "Hawaiian" - very tasty and quite a good option, the dough is again thin, which is undoubtedly a big plus. As a filling, very useful and tasty ingredients are collected here - pineapple, chicken, mushrooms and ham.

Assorted Meat Pizza is a real abundance of meat components, veal, ham and chicken are always present in this pizza.

So do not be afraid to eat pizza, just choose the right ingredients.

The assortment of pizzas in pizzerias is simply amazing, and we have considered only the most useful ones, but this does not mean that you need to choose them, just try to choose those with fewer calories and more useful ingredients.

Eastern cuisine

With the phrase oriental cuisine, many immediately associate with shawarma. But now we will not consider it, because it is impossible to say anything good about this “dish”, it’s just disgusting, harmful disgusting. The use of shawarma leads to the fact that the body wants to cleanse itself as soon as possible, and it does not matter in what way. Cleaning is certainly good, but only the method is not very successful.

In the oriental cuisine, we will immediately include the cuisines of several countries - Turkish, Uzbek and some others. Authentic Turkish cuisine is the ultimate fresh vegetables. The only drawback is that you don’t particularly eat raw vegetables. Therefore, be sure to take meat with vegetables.

A very big advantage of oriental cuisine is the obligatory presence of good meat. Pork is never used in such cuisines. Lamb as a meat ingredient for most meat dishes and also few people use it - very expensive meat, only beef and poultry remain. And this meat is just right for us.

The most suitable dish for a good and healthy snack is pilaf. Of course, to enjoy all the splendor of this dish, you need to go to a good oriental restaurant, and fast food pilaf will only allow you to quickly get enough and will give you the maximum benefit from high-quality rice, meat and various spices. By the way, it is very good to take pilaf with various dried fruits and additives - you will like the unusual, but pleasant taste, and there will be much more benefits, because dried fruits are a storehouse of vitamins.

Cuisine of the Far East

We go deep into the East, where the cuisines of China and Thailand are waiting for us. The main dishes here are rice or egg noodles. The choice is best made in favor of egg noodles. From meat dishes here you can find pork, beef, seafood and even poultry. Pork should be discarded immediately, but beef, seafood and poultry can be a good addition to the side dish. By the way, the portions are often quite large, while the prices for dishes of this cuisine are very reasonable.

All roads lead to McDonald's

Even in a fast food restaurant like McDonald's, you can find normal foods that you can eat and not spoil your diet. By the way, McDonald's is the only fast food that provides a complete list of the amount of nutrients in their dishes. For obvious reasons, we will not even consider french fries, but you can take note of some products and safely order them.

Some useful tips- as a dessert, it is best to take ice cream or a pie. To reduce the amount of carbohydrates by half, you need to take 2 hamburgers and remove 1 bun. Filet-o-fish contains a lot of unhealthy fats due to mayonnaise, if you try to clean it out, you can get an equally healthy, but less high-calorie dish. Eliminate soda from drinks and take either plain water or a cocktail.

breakdown

Even the most experienced bodybuilders broke down and ate everything that was built for months by diets and loads. But fortunately, such breakdowns very rarely lead to a loss of shape, some even noticed such a pattern - after a good breakdown at McDonald's, the shape improves significantly, it would seem that this is impossible, but in fact everything is easily explained.

The hormone leptin performs a very important function in the body - it, like some other hormones, is involved in burning fat. During various diets, the amount of leptin in the body falls, naturally fat is burned, but more slowly. In addition, leptin is responsible for the uptake of glucose by skeletal muscles, it turns out that fat is burned more slowly, and muscles lose their volume. This is where the dependence of a breakdown in fast food and an improvement in shape can be traced.

Lee Priest once said: “I was working, and then I suddenly broke down, went to McDonald's and ate everything. I went to bed with a terrible sense of guilt, and when I woke up, I realized that my form had improved a lot, I looked much better than before. It turns out that breakdowns can sometimes be afforded, but small and rare. If you feel that you can break loose, then it is better to provoke a breakdown at home, where you yourself can cook what you have long wanted, but at the same time exclude harmful components - sugar, mayonnaise, etc.

I live near the city center, where you can find popular McDonald's, KFC and Burger King restaurants on every corner. The devilish, appetizing smell tempts passers-by: “Well, buy at least a cheeseburger with small potatoes, and tomorrow you will start eating vegetables and cottage cheese.” In this article, I want to tell you about the dangers of fast food, and why you should not be tempted to walk past these eateries.

Fast food - what is it like?

WITH in English fast food is translated as "fast food". Cooking takes a couple of minutes, and the speed of eating dishes is lightning fast.

Interesting fact. Have you noticed that classical music plays in expensive restaurants, and pop or electronic music plays in eateries? Therein lies a tricky secret. Fast music encourages a person to chew vigorously, so he leaves the room soon. Due to the high traffic, the fast food point receives a fabulous daily profit.

There are many types of fast food, the most popular of which are:

• Hamburgers.
• Sandwiches.
• Hot dogs.
• Pizza.
• Shawarma.
• Chicken meat in breadcrumbs.
• Fried pies from yeast dough with filling.
• Pancakes.
• Potato chips and snacks.
• Bread croutons.
• Dry breakfasts: corn sticks and balls, popcorn, cereals.

Why, if fast food is so bad, do people love it? What is the secret of such popularity? In cheapness, satiety and the ability to eat on the go. Unfortunately, the love of fast food turns around sad consequences for good health.

The main harm of fast food for the body

Fast food is accused of almost all diseases: metabolism, heart and blood vessels, immune system, liver and kidneys. But why? At first I looked at the Big Mac and thought: “Here is a bun, lettuce, tomato, meat. Useful products. And mayonnaise - a drop. Now I understand that it is not so simple. I want to tell you what exactly is the harm of fast food.

For adults

Most types of fast food or its components are fried on vegetable oil. Potatoes, beef cutlets, chicken, pies.

When oil is heated to 160 degrees, carcinogenic compounds are formed in it. - acrylamide and acrolein. Both increase the risk of cancer, irritate mucous membranes internal organs: intestines and stomach, respiratory organs, eyes. Acrylamide also damages the chromosomes of blood cells.

Important! The harm of fast food on the body increases if the frying oil is not changed for a long time (and in practice it is). Then the acrylamide molecule breaks down and forms a more dangerous compound - glycidamide. The latter destroys the structure of DNA, which is fraught with oncological and autoimmune diseases.

And also fast food is a food high in carbohydrates and calories. A Big Mac, a large portion of French fries and a glass of Coca-Cola 0.5 contains 1150 kcal, which is 76% of the daily requirement! What exactly is harmful fast food, in short, is an increase in the risk of obesity and other metabolic diseases.

For children

The child sits down faster delicious food than an adult. Why is fast food bad for kids? Increases the risk of obesity, pancreatic and gallbladder disease in early age. The harm of fast food for children lies in the fact that it reduces school performance .

Researchers from Ohio State University (USA, 2014) came up with the following results: guys who ate a lot of fast food received more low grades in math and literature classes than those who were fed healthy foods by their parents.

For pregnant

Why is fast food bad for pregnant women? organism future mother sends a lot of vitamins and microelements to the development of the fetus, but fast food is “empty”. Trans fats can lead to underweight, and nutritional supplements can lead to allergies in an infant . A large number of salt causes fluid retention in the body, and edema is undesirable on later dates pregnancy.

When eating fast food, there is a risk of infection with the Listeria bacterium. The symptoms of listeriosis are flu-like, and the disease can lead to miscarriage.

Interesting fact. What about vegetables in sandwiches and shawarma? They are picked unripe and then transported in the cold store of a truck trailer. There are practically no vitamins and microelements in such vegetables.

For the elderly

What is harmful in fast food for the elderly? The main enemies are salt, sugar and trans fats. The first component increases arterial pressure, the second - increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, the third - contributes to an increase in cholesterol levels.

For people with chronic diseases

If fast food hurts even healthy person, then imagine what kind of torture the patient's body is subjected to. Metabolic diseases lead to the fact that all the calories from fast food are deposited in fat. A diseased liver cannot cope with the neutralization of toxic compounds (acrylamide, acrolein), so the latter accumulate in the body. If a person has problems with blood vessels, the formation of new cholesterol plaques can lead to blockage or rupture.

What will the regular consumption of fast food lead to?

It is good that in some schools with children they conduct classes on the topic healthy lifestyle life and talk about the consequences of malnutrition. On the Internet, I even found the project “Fast Food: Benefit or Harm” by a 2nd grade student.

University of Notre Dame and Silent Spring Institute (USA, 2016)

This study is interesting because the scientists did not test the food itself, but boxes, wrappers and containers. It turned out that 56% of dessert packages and 38% of hamburger wrappers contain phthalates.

These substances accumulate in the body and lead to the following problems:

1. Malignant tumors of the genitourinary system.
2. Decreased immunity.
3. Diseases of the thyroid gland.
4. Increased risk of having premature babies.

Scientists have identified a direct relationship between the use of fast food and infertility. And why do manufacturers add chemicals to packaging at all? In order for the latter to have fat-repellent properties.

Nicholas de Patrizio and Donovan Argueta from the University of California (USA, 2016)

Scientists put mice on a diet high in fat and sugar for 2 months. The rodents became obese.

In the blood of mice, the researchers found a high content of endocannabinoids. These substances are similar to those found in marijuana. Thus, scientists have proven that fast food causes real chemical addiction.

University of Bonn (2018, Germany)

German scientists gave an unexpected answer to the question of why fast food is harmful. They found that regular consumption of fast food increases the response of the immune system, which leads to inflammatory processes in the body.

In the future, this is fraught with the following diseases:

1. Autoimmune (for example, thyroiditis);
2. Metabolism - obesity, type 2 diabetes;
3. Vascular - since cholesterol plaques consist mainly of lipids and immune cells.

Simply put, regular consumption of fast food can result in serious illnesses. The treatment will have to spend a lot of time, nerves and money.

When and how much can you eat fast food?

If you are not afraid of information about the dangers of fast food, you intend to continue visiting fast food establishments, then at least do it infrequently. 1 time per week will be enough. Preferably at lunchtime, when the body is actively consuming calories.

What can be ordered:

• Small portion of french fries + cheeseburger - 510 kcal.
• A slice of pizza "Margherita" 200 grams - 530 kcal.
• One standard hot dog - 500 kcal.
.

The answer seems to be simple: anyone! But it is also clear that, for various reasons, we will still have a bite to eat at fast food cafes from time to time. And it will be useful to find out what you can still eat there, and what is better to avoid by all means. This was told by people who for some time themselves worked in fast food chains. Of course not last role plays and management in the power network. Some cafes keep the brand and do not allow themselves to cook poorly for their visitors, but many sacrifice quality for the sake of greater profit and easier work.

So, here is a list of the most dangerous foods that you can find in fast food establishments:


1. Ice and ice cream

It is very difficult and costly to keep the equipment for preparing these dishes clean. Often there can be found traces of mold. Ice is made from dirty water.

2. Chicken McNuggets from McDonald's

“I have not worked at McDonald's for a long time, but I remember one picture. I accidentally left a bag of 100 frozen nuggets on the table. And they just melted! Those. at all. They turned into some kind of slurry, faintly resembling appetizing pieces of chicken.

“Nuggets are a thousand times processed chicken meat, you can’t even call it meat. Mixed with water and additives. Yes, it's like furniture from IKEA. Leave it in water and it will turn into wood pulp. Because the material it's made of is as far from real wood as nuggets are from real chicken."

“I heard that this was before 2003. And now all the nuggets are from normal, 100% chicken white meat. And they won't melt like they used to."

3. Fried chicken, fish, meat

Of course, readers may reasonably object that if you do not eat all this, then nothing will remain. Just be careful, and if the purchased hamburger is suspicious, refuse it.

“I used to work at Burger King and I want to tell you something about the oil cycle. Pour oil into a vat, French fries are cooked in this oil for two days. Tons of potatoes. Then it becomes too dark for her and is poured into a chicken cooking vat. In it, she is preparing for about a week. The oil becomes very dark. And then it is poured into a vat for cooking fish.

“Meat for hamburgers looks disgusting at McDuck. Only the sauces make it appetizing.”

“I guess I won’t surprise anyone if I tell you how Chili is prepared at Wendy. It uses meat that has been fried too much and should not be used in hamburgers. They put it in the refrigerator, and when it comes time to cook chili, they take it out. It seems not dangerous, but somehow not very appetizing ... "

4. Food at Subway

Those who worked at Subway, having entered this institution, can immediately understand what can be ordered today and what cannot. Be careful too. If you feel that the product is a strange color, that it looks stale, if it seems to you that the sandwich maker is sloppy, or that the place is too trashy, it is better to leave immediately.

“When I was working as a sandwich maker at Subway, the one thing I had a strong distaste for was the seafood salad that was put on the sandwich. It is made from crab sticks, known to be just an imitation of crab, and generously seasoned with mayonnaise. It's killer when customers ask for extra mayonnaise as well!"

“Chicken breasts are taken out of the refrigerator at the beginning of the day and put in water, where they stay all day. And the leftovers in the evening need to be squeezed out and put back in the refrigerator. The procedure is repeated the next day. In a few days chicken breast softens and smells disgusting. So, don't order sandwiches with it, choose a different kind of chicken."

“Say no to tuna, seafood salad and other concoctions like teriyaki chicken! All this is mixed with hands without gloves. Mayonnaise is present in the mixtures, and salads with it cannot stand all day, they deteriorate. In addition, the new mixture is added to the remains of the old.

“Ask the sandwich maker to change gloves before he prepares your sandwich. Most likely, you will receive rays of hatred from him, but you will save yourself a good portion of germs.

“I got fired from Subway for putting too many olives on my sandwiches…”

5. Sauces/condiments

If they bring you sauce in a bottle, think about whether this bottle was washed before pouring a new portion of sauce into it? And they are also embarrassed by bread sticks, which are usually served as a compliment in Italian restaurants. Perhaps you got a stick that a previous visitor did not want to eat.

It is unlikely that 20 minutes before closing, for example, pizzerias, a fresh dish will be prepared for you. So you can only claim leftovers that have been standing all day waiting for their buyer. And it is absolutely certain that they taste qualities and usefulness was severely affected.

At the end, we deliberately left a few positive feedback about fast food, so that you understand that everything is not completely gloomy, and in some places it is quite possible to afford to eat without harm to health.

“I worked at Whataburger in a small town and I have to say that everyone there was just obsessed with cleanliness. We spent the whole day washing, cleaning and cleaning something.”

“I worked at Little Caesar Pizza. Every day we prepared fresh dough 12 hours before making pizza (according to technology). All sauces and other expired products were thrown away. We didn't wash the pizza trays, we just threw them away and got new ones. The rest of the dishes were carefully processed.

“When I worked at Subway, we really cared about cleanliness and washed our hands literally every 5 minutes”

What fast food would you personally never eat?