How Fast foods affect human health

Fast Food is gradually raising serious health concerns World Wide,most especially in the developed where you have ubiquitous fast food giants like Mac Donald,KFC and Burger King?

Can what is so popular Worldwide,thanks to globalisation have potential to be so dangerous? To appreciate the risk in total embrace of fast food especially at detriment of traditional food is to understand it long term consequence.

Before we proceed, it is appropriate to understand what fast food is.It is also called Quick Service Restaurant(QRS). It is  food that can be prepared and served very quickly.Such meals can be served in prepackaged form for take-out/take away and is done in Kiosk,shops or big Hall. Many Fast food joints occupy shopping plazas,fuel stations,high ways and city centres etc.Example of fast food items are numerous-fried chicken,tacos,pizza,hot dog,ice cream,salad,hamburger and pitas etc.They can be eaten without cutleries.

By Steven Lilley (originally posted to Flickr as Fish 'n' Chips) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

As simple as business process of fast food may appear,it is a big business worldwide valued at 102.4 billion dollars in 2006.It is so heavily advertised and cheap but unfortunately can be unhealthy.Some even believe that if tobacco could be controlled,why not fast food?

The question is, how can this fast food which is delicious and easily available especially in urban areas be unhealthy?The adverse effect of fast food stems from the fact that it has high fat content and a lot of trans-fat,poor caloric content,high refined sugar content and in some cases the portion size.

It must be noted that occasional fast food intake or patronage may have none or little  danger however addiction to fast food is a bad habit and could be risky.Combined with decrease in physical activities which is common among white collar workers who patronise fast-food joint most is even worst.Really frequent or total fast-food diet constitute a very serious health problem.

Massachusetts Medical Society Committee on Nutrition says fast food is high on fat content and is established that high fast food intake can lead to increased body mass index and weight gain.Also David Ludwig,Director of Children 's Hospital,Boston claimed fast food consumption leads to increase the risk of Diabetes Mellitus. If an individual become obese,he/she has increased chance of developing hypertension or Diabetes Mellitus.

By Christian Cable from Lancaster (Fast Food  Uploaded by Partyzan_XXI) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Interestingly, an American-Caesar Barber took the fast food giants into a legal battle.He was popular for attempting to sue Fast food chains like MacDonalds,Burger King,Wendy's and KFC for making him addicted to their food and making him overweight.

In addition in "Supersize me" a documentary depicted a man that dined on fast food for entire month which resulted in tens of pound weight gain.Excessive fast food leads to being overweight which subsequently lead to diabetes mellitus,hypertension and excess lipids in the system.

Eating Fast Food regularly has been found to increase weight. A British Researcher from the Medical Council, Human Nutrition Centre and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine discovered that eating fast food from some fast-food joints is likely to cause weight gain and obesity. This is due to the caloric content of fast-food which is higher than traditional food. Not only that, it undermines normal appetite control system. Therefore, an individual is likely to consume more.

Another important observation was that by eating Mac and fries, the body consumes almost twice as much calories as much you would if you would if you eat the same weight of pasta and salad.Someone dining totally on fast food would surely be pushing more calories into his body than can be burn. “A regular meal at Mac Donald consist of Big Mac,fries and a large coca-cola drink amounting to 1430 calories” That is more than 70% of what of what an average person needs in a day! In one meal you take that swoop!

Most fast foods are low in fibre content causing frequent constipation,increase predisposition to obesity and diverticulitis.

Furthermore, in Eric Schlosser’s book “Fast Food Nation: Dark Side of All American meal” he pointed out the risk of large scale food poisoning that could arise from fast food joints. This poisoning is by organism like Salmonella spp and Escherica coli.These risks may only reduce through strict regulatory monitoring bodies like NAFDAC in Nigeria and FDA in USA.

Occasional fast food may mean no harm but regular dining on fast food may lead to developing of obesity,hypertension and diabetes mellitus etc These diseases arise slowly with attendant serious consequences.Unfortunately, globally we are having a global and impeding epidemic running side by side with a fast food culture by persistent nad heavy advertisement.Who shall save us?

By Jim G from Silicon Valley, CA, USA [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

                                                              ©HealthGUARD 2012

More Articles on click HealthGUARD
Click HealthGUARD

LIKE healthGUARD facebook page

( https://www.facebook.com/pages/healthGUARD/122128591141599), if U have not done that already.

Feel FREE to SHARE this article!

****************

SHARE/Tag your friends.

Join to get online health information!

http://healthguaguardmain.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/healthGUARD/122128591141599

 Articles you may like
HEPATITIS B: What you need to know?
New Ways of Losing Weight
How to prevent Cholera
Young Adult Obesity May Affect Later Heart Disease
Should You Take Dietary Supplements?

New Ways of Losing Weight

By Sampix (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Author: Rose Nelson

To avoid frustrations and giving up in losing weight, it is important for a person to have the proper state of mind.The best way of losing weight will be based on what works for you and not on what is written on some book because there is no universal way of losing weight.You will reach your goals faster if you do the things that work for you and discard the things that are not really working out.
Trying out new things is the best thing to do if you are not sure about the things that will work because you have tried losing weight before.Here are some tips that you can use to find your niche in the workout industry that will help you reach your goals.
Try a new gym
Gyms maybe a cliché for people trying to lose weight but this is the logical place to start if you haven\'t tried it before.If you don\'t have a goal yet, you should look into making some so that you will have something to aim for when working out in the gym.
Look for a sport that you like
Sports are another fun activity that you can add to your weekly routine because going to the gym alone can become monotonous.You can play an old sport you enjoyed in the past or you can learn new ones that looks interesting to you.
Look for a diet plan
Many people\'s response when they need to lose weight is to eat less to the point of starving themselves.Fortunately, many people have found diet regimens that worked for them without the need for a hunger strike.
A very good example of this kind of diet regimen that is becoming popular is paleo diet.In this type of diet, you are simulating the
diet of ancient men.   Everything farmed or industrially produced are to be avoided.
If you want to find out what you can and you can\'t eat in the paleo diet, you can look it up in a Paleo Recipe Book.Paleo Recipe Books also list down what foods available in the market are allowed to be eaten and the ways to prepare these foods.You could use PaleoRecipeBooks.net as your source.

The Paleo diet is not without flaws, but it is undeniably healthy. It is a sensible eating plan that can provide numerous benefits, and weight loss is just one of them.


Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/new-ways-of-losing-weight-6810573.html
About the Author
Always be in the lookout of the new things that are available to you.You will eventually reach your goals if you work hard and keep being active.You can find a Paleo Diet by going to this website.

How to calculate Body Mass Index(BMI)

1.Weigh yourself 
2. Take your height
3.Input the figure in the Widget below

BMI For Adults Widget

Young Adult Obesity May Affect Later Heart Disease

Fat Lady Icon

The longer a young adult is obese, the greater the chance of developing heart disease in middle age, a new study reports. The finding hints that preventing or even delaying the onset of obesity might help reduce heart disease in later years.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death nationwide, and obesity boosts the risk for heart disease. Past studies have linked both body mass index (BMI)—a ratio of weight to height—and waist circumference to heart disease risk. However, few studies have looked at whether the length of time a person is obese affects heart disease as well.

To learn more, a team led by NIH’s Dr. Jared Reis studied more than 3,200 young adults, ages 18 to 30, who weren’t obese at the start of the study. The subjects were followed over a 25-year period to see if and when they became obese and for how long. Heart scans looked for calcium deposits in their coronary arteries, an early warning sign of heart disease. These calcifications can arise long before symptoms are noticed—a condition called silent heart disease.

About 40% of the adults became obese during the study. Over 38% of those who were obese for more than 2 decades developed coronary artery calcification. In contrast, only about 25% of those who never became obese developed calcification. The scientists calculated that each year a young adult is obese raises that person’s risk of developing silent heart disease by 2-4%.

People in the U.S. are becoming obese at younger ages, and more than one-third of adults are obese.

“I think our findings really suggest that if we don’t measure obesity duration in addition to BMI and waist circumference, we may be underestimating the health risks of obesity,” Reis says.

Source:NIH News in Health