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Fast food is very quickly becoming the modern way of eating. It reflects basic changes in our society: our faster pace, the increase in working parents, and the availability of ready-to-eat foods. These changes are taking place all over the world, not only in highly developed countries. Traditional family meals are being largely replaced by fast-food snacks. But the question is: do our health and well-being benefit from these changes? Has not convenience crept too much into our lives?
Certainly convenience speaks most strongly in favour of going for fast food. Traditional meals prepared at home obviously take much more time and labour. Today's society has created the model of a family with both wife and husband professionally engaged. Therefore, they often have not enough time for eating meals at home, let alone preparing them. The easiest way of appeasing one's hunger is to pop in for a hamburger or pizza .
However, that is also a quick way of loosening family ties. It is generally acknowledged that eating meals together unites people, especially members of a family .
Taking health into consideration, it seems hardly possible to find any advantages of fast food. One of the major problems is that restaurants and fast food outlets are not actually required by law to disclose the ingredients in their dishes. A majority of fast food snacks contain unacceptable amounts of additives, fat and sugar. And that means loads of calories. Some people claim that you do not need to think about healthy eating until you are older. But actually any nutritionist will tell you that developing healthy eating habits when you are young is the best investment you can make for the future. It has been proved that a human body needs various sorts of foods to stay in optimum condition. Nutritionists stress the importance of foods rich in starch and fibre as they are filling without loading on too many calories and are a good source of vitamins. In a majority of cases, this cannot be said about fast food, which provides empty calories at the cost of necessary nutrients. However, there are some healthy options available, although most of us do not realise that. Instead of buying a hamburger or Chinese takeaway we could choose, for instance, healthier baked potatoes with light toppings .
The most visible effect of one's diet is their body . "Eat your way into great shape" is not just a slogan. A secret to a slim figure, which is a dream of many, surely does not lie in fast food. Many top models reveal their love for junk food. Linda Evangelista, for instance, loves the way McDonald's burgers taste but at the same time admits that she only allows herself that kind of food a few times a year. However, there is one advantage of eating outdoors, i.e. you get some walk. Exercising is the second important recommendation for keeping fit. There is some hope that during your way back to work, unless you go by car, you will burn some fat you have eaten .
It is necessary to look at the problem from one more point of view, namely from the standpoint of environmentalists. The most noticeable thing about fast food places are piles of rubbish from packaging and leftovers thrown all over the street. It is not a secret that those packaging and wrappings contain chemicals which contribute to the greenhouse effect. Moreover, tropical rainforests are cut down to make room for cattle in order to produce more beef for hamburgers. However, one might argue that this does not concern fast food only .
To sum up, fast food has become a cheap and easily available way of eating. However, when we consider all the pros and cons of fast food we will certainly arrive at a conclusion that it is not an ideal way of eating .
