January 1, 2005

Science says eating fast food makes you fat

As obvious as this is, having it scientifically proven through study does something important; it morphs what is treated as second rate lip service into emphatic truth that has no counter.

What for the most part has been passed off as the healthy set droning on and bemoaning the detriments of fast food has now become irrefutable fact. You would have to be a true moron to believe or suggest that eating fast food has any place in a persons life.

US researchers followed 3000 people over 15 years who consumed fast food weekly. People who ate fast food more than two times in a week gained 4.5 kg of fat compared to people who ate fast food less than one time per week. (Medical journal - The Lancet).

Small amounts of fast food contain high amounts of calories, and calorie for calorie, fast food is also less nutritious than healthier choices. So in fact, most fast food cannot be part of a healthy diet as fast food companies have claimed for years, as this study shows the opposite.

Moreover those who ate more fast food increased insulin resistance by 200%, insulin resistance is linked to diabetes.

Fast food servers who boast extra huge burgers with extra cheese are monstrosities of ignorance and ethical impotence. If you sell a burger with double the fat intake limit for a whole day in one serving, and it is known that consuming double ones fat intake allowance for the day leads to obesity and heart disease, on what grounds could you justify the product?

Would that be like a crack dealer saying they are not contributing to a crack addicts problem?

Before we all turn our backs on food that is "fast", let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. Buying a veggie wrap with low fat sauce should not be put in the same category as burgers, fries, super-sized soft drinks, and deserts - the real offenders. A sub sandwich or wrap containing veggies and real chicken breast is definitely OK (sans the high fat sauces).

Bananas and apples are about as fast as you can get for foods that are "fast", and these can be bought at most 7-11's and Mac's. 1% and skim milk are also fast nutritious snacks.

Fast food giants have been slow to introduce healthy choices, and the population as a whole is also slow to adapt to demanding healthy food. Food retailers really ought to sell only healthy food, and as a population we need to overcome our misconceptions surrounding food, and our irrational learned habit of perceiving deadly foods as rewards.

- Cris LaBossiere

© 2005 Rhino Fitness/ Cris LaBossiere