A steady diet of burgers, fries and soda may seem delicious. But it won’t nourish your body with vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy. “Fast food lacks many important nutrients,” says Therese Franzese director of nutrition at the Peninsula Spa and Health Club in New York City. “You can’t see your arteries and cells crying out for nourishment. You may be fine now, but it will catch up with you eventually.”
Let’s consider some particular qualities of fast food.
Fatty fries
Everyone likes the taste of McDonald’s fries. According to the book Fast food nation: The dark side of the all-American meal by Eric Schlosser, before the taste of fries depended on the hot fat it was deep fried in. For decades it used to be a combination of 7% cottonseed oil and 93% of beef tallow. In 1990 people raised against cholesterol, and fast food switched to 100% vegetable oil. The taste was supposed to remain the same! If today you are going to request a list of ingredients in McDonald’s, in the very end you will get a misleading nutritional facts list, one of the misleading facts will say “natural flavor.” This absolutely explains why everything is so yummy in fast food…
Almost all the products for fast food restaurants are delivered deep frozen, preserved or dried. The kitchens of such restaurants becomes a final destination in the chain of this complicated industrial process. That simple at first sight, food has been modified hundreds of times. All we consume for the last 40 years has changed even more than in the previous 40,000 years. Both, the taste and the smell of burgers and fries is developed in a huge chemical plant in New Jersey.
About 90% of all the products we buy have been processed. But the preservation and deep freezing eliminate the natural taste of food. That’s why for the last 40 years the public and fast food industry couldn’t survive without chemical plants. The industry of flavor is kept a secret. The leading American companies would never share the formula of their products and the names of their main clients.
Cooking fries in the same hot oil for numerous times makes them extra fatty and moreover dangerous for human health. It’s not only about consuming too much fat. It’s about the process of heating oils itself, which cause it to become carcinogenic.
Meat
“Thirty years ago, hamburger was ground at a butcher shop or a local supermarket, and made from one or two animals,” says Schlosser. “Now a fast-food burger most likely contains pieces of dozens if not hundreds of different animals, often from different countries.”
Cows that are grown for huge fast food grinders are taken to specific farms where they are fed with grains and anabolics. Every single cow can consume more than 3000 lbs of grains and gain about 400 lbs. of weight in three month. Thus the meat becomes very fatty, good enough for the burger ground.
The price increase has worsen already sad situation. Before 1997 – first signal of mad cow disease- 75% of American cattle consumed the remains of dead sheep, cows and even dogs from animal shelters. During 1994 the cows consumed 3 million lbs. of chicken manure. After 1997 the cows nutriment contained additives from pigs, horses and chickens together with sawdust from the hennery.
According to Schlosser, hundreds of people died from consuming burgers, specifically from E. coli bacteria contained in a ground burger.
High-fat burgers can harbor a dangerous bacterium called Eseherichia coli 0157:H7 or E. coil. E. coli 0157:H7 is only one of hundreds of strains of E. coli bacteria. While most are harmless, this strain produces a toxin that can trigger serious illness in humans. The CDC estimates that more than 73,000 Americans are infected with E. coli 0157:H7 each year – and at least 60 die.
The bacteria can thrive in a cow’s feces and its intestines. If meat is contaminated with E. coli during slaughter, and then handled improperly, the bacteria can wind up in ground beef. Today’s food-processing methods may increase your odds of infection.
This information recently was confirmed by New York Post and CNBC.
On November 21, 2015 New York Post released an article titled Chipotle E. coli outbreak expands to New York. It said the following:
“So far, 45 people have been infected, with 43 of them saying they ate at Chipotle in the week before they became sick. The CDC said it is aware of illnesses starting on dates ranging from Oct. 19 to Nov. 8. The agency said that illnesses that took place after Oct. 31 may not have been reported yet.”
On February 1, 2016 CNBC posted article titled as CDC declares Chipotle-linked E. coli outbreak over, which stated, “In the first outbreak 55 people were infected by the foodborne illness in 11 states, of which 21 were hospitalized. The second, smaller outbreak, infected five people from three states, of which one was hospitalized. The CDC determined that 57 percent of people affected by the first outbreak and 80 percent of people affected by the second outbreak were female.”
Even a well-done burger isn’t guaranteed to be free from infection. “When you go to a fast-food restaurant, you’re dependent on food being handled properly,” says David Acheson, associate professor of medicine at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. “Your health is in the hands of the person in the kitchen cooking the burger.”
Sugary Soda
American kids drink twice as much soda today as they did 25 years ago. The average 12-ounce soda contains a surprising 10 teaspoons of sugar. New research suggests that one or more sugary drinks per day gives a child a 60 percent greater chance of becoming obese.
Sugar is easily turned into fat. Soda is a very high source of calories. Heavy soda drinkers can also expect to make plenty of visits to the dentist. Bacteria in the mouth metabolize (use for energy) sugar and produce acids, which causes cavities. Soda also robs the body of calcium, a nutrient essential for strong bones. “Calcium builds bone mass during the adolescent years,” says Henry Mallek, author of The New Longevity Diet. “The best source of calcium is milk. Instead, teens are substituting milk with soda, which has no calcium.”
Unnatural Elements
Fast food chains often use genetically modified ingredients, artificial sweeteners in sodas, heavy metals across the board, high-fructose corn syrup as a cheap sweeteners, and a variety of other unnatural ingredients.
McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets is a major offender. The meat alone in McNuggets is comprised of 7 different ingredients, according to Anthony Gucciardi, NaturalSociety.com. Among the substances in Chicken McNuggets is autolyzed yeast extract, similar to MSG, an artificial sweetener that has been linked to obesity and other health conditions.
Fast food is also processed food, and processed food is bad for your health. Processed foods are foods that have been compromised by the addition of hormones, additives, preservatives, unnatural genetic material or other chemical or heat treatments that alter or destroy the natural health enzymes, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.
According to CNBC, two Aussies have preserved a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with cheese in its original wrapping for 20 years—and it’s showing no signs of rotting or mold.
Schlosser has been to the laboratories of snacks of the International Flavors & Fragrances company plants, which are responsible for the taste of bread, chips, crackers, cereals and confectionery. confectionery is for ice-cream, candies and toothpaste; the laboratory of drinks, has the “right beer” and “100% natural juice”. The strawberry flavor itself is a combination of as little as 350 chemicals. Sodas contain more additives, flavorings and preservatives than anything else. Besides the products flavoring, the same company produce the scents of 6 from 10 the most popular perfumes in the world, same as soap fragrances, dishwashing liquids, shampoos and etc.