The present corporate world is all about fast. Whether it can be food, communication, sports or studies. We realize that all kinds of people compete to be faster. The time factor is the reason for getting things fast. We are carried away with various things in this busy world. As life expectancy is getting shorter the medical experts try to stretch it to be longer with modern medicines and treatments to their level best. On the other side what we discover is that the amount of sudden deaths increases day by day. We are forced to ask what are the causes for this. Let us try to find out.
Humans who live in this corporate world that consume fast food ends up with many health problems. What does fast food contain? Mainly it has a large number of carbohydrates, added sugar, unhealthy fats and salt (sodium). As we all know these things do harm to our health and leads to death. If you say you don’t have time to take healthy food and tend to take fast food, remember that your lifespan is going to be shorter. We all are busy to be wealthy. But we must understand that health is wealth. I would like to point out some disadvantages of the habit of taking fast food.
Obesity
This is the most common drawback everyone gets. The high levels of sugar and fat can lead to an increased risk of obesity. Obesity is not only bad for your physical appearance; it can also lead to health problems including heart disease and reduced life expectancy.
Kidney and Cardiovascular Diseases
Most fast foods have high salt and cholesterol which when consumed excessively can cause problems with kidney or cardiovascular system. High levels of sodium from fast food will increase your blood pressure, which can also increase the risk of heart attack or stroke over time. In addition, the higher level of salt in fast food contributes to the probability of developing kidney diseases.
Here are some tips where you can have healthy fast foods when you’re at work or outside:
- Water, milk, or 100% juice. But beware of the calories in drinks other than water. Take that cooled milk and douse it over whole-grain cereals that come in their own single-serve cups. A great snack or part of a meal when you’re in transit.
- Low-fat cheese sticks to go with rolls and fruit.
- Tubes or cartons of yoghurt.
- Cut veggies or washed carrots and tomatoes.
- Sliced bananas, apples, grapes and pears.
- Peanut butter in a tube or a small tub to go with crackers or bread.
When you’re on the road and didn’t plan – get into the supermarket instead of the fast-food drive-in. You can pick up fresh fruit, cheese, and bread for a satisfying meal to go.
And here is some tips on where you can have healthy fast foods when you’re at home:
- Whole-grain breads, cereals and pasta.
- Milk, reduced-fat shredded cheese, eggs, canned tuna, beans, peanut butter, beef, chicken and meatballs.
- Fresh, frozen, or no-added-salt canned vegetables; fresh and dried fruit; and fruit canned in juice.
- Tuna melts with reduced-fat cheese on whole-wheat bread, and salad.
There are people who are consuming not only fast food but also junk food as their habit and struggling to get rid of it. So, these are some tips for those who struggle with it:
- Kale chips instead of potato chips.
- Baked veggie fries instead of French fries.
- Yoghurt fruit pops instead of ice-cream.
- Homemade smoothies instead of milkshakes.
- Fruit juice instead of soda.
- Crust-free pizza instead of pizza delivery.
- Bunless burgers instead of traditional burgers.
- Baked chicken wings instead of fried chicken wings.
A survey result regarding fast food is as follows,
As we can see many people consume fast food because it’s convenient for them. For those who have no option other than craving fast food, also can-do exercises to get away from the diseases. They can do gym, jogging, etc. If you are able to allocate an hour per day for exercises, that will help you to maintain a healthy body.
These days many youngsters go for fast food due to their passion, prestige, culture, taste and so on. They must understand that the companies of fast food grow by attracting customers based on what is mentioned above. For an example, they will change the variety of fast food according to the culture of a country to attract customers. Through a survey, the producers of fast food will know the taste of the customer and supply accordingly. The parents must stick to their traditional culture as their children grow up in a world where they will be exposed to the modern culture which is attracted to fast-food. Mostly it is the parents’ negligence in providing their children with healthy food and they defend themselves by saying that they have no time.
Discipline yourself to take healthy food you will be healthy and enjoying a long life. If you’re in Sri Lanka and you want to follow healthy diet of Sri Lankans, here are some. You can take milk-rice with ‘katta sambol’ which is made with onion, chili, lime and salt for breakfast and porridge, grain, idly, and thosai for other meals.
For lunch, red rice with dhal curry, gotukola sambol,
beetroot and fish curry would help for your health.
For dinner, string hoppers or rotty with pol sambol which is spicy coconut garnish. And also egg hoppers.
“Fast food craved for an hour, or the body you’ve craved for a lifetime? Your decision.”
If you do have any comments regarding this post, you can e-mail me at mark4789nesan@gmail.com
Rtr. Mark Nesan
Editor
Editor