A little about fast-food

Every day, millions of people around the globe stand in line to order fast-food. They're on the go - late for work, late for class, taking the kids to soccer practice, watching the baseball game or just too tired to cook. It's got to be fast, it's got to be now, it's got to be instantaneous and rewarding and, most importantly, good.

But good doesn't always mean healthy. America, where fast-food is king, contains the highest percentage of overweight individuals at about 35 percent. Some 1 in 3 Americans are overweight, a ratio not seen in most European and almost no Asian countries. One of the culprits - fast food.

Americans eat fast-food, sometimes, for every meal in a day and for many meals throughout the week. And everyday, Americans are exposing themselves to certain dangers over and over again. Fast food contains high amounts of sodium, cholesterol, sugar, carbohydrates, and fats (saturated-fat, trans-fat and non-saturated-fat). A majority of food served at fast food joints contains, in one meal, more than, or equal to, the maximum daily allowance of calories - some meals contain more than 2,000 calories.

For example, occasionally I enjoy Dairy Queen's 1/2lb., Flamethrower Grillburger - it's a 1/2lb., of meat slapped between two Kaiser buns with jalapeno bacon, lettuce, tomato, and pepper-jack cheese. It tastes great, but here are the caloric facts that have kept me from eating one everyday:

Calories: 1010/ 108 percent of daily value
Calories from fat: 630/ 125 percent of daily value
Total Fat: 70g                                                                                    
Saturated Fat: 25g

Publish Post

Trans Fat: 1.5 g
Cholesterol: 185mg/ 62 percent of daily value
Sodium: 1540mg/ 64 percent of daily value                                                                              
Total Carbohydrates: 42g/ 14 percent of daily value
Dietary Fiber: 2g/ 8 percent of daily value
Sugars: 9g
Protein: 56g

(Most fast-food web sites have nutritional calculators that give an idea of caloric intake and the overall nutritional value of foods served at their restaurants).

It's not just McDonald's, or all fast-food for that matter, that's contributing to the obesity problem in America, the obesity problem that is, to some extent, spilling out into other countries. It's a combination of easy meals and sedentary lifestyles. But we won't get into that here as that's a whole other discussion.

But think about fast-food and what it means to you. Stay home and cook a meal every now and then, even if it is time consuming and gets in the way of things. It's healthier to cook at home...and it costs less money. Don't be a sizeable part of the over $100 billion a year Americans spend on fast-food. And don't get me wrong - I love fast-food...just not all the time.