Fast Food and Calories

Fast Food and Calories
Here in the technology and information age, we have more
knowledge and advancements than ever before in history.
Sixty years ago, who would have ever thought that you could
send an instant message over a phone, let alone take a
picture with it? Sixty years ago, who would have thought we
would be capable of sending a man to the moon, but fail the
war on obesity and cancer?

Isn't it oddly shocking that America is so well-advanced in
everything except health and fitness? While the fitness
industry tells us to count calories and exercise for fat
loss, we grow fatter and fatter as a nation.

Running parallel to the fitness industry is the fast food
chains, doing their best to keep on the top of "healthy
eating" trend. It seems the fast-food industry can tailor
to anyone's dieting needs with "fat-free," "low-calorie,"
and "low-carb" menu items.

Today, fast food is considered a normal eating venture
among the average person. People aren't just eating out on
special occasions or weekends anymore; they are eating out
all the time. But is it the calories in fast food that's so
destructive to the body and waistline or does the problem
lie deeper?

Fast Food and Obesity

Fast food is simply tasty, ready-cooked meals packed to go.
Fast food has been around since the early 1900's, but its
popularity sparked and grew in the 1940's with the birth of
good ole' Mickey D's; quick food priced cheaply. Within a
few years similar fast-food operations popped up everywhere
in the blink of an eye.

With the compelling rise in fast-food restaurants since the
1940's, oddly, too, started the rise in obesity and cancer
during that same time period. It doesn't take a rocket
scientist to do the math and link fast food to the obesity
and cancer crisis.

Fast Food and its Nutritional Value

To say fast food has a "nutritional value" is an oxymoron.
There is absolutely nothing nutritional about fast food.
Fast food simply feeds hunger and/or your immediate
craving. Fast food does not feed your body in the form of
usable lasting energy or building materials, the essence
your body thrives on for life itself.

Fast food is highly processed with a wide array of
additives. The concept of fast food is obviously, food
ready-to-eat and served quickly. To ensure fast food's low
cost to the consumer, the fast food products are made with
highly-processed ingredients to give it shelf-life, to hold
consistency, and to enhance flavor. Fast food is altered
from its original healthy form it was meant to nourish the
body with, to a denatured form that lacks any nutritional
value whatsoever.

According to Diana Schwarzbein, M.D., "The FDA Total Diet
Study found that fast-food hamburgers, across the board,
contained 113 different pesticide residues." So my question
is why does the FDA want to regulate the sale of vitamins,
minerals, and herbs that are actually beneficial for the
body when there's a linking fast-food / cancer / obesity
crisis on our hands?

Why Fast Food is Fattening and Dangerous

Wake up people. It's not the calories in fast food that's
damaging to your health and waistline, it's the chemical
additives such as aspartame and MSG (monosodium glutamate).
These chemical additives are approved by the FDA and
studies show that they lead to weight and disease issues.

Synthetic chemicals added to processed food, including fast
food, damage your body's cells. Your body is made up of
nutrients found in plants and animals you eat. Man-made
food items loaded with pesticides, as well as aspartame,
margarine, and other man-made chemicals do not nourish your
body. If your body can't use what you put into it you will
gain fat and decrease health.

Since we can't visually see what actually happens at the
molecular level when we eat processed food, we discount it
and rely on the FDA to do our thinking for us. After all,
if its FDA approved, it MUST be okay to eat, right? Not at
all.

Nutrients from the food we eat allow us to burn fat and be
healthy. Your body cannot process synthetic chemicals. If a
food item can't be processed, it will end up lodged in
areas of your body, primarily fatty areas and tissues,
creating an acidic pH.

A simple fast-food chicken breast can contain everything
from modified corn starch to hydrolyzed corn gluten. Hello?
Chicken comprised of corn? A fast-food chicken nugget is
nearly 60% corn, and corn is what farmers use to fatten up
cattle.

Michael Pollan, author of, The Omnivore's Dilemma says it
perfectly ? "How did we ever get to a point where we need
investigative journalist to tell us where our food comes
from?"

A good visual that Dr. Mark A. Gustafson found is that it
takes fifty-one days to digest fast food chicken nuggets or
French fries. FIFTY-ONE DAYS! Does that sound healthy? I
could care less about the caloric, fat, or carbohydrate
content. That's not the problem, people. The problem with
fast food is that it's void of nutrients and loaded with
chemicals not recognized by the body.

What's even more devastating is the book The Fast Food Diet
written by Stephan Sinatra, M.D. This is a sad state when a
doctor promotes eating chemically-altered food with
addictive chemicals and damaged fats that scars the artery
walls and contribute to total metabolic damage.

Eating Good and Avoiding the Hidden Dangers

Granted, calories do count to an extent, but what counts
more is the quality of the calorie. If you want to lose fat
then you have to change your eating habits. This doesn't
mean opt for Healthy Choice® and Smart One's® frozen meals
because they appear to be healthy. Food manufacturers use
deceptive marking tactics to create an illusion to make
people buy their product.

To lose fat and keep it off you should choose foods in
their natural state, such as fresh organic cuts of meat,
fresh organic fruits and vegetables, essential fats, and
plenty of filtered water. It's vital that you go back to
the basics.

Make eating fresh and organic food choices the bulk of your
diet. If you do that, you will never have to count calories
again. The quality of food outweighs the quantity every
time.

References: Schwarbein, Diana M.D. The Schwarzbein
Principle. 1999. 287 Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's
Dilemma. 2006. 1

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Karen Sessions has been in the fitness industry since 1988.
She is a nationally qualified bodybuilder and holds two
personal training certifications. She has written 6 ebooks
on fitness and has helped hundreds of clients transform
their bodies. http://www.theelitephysique.com
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