Fast food, child's thing - Christina Cherry

Burgers, pizza, fries … oh, who can resist? Unfortunately, the quick delicacies are rather unhealthy. Read here what else fast food is all about.

What is fast food?

Fast food means "fast food". This means dishes that are prepared very quickly and where the time between ordering and serving is often less than ten minutes. Now you could say yes: a sandwich with butter is also fast food, just like an pancake or a sliced apple. That is not what this article is about. We speak of the "classic" fast food. So frozen pizza, dishes from McDonalds, KFC and the currywurst snack on the corner.

How fast food works

The Germans love fast food. According to a study, around a quarter of 14 to 30-year-olds eat at least once a week in restaurants such as McDonalds or Burger King. Sure, it sounds so tempting. Fast food is fast, you know what you get and it tastes great! The problem is that this food contains a very high amount of fat, sugar, salt and flavor enhancers.

Fat as a flavor carrier makes the food taste good to us. So are the flavor enhancers, also called glutamates. However, they are not spices, but chemical substances. Glutamates trigger an artificial feeling of hunger in our brain. So we get while of eating even more appetite and continue eating. The high sugar content causes our blood sugar level to rise and the body to release insulin. Insulin is the hormone that regulates the blood sugar level – it mustn’t be too high or too low. Due to the huge amount of insulin that has been released, we often have a lower blood sugar level after fast food than before. The result: we get a food craze and continue eating! In addition: Because there are many fast food shops at train stations or in shopping streets, we often wrap our food on the go or even while walking. We often eat so quickly that our brains cannot keep up. It takes 20 minutes to realize that we are full. So you quickly eat well beyond hunger.

"Fast food is unhealthy and makes you fat!"

Everyone has heard this sentence from their parents. But how much is there actually?

"Fast food makes you fat": Well, we already know that fast food means that we get an appetite for even more. But because burgers and pizza contain so much fat and sugar, they quickly cover our daily energy needs. That means: children between 10 and 13 years need about 2,000 to 2,300 calories per day. That is their energy requirement. A McDonalds hamburger, a chocolate milkshake and 6 chicken nuggets already contain almost 1,000 kilocalories. As much as a frozen salami pizza. A meal quickly covers half of what we should eat in a whole day.

If you permanently exceed your own energy requirements, you will get fat. Our body does not know what to do with all the "energy" that we give it in the form of food. That’s why he creates them as a fat reserve. Of course, this does not happen immediately. Eating hunger from time to time and bringing more energy to yourself is totally okay! The energy requirement is only a guideline anyway, which does not have to be strictly observed and differs from person to person. As long as you do sports from time to time and otherwise eat a healthy diet, a few fries and a pizza have no effect. However, with excessive consumption.

"Fast food is unhealthy": There is actually quite a lot to it. Because if you mainly eat fast food, important nutrients are often left behind. The lettuce leaf and the Tomatoes in a kebab are far from enough to meet our daily needs for vitamins and minerals (e.g. iron and calcium). The result is fatigue, fatigue, poor concentration and headaches. The high sugar in the fast food attacks our teeth and the possible weight gain is bad for our health from a certain point (overweight). Fast food also contains little fiber. But they are important for our digestion. Swallowing quickly can often lead to abdominal pain. But also here applies: Now and then fast food is totally okay.

Why is fast food often so cheap??

This is not always the case, but it is the rule: burgers cost 1-2 euros each. A currywurst 3 euros. This is partly because the stores have very large amounts of ingredients to order, that makes the purchase price cheaper. Another reason is that fast food stores often don’t care where the ingredients of their dishes come from. The meat for burgers and the salami on the frozen pizza often comes from factory farming. The animals there live in very bad conditions, hardly see the sun, get cheap food and have little space. In the end, this makes the meat cheap, but the sufferers are the animals.

Make fast food yourself

Mmh, nothing really speaks for the quick meal. Too bad because it’s so delicious! Our suggestion is therefore: do it yourself! Many of the dishes that you get in the fast food shops can also be prepared at home. The plus point is that you know exactly what is in the food and it is often much healthier. Just think about what your favorite fast food is and look for a recipe online. Especially things like pizza, burgers and fries are homemade so quickly and you have control over what ends up in your food. It doesn’t get any better than this!

Which fast food recipe should we try for you? Write it in the comments!