What happens if you eat fast food for a month? What is fast food. What's the worst thing about fast food?
The so-called “fast food” or fast food has firmly entered into life modern man. Despite the fact that on-the-go snacking has become extremely popular only in recent decades, fast food equivalents have been known since Ancient Rome, where they sold special flatbreads with sauce for those who could not afford to cook a full meal.
What is fast food?
What food can be classified as fast food? Many experts roughly divide quick snacks into three categories:
- Dishes prepared in catering establishments - restaurants, cafes, kiosks. These include hamburgers, toast, hot dogs, shawarma, French fries and many other similar foods.
- An equally popular type of fast food are semi-finished products. To prepare soups, porridges or purees, simply dilute them hot water, and heat various cutlets, pancakes and meatballs in the microwave.
- Fast food also includes many types of snacks that can be eaten on the go - nuts, chips, crackers and cookies.
All three of the above categories share two important features - the ability to consume on the go and a minimum of preparation time. However, this is not even the secret of the popularity of fast food. In order for people to visit fast food kiosks more often, special flavor enhancers are added to these foods. The combination of fat, salt and sugar has a strong effect on the taste buds, causing strong addiction. Even ordinary vegetable salads in fast food establishments are generously flavored with mayonnaise, sauces and other high-calorie dressings.
The benefits and harms of fast food
Despite the ever-increasing number of opponents, eating this food also has its advantages. The most obvious benefits of fast food are accessibility, time savings and rich taste. Agree, buying a hot dog at the nearest kiosk is much easier and faster than preparing a tasty, rich one. However, the low cost and abundance of harmful additives, including the “food drug” monosodium glutamate, will definitely affect your health. Scientists have proven that people who eat fast food more than twice a week have serious health problems and are highly susceptible to developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
Fast food is one of the main causes of obesity and the appearance overweight. Such food is contraindicated for those who are watching their body weight, since it is painfully addictive and is a source of “harmful” fats. The combination of fast food with a sedentary lifestyle can lead to a real disaster in a few years, since such food does not provide energy for intellectual activity, but contains only empty calories.
Eating fast food: basic rules
- Try to eat fast food only in extreme cases and no more than once a month. If you are already addicted to such foods, try to gradually reduce snacking.
- Try to replace on-the-go snacking with a visit to McDonald's, KFC or another famous fast food chain. The requirements for sanitary conditions and quality of products here are much higher than at the station kiosk;
- You can reduce the amount of fat in chips and fries by blotting them with a clean paper towel;
- When ordering food from a fast food chain, give preference low-calorie foods– vegetable salad and green tea are much healthier than a hamburger and cola;
- Do not eat shawarma and hot dogs on an empty stomach. Hot soups or other homemade dishes will reduce the aggressive effects of fast food on the gastric mucosa. If after eating you feel unpleasant heaviness, drink, which promotes active digestion of food.
- Limit your children's consumption of fast food. Frequent trips to McDonald's can cause disruption of the gastrointestinal tract, weakened immunity and other troubles for a growing body.
Four fitness fans gave up training for a week and switched to processed foods, fast food and unhealthy, but very delicious food. It was predictable that they all gained weight as a result, but it turns out that eating unhealthy food isn't just bad for your body.
An English store staged an experiment with the transition to unhealthy eating and a relaxed lifestyle sports nutrition MuscleFood, tells The Daily Star. Four sports fans and adherents of a healthy lifestyle were asked to give up training and switch to a diet high in fat, sugar, salt and other not entirely healthy things. During the week, David Templer, Paige Modeste, James Tilley and his girlfriend Emma Taylor ate mostly processed foods, fast food, chocolate bars, pizza and other goodies.
For James, the task was especially difficult because adolescence unhealthy eating was the norm for him, and he got used to healthy food and exercise only after serving in the army, explains Mirror.
I went on a diet of booze and fast food. Once it's over, I don't want to go back to it. For the first two days I enjoyed eating this garbage, but then I noticed changes in my body. The abdominal muscles swam, and the body seemed loose. This influenced my thoughts. I started looking like a fat teenager again and it made me angry and upset.
By the end of the experiment, James was simply in despair and dreamed of returning to the lifestyle that he considered normal for himself.
Returning to vegetables, lean meats and high protein chicken has made me feel good again. My body was full of energy and my motivation returned. And the anxiety I felt disappeared.
For Paige, the most unpleasant consequence of the experiment was the changes that occurred to her skin. On new diet, consisting of sweet pastries and processed foods with a complete absence of fruits and vegetables, her skin became oily and covered with acne.
By the end of the week I felt terrible. I had no strength, but I had a rash and itching, constant nausea and huge circles under my eyes. I couldn't leave the house without makeup because my skin looked terrible. No matter what I ate, I felt exhausted.
Paige says her weight changes were minor, but her waist size increased from 69 to 73 centimeters in just seven days.
I can understand why people fall into the rut of unhealthy processed foods. It is easy to prepare and contains a lot of sugar, which is addictive. It's hard to give up.
During the experiment, David did not create a diet for himself, but simply ate the same thing as his flatmates - pizza and other takeaway food.
Physically, I felt tired and found that I could become out of breath after climbing just a couple of flights of stairs. My skin deteriorated and I started gaining weight. I felt weak-willed, although I had always been a confident person. Now I started to doubt my decisions.
David says that during a week without fitness, he realized that sports gives him not only healthy body. Working out in the gym helped the guy relieve stress and gave him time for leisurely thinking and making important decisions.
During the week she ate processed foods, Emma realized that she had a sensitive stomach that reacted poorly to unhealthy foods.
I have a sensitive stomach and all these E supplements and sweets make me feel sick and bloated. I was lethargic all the time and found that I couldn't concentrate. Even the simplest tasks have become difficult. And I often had headaches.
Once Emma returned to her normal routine, her headaches went away and she became energetic and alert.
Nutritionist Rachel Hobbs, commenting on the results of the experiment, noted that just one week on processed foods and fast food in the absence physical exercise cannot have a serious impact on a person’s physical condition, but changes in emotional and psychological health can be very noticeable.
A diet high in pre-prepared foods contains fewer vitamins and minerals than a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, protein and whole grains. This means a shortage of those nutrients, which are essential for our mental health - vitamin B, zinc and Omega-3.
Englishwoman Scarlett Skinner ate fast food stress from studying and difficult relationship. She felt sick from time to time due to overeating, but overweight didn't bother her too much. Until her boyfriend made a single comment about her dance attire. He didn't know that Scarlett was because of this.
And Canadian Tony Bassi lost more than half of his weight after. In two years, the man lost weight from 250 to 109 kilograms, although at first it seemed that he would not succeed.
It turns out that even at fast food restaurants you can eat healthy! The main thing is to know what to choose from the menu.
At our request specialist in therapeutic nutrition and author of the EdaiFizСultura blog Anna Malovichko inspected the menus of popular fast food chains and chose the healthiest and healthy dishes. (Although at first, upon hearing our request, she threw carrots at us!) So, over to Anna!
In all chains I chose dishes that do not contain harmful food additives. Well, they fit at least a little into the concept of a healthy lifestyle. This is why sandwiches with pork (bacon) are not on my menu: it contains saturated fats, and this leads to excess weight, atherosclerosis, high cholesterol and heart disease.
I also tried to exclude bread rolls - they are a simple carbohydrate. It provides calories but no nutrients. It breaks down quickly, causing a sharp jump in blood sugar, then a sharp decline. After a sharp drop in blood sugar, a feeling of fatigue, loss of strength and hunger appears. Excessive consumption of simple carbohydrates wears out the pancreas and can lead to diabetes.
For drinks I recommend mineral water, tea, coffee without milk and sugar. All sugary carbonated drinks contain a lot of sugar and a lot of calories. Consuming sugar requires the body to spend a lot of energy. To process it, it spends reserves of B vitamins and an essential microelement - zinc. In return, the body receives only a large dose of glucose without nutrients. By depriving the body of vitamins and minerals, sugar weakens the immune system. Sugar-containing foods are the main reason for the development diabetes mellitus and problems with excess weight.
McDonalds
Breakfast
Oatmeal with honey, jam or cranberries and raisins. Oatmeal - complex carbohydrate containing fiber. This will not cause your blood sugar to spike and then crash. Result: stable well-being without a sharp surge of strength, followed by a sharp decline; satiety and energy for a long time.
Omelette. It is better to eat it without a bun, which provides calories but does not contain any nutrients. For an omelette, it is better to take carrot sticks or apple slices as a side dish. They contain fiber, which we need for good digestive system function, daily detox and overall well-being.
It is better to accompany any protein food with foods containing fiber. It helps move food through the intestines and improves the functioning of the excretory system. Protein foods, on the contrary, inhibit these processes. The better the excretory system works, the less waste and toxins accumulate in the body.
Main menu
Burgers at McDonald's are prepared with beef, chicken and fish cutlets. The best choice is a hamburger. I recommend eating it without a bun, which, as we remember, is a simple carbohydrate.
Here's what I suggest:
Hamburger meat patty with tomato, onion, ketchup and mustard + vegetable salad. Salad dressing - oil or wine vinegar.
Dessert
Chocolate or strawberry smoothie. A small portion is better - less calories and sugar.
For those who are on a diet - apple slices and carrot sticks. I think everything is clear with them: fruits and vegetables, few calories, vitamins and fiber.
Burger King
Main menu
I would prefer a hamburger: beef steak, no mayonnaise, no additional sauce, the composition of which is unknown. As a rule, sauces contain a lot of fat or sugar, as well as preservatives, thickeners, flavorings and flavor enhancers.
Not a bad option - chicken barbecue grill. Its main component is chicken fillet (it is better to put the sauce and bun aside). Chicken has fewer calories and saturated fat and is a lighter protein. Other burgers with a deep-fried breaded chicken patty contain more fat.
It is best to complement the meat with vegetable salad (called salad mix). You can also eat king wings without breading and skin (peel off) + salad mix.
Dessert
Ice cream cone. Small portion (less sugar, fat and calories), virtually no dough, no additional sugar in the form of syrups.
"Little Potato"
Main menu
The fewer ingredients in the form of bacon, cream, butter, sausages, cheese, the better: all of these products contain saturated fat. Therefore, the optimal choice would be potatoes with vegetable oil and potatoes with vegetable oil and dill.
Salads and snacks
The right choice is 8 grain croutons. This is a complex carbohydrate + fiber.
Soups
I recommend borscht, it contains only meat and vegetables, and beef is the leanest version of red meat, it has less saturated fat than pork and lamb. Chicken Noodles: Chicken is a lower-fat, lower-calorie meat option.
Dessert
Strawberry fresh, if in fact it consists of strawberries. And I would clarify the presence of sugar.
KFC
Breakfast
Compared to breakers, brusters, twisters, biggers, boxmasters, which contain bacon, eggs, cheese, breaded cutlets (all together - a cholesterol bomb), sauces, cheesecakes and scrambled eggs look the most harmless. Fried eggs - yes, fried, yes, they contain fat and cholesterol, but just an egg is better than with cheese, bacon, mayonnaise or sauce and a white flour bun. The scrambled eggs come with bites (clean off the breading).
Main menu
Chicken pieces, wings without skin (less fat, less calories) and without breading. Strips without breading + Heinz ketchup. Strips are made from fillet, so they have less fat. No breading, as breading absorbs frying oil (excess fat and toxic substances). Classic Heinz ketchup has natural ingredients.
Dessert
Ice cream cone “Summer”.
"Teremok"
The simpler the composition of dishes, the easier it is for our digestive system to cope with them. We exclude fried, high-calorie, containing saturated fats: sauces, cream, butter, bacon, hard cheese.
Pancakes and cheesecakes
Cheesecakes with honey, pancake with honey, pancake with sour cream, pancake with cabbage and egg, pancake with banana.
It is better to combine pancakes with vegetables (simple carbohydrates + fiber), lean meat dishes with vegetables (protein + fiber).
Main menu
Buckwheat, buckwheat with grilled chicken breast, buckwheat with salmon, buckwheat with boiled pork, buckwheat with cabbage and egg.
Soups
Borsch (meat and lean), rassolnik, chicken noodles with meatballs, lean pea soup.
Salads
Salmon vinaigrette, lean vinaigrette.
Dessert
Banana dessert with nuts.
chicken in sweet and sour sauce with vegetables (protein + fiber); Turinese meat with vegetables (protein + fiber); spaghetti with ragu sauce.
Pizza
The combination of dough and cheese or dough, cheese and meat/fish is not the best combination (lack of fiber, simple carbohydrates and cheese - strengthens; protein and dough - strengthens). It’s better to give preference to pizza with vegetables and dilute this whole bacchanalia with fiber to minimize unpleasant consequences. Or take pizza and vegetable salad.
Do you love fast food and want to gain quality mass? We've found several nutritional options that are good for building muscle!
Choosing low-quality foods will prevent you from getting enough micronutrients and fiber. If you are constantly eating fatty foods, fatty meats, you will have a hard time even walking to the car, let alone getting in a quality strength training session to increase muscle growth.
However, not all fast food is equally harmful. While doing household chores, you can make a snack that will not be contraindicated when typing muscle mass.
When you don't have anything else on hand other than fast food, or you just want a break from the routine of cooking, you can consider one of the eight muscle-building fast food recipes listed below! To maintain the benefits, combine them with a protein shake, one of the easiest sources of protein to prepare!
If you want to eat a huge portion and get a lot of calories for muscle growth, then try preparing a high-calorie dish in pita bread. This relatively healthy food will allow you to stick to your diet with ease and enjoy a delicious and quick meal.
Steak, brown rice burrito, black beans, kidney beans, vegetables, corn, salsa, mild hot, lettuce and guacamole. Even if you choose a burrito bowl with a salad base (no tortilla), you can easily exceed 1,000 calories! Adding guacamole will help with this even more.
- Calories: 1320
- Fat: 48 g
- Carbohydrates: 161 g
- Protein: 61 g
BBQ burrito with white and brown rice, black beans, corn, salsa, chili pepper, cheese and salad.
- Calories: 1225
- Fat: 37 g
- Carbohydrates: 168 g
- Protein: 55 g
To get even more of the right calories for muscle building, double meat diet. The cafe can offer you many healthy and nutritious foods and you can wrap them in a flatbread.
Delicious pancakes
Popular cafes offer pancakes with a wide variety of aromatic and unusual fillings, which easily combine all the components of breakfast. The pancake shop's extensive menu offers endless muscle-building food options.
Freshly prepared omelet with grated cheese, avocado, onions, peppers and pancakes with raspberry syrup and white chocolate.
- Calories: 1270
- Fat: 46 g
- Carbohydrates: 165 g
- Protein: 49 g
Chicken omelette and chocolate chip pancakes.
- Calories: 1576
- Fat: 92 g
- Carbohydrates: 100 g
- Protein: 87 g
If you're still hungry, you can order whole grain toast, bacon or oatmeal!
Chicken sandwiches
Choose any of the chicken sandwich options and get ready to gain muscle. You can also find numerous delicious poultry dishes and milkshakes.
A fried chicken sandwich, a small pack of fried potatoes.
- Calories: 1071
- Fat: 35 g
- Carbohydrates: 118 g
- Protein: 71 g
Chicken, eggs and cheese, chicken breakfast burrito and multigrain oatmeal.
- Calories: 1075
- Fat: 43 g
- Carbohydrates: 119 g
- Protein 53 g
If you need more calories to meet your daily muscle-building goal, you can add a small milkshake for an extra 500 calories!
Subway (fast food restaurant chain)
Subway is primarily known for its freshly baked bread and wide selection. fresh vegetables. With a wide variety of meats, toppings, and condiments available, you can customize almost any sandwich or salad to suit your needs!
12-inch sandwich on honey oat bread with provolone cheese, lettuce, spinach, tomato, onion, green pepper and avocado.
- Calories: 933
- Fat: 29 g
- Carbohydrates: 112 g
- Protein 56 g
12-inch teriyaki chicken and sweet onion sandwich on whole grain wheat bread with provolone cheese, lettuce, onion, olives, spinach, tomato and sweet onion sauce.
- Calories: 937
- Fat: 17 g
- Carbohydrates: 136 g
- Protein 60 g
If you really want to boost your muscle gains, add double meat, cheese and guacamole to your sandwich, or pair it with a bag of baked chips!
At any public catering outlet there may be quite normal and healthy products and dishes, including fast food. As a style of eating, fast food is, of course, unhealthy. Initially, such establishments were focused on a very quick and filling lunch with simple and strong flavors - not for gourmets. This was the appeal of fast food to people. We tried to serve what people liked: too sweet, too salty, too spicy, and fried or deep-fried. Pricing and portion sizes are often chosen so that visitors choose huge portions: they are slightly more expensive than small ones, and buying the latter seems unprofitable.
Drinks
Most fast food establishments order carbonated sweet drinks with their meals. 80% of visitors choose the most large volume, because it seems economically feasible to them. But even 250 ml of sweet water is too much sugar. Therefore, instead of soda, it is better to take just water, tea or coffee.
Salads
Over time, under the influence of criticism, fast foods began to introduce new dishes that were not so high in calories, fatty or sweet. For example, salads have appeared in most fast foods. They are usually not the cheapest, and the choice of salad types is small. Therefore, if you had to go to fast food, you can eat them without harm to your health. And if you refuse fatty sauces for them, it will be a healthy dish.
Main course
The best choice is any cutlet made from natural minced meat. It will be healthier than a hot dog or deep-fried pieces of meat, rolls and other things made from fish and poultry, which are classic semi-finished products cooked in a fatty breading with a lot of nutritional additives.
Bun or flatbread?
Often in fast food establishments there is this option: take the dish in a bun (classic sandwich) or wrap it in a flatbread - the latter is healthier, especially if the bread or bun is made from premium flour.
Using these techniques, you can sometimes look into fast food if there is no other opportunity to have a snack - there will definitely not be any harm to your health.
Study the composition
By the way, information on the composition of dishes and products for many fast foods is now available. Usually it is on official websites. And there you can find out what all this is made of. Preference should be given to products without additives with index E.Fast food constructor
There are catering establishments where the dish is assembled in front of your eyes from various components. In such cases, always take coarse bread, plenty of vegetables and herbs (better fresh than salted) and as a base - not sausage, sausages or ham, but something made from whole or chopped meat, poultry or fish without additives.
Alexey Bueverov, gastroenterologist, doctor of medical sciences, professor of the First Moscow State Medical University named after. I. M. Sechenova:
- What is the most harmful thing about fast food?
Products are distributed in descending order of harmfulness as follows: sweet drinks and milkshakes are in first place, they are equally unhealthy. You should not eat desserts in such places - they also contain a lot of sugar. And only in third place in terms of harmfulness are thick “multi-tiered” sandwiches. Many will probably be surprised by this. Why is this so?
Sweet carbonated drinks contain a lot of pure sugars plus unhealthy chemicals (sodium orthophosphate, dyes). Even the smallest 250 ml serving contains 27 g of sugar. So, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend that those who are trying to healthy image life, consume no more sugar per day than in this glass of drink. Now imagine how many sugars are in a large 750 ml glass.
There is even a little more sugar in a cocktail made from ice cream and milk, but due to fat it is absorbed more slowly. That's a plus. But it contains almost 2 times more calories than carbonated drinks. At the same time, due to the milk in the cocktail there is healthy proteins and calcium.
The main hazards in desserts are fats and sugar. Although they are sweet, they usually have half the sugar content of the smallest serving of soda.
Sandwiches contain a lot of things: unhealthy saturated fats, carbohydrates in the bun, salt. But there are healthy animal proteins. Plus, you can get enough of this dish for quite a long period. So I wouldn’t demonize him.
The algorithm for a healthy lunch at a fast food establishment is this: buy a salad and a sandwich with a cutlet, remove half the bun and throw it away - you’ll get a pretty decent lunch.
- But you can still choose the safest lemonade if you really want to?
The more sugar in soda, the more harmful it is; this is the most harmful component of such drinks. Its amount can be easily determined from the label: look at how many carbohydrates there are. When it comes to soda, carbohydrates are essentially sugar, since there are practically no other carbohydrates. And the main harm is not only their large quantities, but also easy to digest: liquid sugar (dissolved in water) is absorbed very quickly. As a result, it is converted into fat in the body, unless immediately after a glass of soda you start some kind of intense physical activity - running, playing sports, an intense walk, or at least an emotional meeting (although the calorie consumption here will not be so significant). You need any activity in which sugar will be used as a source of energy - if such activity awaits you ahead, you can safely drink a glass of the drink and not suffer from remorse.
Children and fast food
The child eats only sweets and high-calorie foods. How to wean him off?
Answers child psychologist Yulia Gurevich:
You can’t just wean a child off harmful things with bans. Be more creative. Create a cult of food at home: give up semi-finished and ready-made meals, cook everything yourself, preferably together with your child. Decorate your food as if you were a chef at a posh restaurant wanting to feed a special guest. Soon the aesthetics of food will become a habit for all family members. Eat more often as a family, actively discussing the advantages and disadvantages of dishes with your child. It has been verified: in families where parents behave this way, children do not eat on the street and, importantly, do not gain weight. Let your child be a bit of a snob who despises “junk” food. Be sure to give him homemade food at school and more than he needs - he will eat everything with his friends. This will make it easy for him to explain to his friends why he doesn’t like fast food. This is very important, because among children and teenagers, relationships are very tough, and you need to behave convincingly and authoritatively. When your child’s friends come to visit him, invite them to the table more often. In such cases, also talk about food, not negatively, but speak ironically about harmful products and dishes. These tips work in children's environments.
