Some of the children at my school asked me to put up a display in my library on fast foods. I thought it would be an interesting topic to do, and something that would benefit them in their everyday life.
I mean, we all know the stories about fast food. It’s high in sugar and trans fats. It’s deep fried and liable to cause clogged arteries. Fast foods have been tagged as being responsible for obesity, and
increased diabetes in children especially.
My research has taken me from the websites of the various restaurants to criticisms of their menus. I have studied some of the controversies, and tried to ponder the relationship between kilojoules and calories.
The last point is going to take a few more hours of brain power before I fully understand the concept. Kilojoules are what energy from food is measured in, and calories have something to do with exercise.
I have been comparing Big Macs and Rounders. Twisters and Subways. Debonairs vs Scooters.
McDonalds has been the most helpful company so far. Go into their website and click on any of their menu items and you are shown information on kilojoules, sodium content and saturated fats level. They also give out a tray liner that shows these facts as well.
Fast food is never going to be as healthy as homemade meals we make from fresh ingredients and few preservatives, but we can make healthier choices for those times when we absolutely have to have fast food.
And be careful… Sometimes what seems like a healthier choice is actually worse. For instance, the Grilled Chicken Foldover has a higher kilojoule level, more fat and more sodium than a Quarter Pounder with Cheese.
And the internet itself is a collection of contradictions. Just take the McBurger that lasted for a year on a shelf and didn’t grow mould. People freaked out when they read this article.
“What kind of preservatives does this food have in it? What is it doing to our children?”
But if you search a bit further, you read about someone who decided to do this experiment objectively. So they put a Mc Burger and a homemade free range mince burger on the same shelf.
And neither of them grew mould…
Not even the homemade-with-no-preservatives burger. The conditions were too dry for mould to grow, and the burgers simply lost water and dessicated. Put the similar burgers into a sealed plastic bag and the mould had a fat happy party all over the meat and roll.
So that sensational discovery kind of lost its oomph.
And no one can blame fast food restaurants for unhealthy lifestyles. KFC doesn’t employ people to force feed customers until they are about to pop.
One has to take responsibility for ones own health, and make sure we eat the right foods and exercise properly.
According to the exercise site, Endomondo, I have done 23 hours of exercise and have managed to burn off 14 burgers