The Healthy Triple Whopper?

The Healthy Triple Whopper?

I am going to discuss whether fast food is healthy. Fast food is any food that is quickly prepared, usually high in calories. People constantly are wary of whether fast food is as bad the media makes it out to be. In Morgan Spurlock's movie "Super Size Me", he exposes McDonalds and its unhealthy items on his way to gaining 25 pounds and 65 points in cholesterol. In today's fast-paced world, everything needs to be done quickly - whether it is cooking a quick microwave dinner or going through the drive-thru for a number 1 at Wendy's. Fast food has become inevitable because Americans are pressed for time. Since Americans are pressed for time, it only makes sense that fast food is heavily included in people's diets. Can fast food such as macaroni and cheese be healthy? Can a Triple Whopper from Burger King or a Big Mac be incorporated into a healthy diet? Americans can safely incorporate fast food into their diets as long as they gain knowledge about the food they will be consuming beforehand.

Finding out the nutrition information beforehand will aid a person's ability in seeing which items are healthy - and allow them to include those items into their diet. Finding nutrition information has become especially easy as is evident that congress passed a law that requires fast food companies to have their nutrition information readily available. A person needs to get the nutritious information from all the restaurants that they frequent. Then, they need to look at all the options they have overall and choose which options are healthiest. When a person visits this fast food restaurant again, they will already know which option is healthy and will be ready to quickly order it. Thus, by simply obtaining nutrition information and evaluating which items are healthy, a person can quickly incorporate fast food into their diets.

Nutrition information is extremely helpful when including fast food in a diet, as long as you know what your calorie needs are. To find out your calorie needs, a person needs to visit a dietitian or a nutritionist so that they can explain what one's nutritional and caloric needs are. In doing this, a person will be well-informed on how many calories they need.

In order to successfully include fast food items in a diet, a person must know what makes up healthy food and what does not. Healthy food is defined as any food that provides an equal or lesser amount of calories than a person's body demands and contains little to no cholesterol and fat - especially saturated fat and trans fat. Unhealthy food - food that exceeds the calories that a person's body demands, is high in cholesterol, in fat, and in calories - provides people with excess calories and health risks. These unhealthy foods are exemplified by many burgers served at fast food restaurants such as Burger King's Triple Whopper. This burger contains 1130 calories, 74 grams of fat, 27 grams of saturated fat, 3 grams of trans fat, and 255 mg of trans fat (http://www.bk.com/Nutrition/PDFs/brochure.pdf). In other words, this burger is unhealthy because its nutritional values in fats and cholesterol all exceed recommended values - which definitely put the consumer at risk. This is evident in that many studies have shown that an increasing amount of fat in people's bodies - usually from high calorie fast food items, have been a major cause of obesity. Thus, a person needs to understand which foods are healthy, so they can prepare a diet of fast food that contain only the healthier items in fast food restaurants.

Understanding what healthy food is, visiting a health professional, and finding nutrition information on restaurants can be the easy part. However, a person must be able to apply the information they take in and use it to so that they can include fast food in their diet. After visiting a dietician or nutritionist, a person will know their calorie needs and be ready to include fast food in their diet. A person must devise a diet that meets their nutritional and calorie needs. A person should choose several healthy items from fast food restaurants and incorporate these into the diets. Usually people visit a fast food restaurant once a week, once a day, or even more. Therefore, by having chosen several items beforehand, a person will be ready to choose those items when they are in a hurry and need food fast.

Applying the information you learn is not limited to simply choosing the fast food items in advance. A person needs to know when they will eat fast food. Is the fast food meal you are going to eat a breakfast? Is it lunch? Dinner? One should decide how many calories they wish to take in these different meals. Hypothetically, assuming your calorie needs are