The Healthy Choice

3 Pages 726 Words

There are more than three-hundred thousand fast food restaurants in the United States. Fast food is so popular because it is convenient, predictable, and fast. Fast food has become a part of the busy American lifestyle. Fast food is often high in calories, sodium, fat and cholesterol, however. This does not mean that fast food is bad, but it does mean that it should be fit into a balanced, healthy diet.
Fast food restaurants are often held responsible for the growing number of Americans with obesity. Obesity is the excess accumulation of fat in the body and is becoming a growing problem in the United States today. There are more than forty-five million that are overweight and more than twenty million obese people in the United States today. Obesity is becoming a major problem among children as well—over thirty percent of children are overweight (Leonidas, MD).
Many Americans have a lack of knowledge of what they are ingesting. In 1990, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act went into effect, requiring that all restaurants have nutrition pamphlets that contain the common name of the product, the name and address of the product’s manufacturer, and the net contents in terms of weight, measure or count (Cubed). Most pamphlets fail to include key ingredients, such as Trans fat, that add to weight gain. Trans fat is a unsaturated fatty acid produced by the partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils. This fat is present in most commercial baked and fried foods. Trans fat is high in fat, calories, and it raises cholesterol levels (Wootan).
It is possible to eat a healthy, low fat fast food meal. In deciding to check out ingredients, fat and calories in order to pick a healthy food choice, a self-evaluation of what each individual person’s body needs in order to lose or maintain weight would be an advantageous idea. There are a few different factors that should be taken into consideration.
Body mass index is one factor that should ...