# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fast food has become a staple of American culture. You can find a fast food restaurant on every highway exit and in every airport. The freezer section of the grocery store is often larger than the fresh produce section.

One reason for fast food's immense popularity is that it satisfies our society's need for quick, easy, and convenient products.

Despite the multitude of studies that have proven the destructive nature of fast food, most people tend to turn a deaf ear and ignore the problem. But opting for ignorance doesn't change the fact that fast food is very bad for your health. Eaten in high quantities, it even becomes dangerous.

Not everyone that eats fast food is affected by these, but everyone is at risk.

1. Risk of Obesity.

Unfortunately obesity is on the rise in America, and fast food is one of the top contributors to this. Just one fast food meal can contain almost all of the calories and fat you should have in a day. So even having McDonalds just for lunch will put you over the limit because of the calories in whatever you ate for breakfast and dinner. Now imagine eating fast food two to three times a day, a couple of days a week!

Obesity is different from being overweight because it is more about having too much body fat than other weight factors. A weight gain that places you at well over the recommended average will also make you much more susceptible to diabetes and heart diseases.

2. Risk of Diabetes.

Fast food is also linked to an increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes. When you eat food, glucose (or sugar) enters your blood stream. Your body produces a hormone known as insulin that converts the glucose into energy for your cells. But when you have diabetes your body does not make or use insulin well, and thus the glucose sits in your blood and has the potential to cause all sorts of damage and disease.

Fast food is high in fat, sugar, and carbohydrates - all of which increase your body's resistance to insulin. Studies have shown that people who eat fast food at least twice a week are twice as likely to resist insulin in their bodies, thus greatly increasing their chances of Type 2 Diabetes.

3. Risk of Stroke.

Arteries are the vessels that carry blood around your body. When the particular vessels that carry blood to your brain become blocked up, the likely result is a stroke. Having high cholesterol and high blood pressure are two major factors for artery blockage. These are also both factors in obesity. You can start to see how fast food causes multiple health problems for some people.

The processed products offered in fast food restaurants are very often high in sodium, which is a huge risk factor for high blood pressure and stroke. Studies indicate that the amount of money spent treating medical problems related to sodium will be in the trillions by 2050 if Americans do not change their eating habits.

4. Risk of Coronary Artery Disease.

This disease is like a stroke in that it happens when your arteries become clogged. The difference is that the arteries plugged up are those that send blood to your heart, instead of your brain. When the heart isn't getting the blood it needs you are at a high risk for coronary artery disease, angina (heart pain), and heart attack.

The biggest artery blockers for this problem are saturated and trans fats. Though some fast food restaurants are striving to become healthier, it is still difficult to find a menu item that isn't soaked in these fatty substances. Decreasing your portion size is a good way of lowering your risk for coronary artery disease.

5. Unhealthy Levels of Sodium.

Fast foods commonly use the salt known as sodium chloride to season their products. In fact, they put it in almost everything; making the sodium levels dangerously high in most fast food meals. A large order of French fries can contain as much as 30% of your daily value of sodium. It is good to have a little bit of sodium in your diet, but an excess will increase your chances of hypertension, high blood pressure, and heart attack.

6. Lack of Healthy Nutrients.

The products put out by fast food restaurants are filled with unhealthy ingredients, such as the sodium, sugar, and different types of fat that we have already discussed. But what is worse is that they usually are lacking in healthy nutrients, making the unhealthy elements even more harmful.

Important nutrients like vitamins and minerals from fresh produce, protein without added fat, and the fiber found in whole grains are all absent in most fast food. Because they are low in these nutrients, fast food is often less satisfying than healthier food, which can lead to overeating. Also, eating copious amounts of fast food every week well place you at risk for vitamin deficiency, as well as altering your mood and energy levels.

7. The High Cost.

When fast food restaurants first began the food was dirt cheap, another factor in their huge popularity. The dollar menu was a favorite by college students and those with little cash. However, as food costs and other costs go up, the prices of fast food items continue to rise all the time. The dollar menu is a shadow of what it once was, and some meals can cost up to $10.

Taking the little extra time to buy fresh food from the grocery store and cook a meal at home will save you money in the long run. You will generally get more food for your buck, plus you won't have to pay medical bills down the road.

Your best bet is to buy your own groceries or go to restaurants that serve reputable food. You might have more of a fast food budget, but there are cheap healthy options available if you look around for them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Your Kids Become What You Feed Them - 7 Dangers of Fast Food

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are obvious reasons to not eat fast food. So why do people continue to consume it at enormous rates? We can't answer that question, but we can provide awareness for seven of the top dangers of eating your favorite fast food.

# data[].attributes.headline
2. What chemical is found in hamburger buns and what is it typically used in? (You do not need the sound on)

# data[].attributes.subject
2. What chemical is found in hamburger buns and what is it typically used in? (You do not need the sound on)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here is Sloane's project for her Civic's Class. It tells you a lot of stuff you may or may not already know, or may not want to know. Anyway, please watch! She needs to have at least 100 views by tomorrow to get a passing grade! Thanks!!!

# data[].attributes.headline
7. How many calories are in the blender? Explain how you feel about the amount of calories, portion size, and how it looks after sitting out. (You do not need the sound on)

# data[].attributes.subject
7. How many calories are in the blender? Explain how you feel about the amount of calories, portion size, and how it looks after sitting out. (You do not need the sound on)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
WHAT FAST FOOD REALLY LOOKS LIKE IN YOUR STOMACH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After watching the movie Super Size Me, I was inspired to eat better and think a lot more about what goes into my mouth....maybe I thought too much....but here's what I found.

# data[].attributes.headline
6. What is the total annual health care cost to treat diabetes? 

# data[].attributes.subject
6. What is the total annual health care cost to treat diabetes? 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Andrea Cespedes

Andrea Cespedes is a professionally trained chef who has focused studies in nutrition. With more than 20 years of experience in the fitness industry, she coaches cycling and running and teaches Pilates and yoga. She is an American Council on Exercise-certified personal trainer, RYT-200 and has degrees from Princeton and Columbia University.

The ease, convenience, affordability and addictive taste of fast food have made it a staple in the standard American diet. Whether it's burgers, tacos, wings or dogs, you risk a high health cost when you regularly eat fast food in lieu of fresher, unprocessed options. Fast-food consumption correlates with obesity, type-2 diabetes and heart disease. The medical cost of obesity alone was $147 billion in 2008, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Investing a little time now in shopping for and preparing fresh foods can save you from future health complications and the costs associated with them.

Video of the Day

Much fast food offers up large, high-calorie portions without a lot of nutrient density. Refined grains, sugar and saturated -- even trans -- fat are abundant in fast food, and they correlate with a higher risk of type-2 diabetes. After examining the eating habits of people who live in Singapore, researchers found that those with a heavy intake of fast food had a higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, reports a study in a 2012 issue of Circulation.

Eating too much sugar and refined carbohydrates causes your body to pump out extra insulin, a hormone that helps to covert the sugar -- or glucose -- from these foods into energy. If you overeat sugar and carbs, your body's production of insulin increases so much that you become immune -- or resistant -- to it. You don't process the glucose properly, and the excess glucose leftover in your blood triggers inflammation and type-2 diabetes. The excess calories from fast foods stored as fat, often around your belly, which further promotes inflammation. People who ate fast food two or more times per week had an increased risk of type-2 diabetes and obesity, reports a 15-year study published in the Lancet in 2005.

A diagnosis of diabetes comes with a substantial financial cost. The American Diabetes Association reported that the total costs associated with diagnosed diabetes was $245 billion in 2012. A total of 90 to 95 percent of diabetes cases are type 2. Type-2 diabetes is preventable with lifestyle changes, such as minimizing fast-food consumption and exercise, which could significantly reduce long-term medical costs.

About 78.6 million adults in the United States qualify as obese -- that's more than one-third of the population, reported the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2014. Obesity-related conditions include type-2 diabetes, as well as heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer. Joint problems, sleep apnea, gallstones, high blood pressure and high cholesterol also accompany obesity. Most fast food is high in calories, with minimal nutrients. And "super-sizing" a meal increases the likelihood that a fast-food meal will make you overeat and gain weight.

Having a fast-food restaurant within 0.1 mile of a school resulted in a 5.2 percent increase in teens' obesity rates, and pregnant women who lived within 0.5 mile of a fast-food restaurant were more likely to gain excessive weight, reported a study published in a 2010 issue of the American Economic Journal.

Although the Food and Drug Administration has called for a ban on the use of trans fats -- man-made fats that enhance foods' shelf life and taste -- some fast-food restaurants still use them and can do so legally until summer 2018. Trans fats are dangerous because they greatly increase your risk of developing cardiovascular disease and stroke -- they raise your levels of bad cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein, and decrease your levels of good cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein. Restaurants like to use trans fats because they're cheap, palatable and reusable for frying.

Another potentially harmful ingredient prevalent in fast food is sodium. Consuming fast food makes it easy for you to easily overshoot the recommended sodium intake of 2,300 milligrams per day. A diet with too much salt has implications for high blood pressure, stroke and kidney health. Typical fast-food fare contains significant amounts of sodium -- a single-patty burger contains 475 milligrams of sodium, a slice of cheese pizza contains 574 milligrams and a ham and egg breakfast biscuit contains almost 2,000 milligrams.

Fast food tends to be low in fiber and many of the crucial vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients you get from fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains. If fast food crowds out these healthier options, you may be missing out on the nutrition that supports your best health.

The easiest way to reduce the impact of fast food on your health and future medical costs is to skip the drive-through. Opt for a homemade meal consisting of lean protein, fresh vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy instead. Sometimes, though, you just don't have the energy or time to make a meal at home.

If you choose to eat fast food, ask if the nutrition information for the menu is available, and look for options that are lower in calories, fat and sodium to still eat the best you can. Many fast-food restaurants offer healthier fare, such as grilled sandwiches, whole-wheat buns, vegetable salads and fruit cups. Oatmeal and yogurt parfaits are more healthful breakfast options, compared to pancakes or biscuit sandwiches.

An alternative to fast food is a quick stop at a grocery store to pick up a rotisserie chicken, a prewashed bag of salad and whole-grain rolls. If you're fearful that replacing a fast-food diet with a whole-foods eating plan will break the bank, a 2002 issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that following a lower-calorie, nutritious diet did not increase financial costs, and thus budget should not be a barrier to healthful eating.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The ease, convenience, affordability and addictive taste of fast food have made it a staple in the standard American diet. Whether it's burgers, tacos, wings or dogs, you risk a high health cost when you regularly eat fast food in lieu of fresher, unprocessed options. Fast-food consumption correlates with obesity, type-2 diabetes and heart...

# data[].attributes.headline
5. What percent of North American children are obese?

# data[].attributes.subject
5. What percent of North American children are obese?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When James Dean said, "Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse" in the 1950s, Americans were much thinner and fast food was a new invention. Today Americans are simply too chubby to live as fast as the lean 1950s idol. Instead they eat fast food, die younger than they should and leave increasingly obese corpses.

Along with smoking, substance abuse and inactivity, fast food presents one of the greatest public-interest health threats to Americans today. Fast food is almost universally dangerous and should probably carry a warning from the surgeon general. It contains meat-based carcinogens, is high in total calories and saturated fat and is a principal source of trans fat.

North Americans are always looking to shave a few seconds off everything-even eating. Fast food is a $103-billion industry and more than 25,000 new fast-food restaurants opened between 1996 and 1998. In a country obsessed with immediate gratification and conspicuous consumption, what could be more seductive than the capacity to consume excessively at a moment's notice? The dominance of the fast-food culture makes it possible to have almost continual, unhealthy moveable feasts-daily.

Not only is the food dangerous, but it promotes a lifestyle and culture that are also dangerous. Our lives are fast, frenetic and commercial. Food should be our sanctuary from the madness, not part of it. It's no accident that Dave Thomas, the happy CEO of Wendy's who pushes the company's burgers on TV, had a coronary bypass operation several years ago. As we can see on more recent commercials, he's dropped a few pounds, but that hasn't stopped him from hawking his products to the rest of us.
Fat Kids
North American children are not eating well. Approximately 30 percent of them are obese, up more than 50 percent in the past 20 years. In general, children eat too much, and much of what they eat is unhealthy.

A study sponsored by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine revealed that despite poverty and poorer access to health care, immigrant children are actually healthier than their American-born counterparts, having fewer short- and long-term health problems. The researchers noted that immigrant children eat fewer processed foods and more fruits, grains and vegetables. Unfortunately, as time goes on, the immigrant children acquire the unhealthy eating habits of American-born children.

Most people know that fast food is not good for you, but many don't realize how dangerous it really is. They probably know about the calories, saturated fat and maybe even the potential carcinogens in the beef. But maybe they think they can escape the worst of it by skipping the burger and having the Chicken McNuggets or the french fries. After all, fries are just potatoes cooked in vegetable oil, right? Unfortunately the fries may be worse than the burger. Why? Trans fats.
Fast Food And Trans Fats
Trans fats are man-made fats that were virtually unknown to humans until 1911, when Procter & Gamble, the people who brought you Olestra, first marketed Crisco. Before Crisco, if you wanted to make a pie crust, you needed to use rendered lard or beef tallow as your solid fat source. But Procter & Gamble discovered that adding hydrogen to polyunsaturated cottonseed oil made it more saturated and turned it into a solid fat at room temperature. If you look on the labels of many manufactured food items you will see the words "partially hydrogenated"-meaning that the manufacturer added hydrogen to a polyunsaturated fat, making it into a trans fat. The more saturated a fat becomes, the stiffer and more solid it gets. Trans fats are also less likely to go rancid and thus have a longer shelf-life.

Procter & Gamble used what was abundant and cheap in the early 1900s-cottonseed oil-to build its partially hydrogenated evil twin-Crisco. In the 1930s the same technology was applied to the increasingly cheap and very abundant soybean oil. Today you will see that many oils are subject to this potentially dangerous process, sometimes even olive oil. Fast foods are probably the biggest source of trans fats in our diet.

Up until the late 1980s, fast-food restaurants deep-fried food in beef tallow loaded with artery-choking saturated fats. In the early 1990s, McDonalds, responding in part to public pressure, proudly announced that its fries would be cooked in "cholesterol-free 100 per cent vegetable oil." While this was true, it was not the whole truth. The whole truth is that McDonalds uses partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. In other words, it uses trans fats, which are at least as bad for your blood cholesterol as the saturated fats they replaced, and probably worse.

In some ways this is another kind of high-fat fraud. You go into a fast food outlet and choose the fries instead of the burger, thinking you're avoiding saturated fat. But it turns out that you're no better off. Temperatures used for deep-frying liberate legions of deadly free radicals from fats. Even more frightening is the effect for multiple frying episodes. Fats that are used again and again for frying oxidize at frighteningly high rates.

The next time you see a basket of fries plunged into a vat of bubbling brown oil, you should get out of that place as quickly as possible!

We are surrounded by trans fats in many of the foods we eat, but the single largest dose we are likely to get is still the seemingly innocuous, cholesterol-free french fries from Wendy's, Burger King or McDonalds. McDonalds is the largest source of these potentially fatal fries.

McDonalds understands that food is a cultural issue and it spends more than half a billion dollars a year promoting the McDonalds culture of eating. That culture is even penetrating public schools, places where children should be learning to make healthy lifestyle choices. Fast-food chains are now contracting with public schools to provide unhealthy, trans fat-laden lunches for our children.

In an effort to attract children to the McDonalds culture of eating, the company has created a cultural icon that rivals some of the most universally recognized symbols in Western culture. According to Rolling Stone magazine, 96 per cent of school children surveyed could recognize Ronald McDonald, making him second only to Santa Claus in name recognition and the Golden Arches are more recognized than the Christian cross.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When James Dean said, "Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse" in the 1950s, Americans were much thinner and fast food was a new invention. Today Americans are simply too chubby to live as fast as the lean 1950s idol. Instead they eat fast food, die younger than they should and leave increasingly obese corpses.

# data[].attributes.headline
8. How can fast food effect the digestive and cardiovascular systems?

# data[].attributes.subject
8. How can fast food effect the digestive and cardiovascular systems?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fast food is a common meal option, but it's high in calories and low in nutrients. Eating too much of it could affect nearly all parts of your body.

Swinging through the drive-thru or hopping into your favorite fast food restaurant may happen more often than some of us would like to admit.

Between 2013 and 2016, of U.S. adults ate fast food on a given day. The amount was nearly the same for children and adolescents, with of them eating fast food on a given day during 2015 to 2018.

While an occasional fast food meal won't hurt, a habit of eating out could be doing a number on your health. Read on to learn the effects of fast food on your body.

Most fast food, including drinks and sides, are loaded with carbohydrates with little to no fiber.

When your digestive system breaks down these foods, the carbs are released as glucose (sugar) into your bloodstream. As a result, your blood sugar increases.

Your pancreas responds to the surge in glucose by releasing insulin. Insulin transports sugar throughout your body to cells that need it for energy. As your body uses or stores the sugar, your blood sugar returns to normal.

This blood sugar process is highly regulated by your body. As long as you're healthy, your organs can usually handle these sugar spikes.

But frequently eating high amounts of carbs can lead to repeated spikes in your blood sugar.

Over time, these insulin spikes may cause your body's normal insulin response to falter. This increases your risk of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and weight gain.

Sugar and fat

Many fast food meals have added sugar. That means extra calories without added nutrition. The American Heart Association, which referred to people as either men or women, suggests only eating about 100 calories or 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day for women or 150 calories or 9 teaspoons for men.

Many fast food drinks alone contain more than the daily recommended amount of sugar. A 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola contains 9.75 teaspoons of sugar. That equals 140 calories, 39 grams of sugar, and no other nutrients.

Another common fast food ingredient, trans fat, is manufactured fat created during food processing. It's commonly found in:

No amount of trans fat is good or healthy. Eating foods that contain it can increase your LDL (bad cholesterol), lower your HDL (good cholesterol), and increase your risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Sodium

The combination of fat, sugar, and lots of sodium (salt) can make fast food tastier to some people. But diets high in sodium can lead to water retention, which is why you may feel puffy, bloated, or swollen after eating fast food.

A diet high in sodium is also dangerous for people with blood pressure conditions. Sodium can elevate blood pressure and put stress on your heart and cardiovascular system.

One study found that about 90% of adults underestimated how much sodium was in their fast food meals.

The study surveyed 993 adults and found that their guesses were lower than the actual sodium content by more than 1,000 mg.

Keep in mind that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends adults eat no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. More than of sodium comes from processed foods and restaurant meals.

Excess calories from fast food meals can cause weight gain. This may lead toward obesity.

Obesity increases your risk of respiratory problems, including asthma and shortness of breath.

The extra pounds can put pressure on your heart and lungs, and symptoms may show up even with little exertion. You may notice difficulty breathing when you're walking, climbing stairs, or exercising.

Restaurants may increase the challenge of calorie counting. Research indicates that people often inaccurately estimate the number of calories of menu items.

Your central nervous system consists of your brain and spinal cord. These areas of your body may also see an impact from eating fast food.

One study from 2020 found that among college students, eating higher amounts of fast food (and, interestingly, salad) was linked to a lower short-term memory score.

Still, other research from 2019 found no effect of fast food consumption on cognitive function. More studies are needed in this area.

The foods you eat may impact your skin's appearance.

A research review from 2021 found that dairy, chocolate, foods high in fat, and foods with a high glycemic index (carbohydrates and sugar) were associated with acne, though more studies need to be done. These foods are often present in fast food.

On the other hand, the research suggested that eating fruits, vegetables, and fatty acids (found in fish and olive oil) helped protect against acne.

Eating fast food may affect your mental health along with your physical health.

A 2020 study found that consuming fast foods with sugary drinks increased the chance of mental health issues in middle school students in China.

Research from 2018 also suggested that eating a Western diet high in red meat, takeout, and refined foods was linked to a higher body mass index (BMI) and inflammation in 14-year-old participants. This was then associated with depressive symptoms and mental health issues when they were 17 years old.

Today, more than two in five U.S. adults and around one in five children have obesity.

Offerings at fast food restaurants may be contributing. One study found that between 1986 and 2016, portion sizes and the number of calories in restaurant entrées and desserts increased significantly.

As Americans eat out more frequently, it could have adverse effects for both individuals and America's healthcare system.

What are the health risks of eating fast food?

Fast food is often high in calories, fat, and sugar but low in nutrients and fiber. While eating fast food occasionally isn't a problem, consuming it frequently may raise your risk of obesity, heart attack, and other health issues.

What happens if you eat fast food more than two times a week?

Eating fast food too often may negatively affect your health. An older study from 2012 found that Chinese Singaporean adults who ate Western-style fast food at least twice per week had a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and dying from coronary heart disease compared with adults who consumed little or no fast food.

Fast food is a popular choice for its taste and convenience, but it tends to be high in calories, sugar, and fat and low in nutrients.

Eating fast food frequently may negatively affect multiple areas of your body, possibly increasing your risk of conditions including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. As a result, it's best for your health to eat it only occasionally.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fast Food's Effects on 8 Areas of the Body

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fast food is a common meal option, but it's high in calories and low in nutrients. Eating too much of it could affect nearly all parts of your body. Swinging through the drive-thru or hopping into your favorite fast food restaurant may happen more often than some of us would like to admit.

# data[].attributes.headline
3. What are six cosmetic chemicals in fast food and what is one other product they are used in?

# data[].attributes.subject
3. What are six cosmetic chemicals in fast food and what is one other product they are used in?

# data[].attributes.headline
1. How does fast food "up the risk" for heart disease?

# data[].attributes.subject
1. How does fast food "up the risk" for heart disease?