Fastfood

Fast-food origins

White Castle was the very first fast food restaurant. White Castle was founded in 1921 Wichita, Kansas. At that time people saw burgers sold at fairs, circuses, lunch counters as low-quality food. Many people thought the meat in hamburgers came from slaughterhouses's spoiled meat. White Castle's founders decided to change that perspective of the hamburger. So they started to built their restaurants so that people could see their food being prepared, that way people could see it was just normal meat. They painted their buildings white, and even chose their name after cleanness. White Castle was most popular in the American East and Midwest, but it's success gave hamburgers a better reputation worldwide, and they actually kind of started the fast-food trend. White Castle played an important role in the development of fast-food.

The two McDonald brothers opened their redesigned restaurant in 1948, after the White Castle success, and several fast-food chains that exist today opened soon after. Burger King and Taco Bell got their start in the 1950s, and Wendy's opened in 1969.

However, fast-food restaurants doesn't always get a welcoming reception all around the world. McDonalds has been attacked in a lot of different countries. Protestors have accused fast-food chains, of selling unhealthy food, marketing aggressively to children, and undermining local values and culture.

Fast-food's effect on your body

Fast-food is high in fat, sodium and sugar, that means if you eat a lot of it, you are more likely to get diabetes, heart diseases and just overall health problems.

Junk/fast-food also affects your energy level. It doesn't contain the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy and energised. As a result, you may feel chronically fatigued and lack the energy you need to complete daily tasks, such as taking out the trash, walking the dog, or even just getting up for the remote.

As mentioned before, junk/fast-food contains large amounts of fat, and as fat accumulates your body, you'll gain mire and more weight the more you eat, and could become obese. The more weight you gain, the more you'll be at risk for chronic illness and even heart attacks. The high amount of fat and sodium, can also cause high blood pressure or hypertension. Excessive dietary sodium can also have a bad effect on penal function, or even kidney disease.

Junk/fast-food can also damage your liver as well as your heart, as it's raising your blood cholesterol levels and also contributing to arterial plaque build up. All the trans fatty found in junk/fast-food can lead to liver dysfunctional and disease.

How do we get rid of junk/fast-food?

If everybody chooses to eat healthy instead, the food chains will run out of money, forcing them to shut down. It would lead to a happier, healthier world. It would be hard to make everyone do it tho, because people is walking around thinking "I doesn't matter if i do it or not, i'm just a drop of water in the sea", they don't realise that the sea is made up of drops.

Fast food - obesity

Is fast food to blame?

Let’s look at a few normal fast food menu items:

McDonalds Big Mac: 540 calories and 29 g of fat

Burger King Whopper: 670 calories and 40 g of fat

Wendy’s Bacon Deluxe Double: 880 calories and 52 g of fat

Taco Bell Nachos Bell Grande: 770 calories and 24 g of fat

Now let’s throw in the sides:

Medium fries at McDonalds: 380 calories and 19 g of fat

Onion rings at Dairy Queen: 360 calories and 16 g of fat

Regular cole slaw at Popeye’s: 260 calories and 23 g of fat

And don’t forget the drinks:

Large Frosty at Wendy’s: 540 calories and 8 g of fat

Large sweet tea at McDonalds: 280 calories and 0 g of fat

Iced Cara

mel Latte from Dunkin Donuts: 450 calories and 12 g of fat

You could easily take in 1.500 calories by just one meal, without even realising it. Keep in mind that a normal recommendation for calories is 1.500-1.800 per-day, and around 50-60 grams of fat. Eating just one meal if this a day, and the obese epidemic will hit you soon.

About 10 years after McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bell was created, obesity started to hit a lot more people.