My 5-year-old grandson, Michael (pictured here with his brother, Christian) recently made some wishes. True to his nature, he wished for 1,000,000 Hot Wheels and an accompanying Hot Wheels Monster Truck, along with 1,000 teddy bears. Sounds pretty good!
He had another wish that really struck me: he wished “McDonald’s was healthy.” What? I’m not sure if his mom tells him this, or if he was channeling his Mimi…but very interesting! He is a rather smart young man!
The sad fact is most fast food – not all, but most - is not the healthiest. In my Food Rules vitality presentation, I tell a nutrition joke, “If you are what you eat, don’t be fast, easy, cheap or fake!” This is so true!
Author Michael Pollan makes us realize, “It’s not really the healthiest food if it arrived through the window of a car.” He’s correct.
Perhaps when fast food joints first cropped up, they served somewhat decent food. Today, to keep costs in line, they have to offer sub-par nutritionally defunct food that is bigger than what an average human should eat. Most of the food arrives at the restaurant mass-produced and is then cooked with deficient or harmful oils, salts, and sauces.
Some startling statistics:
- One out of every 4 meals in our country are eaten in a fast-food outlet.
- We’re in a Super-Size food economy:
- Cokes used to be 8.5 ounces and 80 calories; today they are 20 ounces with 250 calories
- A small order of fries was 210 calories versus 610 calories today for a large.
- A small hamburger weighed in at 250 calories while today’s Big Big Burger contains 810 calories.
- A chicken nugget is mushed-up little bits of dozens of chickens, plus over 50 chemicals and additives.
- Most chain French fries have little in common with a potato. They contain more than 10 ingredients, including beef flavoring and trans fats, sugar and salt.
- In 1970, Americans spent $6.2 billion on fast food; this was up to $124 billion in 2004.
Know what you are eating! Gather your staff, co-workers, book club, neighbors – to hear my Food Rules presentation and learn more about choosing better food. I focus on guidelines and suggestions individuals can and should use when choosing foods to nourish themselves and to help improve health and vitality. I provide simple “rules” for better living – including foods and lifestyle adjustments, and talk about organic foods, food additives, food ingredients, vitamins, minerals, nutrients, GMOs, etc. It’s a terrific and dynamic presentation and can be yours today to help YOU make BETTER choices!
In the meantime, try to arrange your life schedule to make more meals at home, with local foods and ingredients. It will do your body good!
If you find you must eat fast food, try to make these choices:
- Look for little to no sauce
- Watch anything fried
- Forego the breads, or cut the amount of breads in half
- Salads are a good option – be careful of the packaged dressing
- Aim for grilled options, without breading. Good, clean proteins!
Like Michael, I also wish fast foods were healthy! Think about booking us today to learn how to make your foods work for you!
To Your Vitality!
(some statistics from Lunch Lessons, by A. Cooper and L. Holmes)