THE GOOD, THE BAD AND CRUCIAL LESSONS: FAST FOODS

Do you like a sandwich? No? Wait, but you must fancy French fries, well dried and in huge proportions, right? We’re on the same camp on that, for I like French fries too, and milkshakes. Chocolate flavour especially. It leaves me on cloud nine!

An average human being today is faced with threats of all kinds. From all sides. Terrorism. Global warming. Strange illnesses. And fast foods! Scary, right? But it’s the bare truth.

So, kindly, sit easy and be my obedient audience, for we shall together explore the pros and cons of fast foods. Nice.

The popularity of fast foods is evermore on the rise in most countries of the world. It’s a thriving venture, and a godsend for most youth. There’s a KFC in nearly every major city in the world. Most delectables enthusiasts are painfully eager to see when a McDonald’s will open their doors in Nairobi. Our very own Java House is spreading like bush fire. I wonder when they will dock at Eldoret.

For a regular collegian, hardly ever a day passes by without gobbling down some form of fast food, or popping into a joint that makes the same, albeit for just the aroma.

Sandwiches, smokies, kebabs potato chips, and pizzas are the main culprits. Burgers, milkshakes and muturas. Whoa! The list is nearly infinite. For health’s sake, even soft drinks! Drop that soda bottle! Drop it! Good.

According to Wonderslist, an online platform that promotes healthy eating and active lifestyle, fast foods is any type of food that can be prepared and served quickly. In most cases, these foods contribute little or no nutrient value to the diet, and instead contain excessive calories, fat and sugar.

Hey, have you ever wondered why fast food joints dot the streets in every town? Why meat vendors do their stuff outside? It’s easy. Fast foods are irresistible! What drive us in our choice of them is merely colour, odour and taste!

Sometimes you don’t intend to eat out, but the aroma of fries and the succulent chicken seen through the glass invite you into the food court –whether your checks and balances allow it or otherwise.

But fast foods are not entirely hell on earth, are they? There are several advantages associated with them.

Pros              

The main advantage of this type of foods is their undeniable convenience. The modern man is ever in a hurry. You either need to get to class on time, or to return to work after the often short lunch break. The first thing that comes into your mind is chips!

Fast foods are cheap. To prepare a one-person meal for supper is costlier than buying a burger and a soup. And sleep till morning you will. Contrary to popular belief, fast food is the choice for lower class folks in the society. Ahem!

Customers have the freedom to choose from the many varieties offered. The menu is abundant. You may have grilled chicken, a fat-dripping one, or just salads. At home, you settle for what is set on the table.

With an increasingly health-conscious population, the majority of joints are offering healthier foods these days. In the US for example, some hotels have moved on from their traditional fatty and unhealthy foods to more risk-free, less-sugar choices that take care of their clients’ health.

Some meals are just agonizingly tedious to prepare in a home setting. Have you ever tried to make a sandwich, or a burger? Fries? What were the results? Laughable, I bet. Rather than tire yourself vainly trying to make one, cut your cheddar on one, and you will get the best quality from your neighbourhood café. Easy.

Accessibility of fast food joints is a big plus. They are everywhere. From your hostel room or house, it’s at most a five-minute walk to one. While travelling, you only need to pull up at the roadside joint and grab a bite. So starving becomes simply inconceivable.

Picture this scenario. Your bae drops by without notice, at night. They’re hungry, but you’ve eaten all there was, and so, there is practically nothing ready to eat. Would you for instance embark on preparing pilau for them? I guess not. A dash to the food kiosk to grab samosas and/or a sausage would be the most welcome choice.

Granted, some people will wholly rely on fast foods for their survival.

Nonetheless, there is usually a heavy price to pay. And pay you must!

The disadvantages of fast foods range from mild disturbances like occasional loss of appetite to treatable conditions like ulcers, to more chronic, life-threatening diseases like heart malfunctions.

Cons

Obesity is a phenomenon that each one of us is well acquainted with. Worryingly, it’s on an unprecedented increase in our society. There is an obese in our life; a parent, sibling, friend, classmate or neighbour. Scarcely none at all. Most fast foods are normally too fatty, and a perpetual feeder on chips and fried chicken risks becoming a victim, if they don’t exercise properly.

Type 2 Diabetes is caused by excessive sugar consumption. Soft drinks and cakes are the criminals here. These contain so much sugar, more than the body requires. And tragic is when you contract this disease. Your feeding habits change forever. The physician will bar you from taking virtually everything that was hitherto your Holy Grail! As you wait for your inevitable death!

Heart diseases like the cardiovascular will creep out anyone. Blame it on the consumption of fatty foods. The arteries get blocked with layers of fat, making it difficult for the heart to pump blood effectively. It gets strained, and fails eventually. Death.

Hypertension is an unspeakable horror. Fast foods sometimes contain so much salt and other additives and preservatives. It is what makes them more scrumptious. Like sodium. Continued usage of the salts increases the level of salt in the blood, thereby high blood pressure. The dramatic ultimate of it all is demise. 

However much tasty they are, fast foods lead to a loss of appetite. Sometimes one develops nausea, their stomach can’t take anything, and experience abdominal discomforts.

When one is too used to fried foods, they tend to dislike boiled ones or those cooked by other methods. Try asking your friend or spouse this evening to choose between a sandwich and a boiled maize cob.

Ulcers are hell. The sore can’t let you sit, stand or sleep. But the waitress will usually hasten to push the kachumbari bowl and chili sauce to your table after delivering the fries. The roadside maize roaster has his half lemon ready for you. If that nyama choma joint does not provide pepper and other accompanying spices, customers will often make an exodus, and go to the rival who offers the same. How we run to our death!

The preparation of foods in hotels will usually nauseate you. Theirs is a mass production of food, and sometimes, understandably, it’s difficult to observe every last of cleanliness procedures. What they end up making is low quality and unhygienic meals. You’ve not tried eating someone else’s leftovers, have you? I wish to spare you.

Fast foods are a waste colossal of money. Their irresistibility pushes our budget to the limit, and beyond. We can’t help them, can we? And often, we don’t budget for these foods, yet they consume an enormous proportion of our monies.

These foods are cheaper for a single person. And slightly, a couple. For a larger family, the equation does not balance. It thus becomes much easier to prepare food at home.

Dreadful, right? There are remedies, nevertheless.

Useful advice

Instead of buying meals, it’s advisable to make it a practice to prepare them at home. You only need to learn a few culinary tricks, and there you will have it. Clean food, well-cooked and devoid of toxins.

‘I can’t survive without chips!’ Some will yell. Fine. Stick to your serving of fries, but always eat them along with salads. It tempers the effects, and helps, a lot.

If you cannot resist the temptation of fried chicken every weekend, or muturas every evening, then your battle is tighter. It is said that a single meal of fried meat adds to the tune of 1500 k/joules of calories to your body. A normal jog will help break about 300 k/joules of those calories.

It’s almost a losing battle, but keep jogging. This will help break the calories, and keep you fit, somehow.

Consume boiled and stewed meals in larger proportions, fried and roast meals in even smaller quantities. It’s life at stake here!

Water should be a permanent component of your meal, every time. Drink lots of it. It’s healthy.

Of critical importance, you should go for a checkup every so often. Have your blood sugar level tested. And pressure too. Let the doctor examine your heart. This could mean a life for you.

Let me hurry and grab myself a burger as I await my apocalypse. We will all eventually die anyway, won’t we?

But let’s die more honourable deaths: of natural causes, and not lifestyle diseases. It’s a shame for mankind to succumb to things we can control.

Have you exercised today? Have you had a fruit? Drank water? Good health is not magic. It’s an effort we must make. It starts with you and me.

It’s possible! Let’s do it!