Say 'No' To Fast Foods

Dixya Poudel

We perceive the world through our five senses which constantly update information about the environment so that our brain can decode them and take due action. We feel the changes in the weather and wear clothes accordingly when stepping outdoors. Our eyes help us navigate the route when walking. We hear the vehicles honking on the streets and we step towards safety. We pick up scents of foods wafting through cafes and decide to stop for a cup of coffee and a pastry. If we are hungry, we may order extra sugary pastries and drinks. And when our brain castigates us for consuming too many calories, we vow to go extra miles on our treadmills.

Foods are essential for survival. The ancient human beings had to face food insecurity often, so they would gorge on heavy meals whenever available as they were unsure of the next meal. This is how food intake was for our ancestors who roamed the wilderness while subsisting on hunting and gathering. Large amounts of food intake could be followed by hunger and starvation because of the unavailability of foods. Today, thankfully, foods are readily available in most places. Although one has to either grow them or buy them, food scarcity is relatively rare in many nations driven by agricultural technologies. 

And yet, food insecurity is wired in our brain which is why we love to devour foods rich in calories such as burgers, fries, chips, sugary drinks, refined foods and so on. Food manufacturers know this and even capitalise from it. They depend on the orosensation of consumers in order to sell high calorie, salty, exceedingly sweet and fatty foods. People crave such food which is the main reason why sugary and fizzy drinks sell in millions, fast food joints such as McDonalds keep profiting and the waistline of many continues to bulge. 

Fast food companies continue to run ads on juicy and mouthwatering photos of foods that prompt people to forget their fitness goals. It doesn’t help that fast foods are cheaper, tastier and readily prepped and available. This makes it harder for people to keep up their diet and fitness goals. Many of them don’t have the energy and the motivation to cook healthy meals after a long day at work.

Just as food industry tries to leverage off the food impulses of people, the fitness industry does the opposite. Fitness industries want to make people thinner, slimmer, toned and ripped, for a price of course. People eat unhealthy foods, gain weight and then try to shed off the extra weight. It leads to an unhealthy cycle. While exercise is crucial for fitness, so is a healthy and balanced diet. People ought to be aware of the food ingredients and nutritional values they are consuming, apart from the calories counts that they keep track of painstakingly. Here, it could help greatly to swear off fast and junk foods which taste great but are unhealthy.

While pharmaceutical companies are preoccupied with creating new drugs to curb weight, one of the most important factors in weight loss tends to get sidelined which is diet. Instead of spending millions of dollars in formulating weight loss drugs, a combination of healthy diet (sans fast foods), nutrition and exercise could be highly effective.