Many fast food establishments now list the number of calories each item contains. However, this is only part of the consideration of whether it is healthy or not. Fast food is typically poor in terms of nutrition. According to a 2015 reviewTrusted Source, fast food tends to contain various substances that are generally unhealthy. It is high in sugar, salt, saturated or trans fats, and many processed preservatives and ingredients. It also lacks some beneficial nutrients.
However, not all fast food has negative impacts, and a person can make an informed choice by researching the nutritional content of particular fast food items. People can find this information on the websites of most major restaurants. That said, even the more healthy fast food items are generally high in sugar, salt, saturated fats, and trans fats. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health PromotionTrusted Source notes that the typical person in the United States consumes too much of these food components.
Fast food is typically high in sugar, salt, and saturated or trans fats. The body’s reaction to these nutrients results in a range of short-term impacts when a person eats fast food.Fast food is highly palatable, meaning the body breaks it down quickly in the mouth, and it does not need much chewing. Therefore, it activates the reward centers in the brain rapidly. This combination trains the palate to prefer these highly processed, highly stimulating foods and reduces someone’s desire for whole, fresh foods.
All in all, fast food tends to be high in salt, sugar, saturated fats, trans fats, calories, and processed preservatives and ingredients. A wealth of well-conducted research has proven the negative health effects of consuming too much of these food components. In the short term, fast food impacts blood sugar and blood pressure, increases inflammation, and may mean an individual does not eat enough necessary nutrients. In the long term, a diet rich in fast food could lead to issues with digestion, immunity, inflammation, heart health, obesity, and more.
