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Effects of Fast Food on Health Essay Example

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Effects of Fast Food on Health Essay Example
date: 2/8/12
EFFECTS OF FAST FOOD ON HEALTH
Nowadays, American people are very busy with their works and families. They do not have enough time to cook for themselves. Moreover, with the development of the fast food industry and chains of fast food restaurants, fast food for meals is the best choice of busy people. However, everything has two faces. Eating too much fast food also has many bad effects on health including obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
First of all, obesity is a serious disease mainly caused by eating fast food. Whichever kind of fast food we eat, from pizza to fried chicken, they contain the same ingredients. Fat and carbohydrates, which are one cause of overweighting, are present in most kinds of fast food. In addition, fast food contains fewer vitamin and other minerals which make people feel full. Containing fewer of these elements means that people tend to feel hungry frequently, and want to eat more. So, eating much fast food can also affect weight management. Last and also most importantly, fast food ingredients have a high amount of sugar which is the direct cause of obesity epidemic. Besides the ingredients of fast food, the larger sizes also increase the risk of obesity. In the documentary film Super Size Me (2004), Mr. Morgan Spurlock showed that when given larger portions sizes, average people still eat entirely regardless of whether they are full or not. Obviously, the more fast food we eat, the more unhealthy ingredients come to our body. Secondly, some heart diseases like heart attacks and high blood pressure are the result of eating a lot of fast food. Junk food such as donuts, fried food, etc. contains trans fats which are known to increase the level of bad cholesterol and decrease the level of good cholesterol, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. When the level of bad cholesterol in our blood is higher than the safe level, it creates the atherosclerotic plaques inside the arterial walls. Then, the arteries

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