Healthy Alternatives to Fast Food

First published in Better Health: July Edition

As our country becomes more developed and fast paced, we are increasingly relying on dining out and less on home cooked meals. This trend carries a number of unhealthy possibilities with the potential for obesity and disease such as heart disease as well as diabetes high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack among others.

While many fast food outlets use terms such as “fat-free”, “low carb” or “low calorie” on several of their menu items, these options are often not that much healthier than the regular menu.

What is unhealthy about fast foods?

While the calorie and carb content is unhealthy, it is not the biggest health issue with fast foods.

Processed Meals

Many items on a fast food menu are often chemically processed with plenty of additives in the food. This is done to preserve shelf life and keep the consistency of the items which have to be kept on hand en masse to serve an increasing demand for these items while adding flavour.

These additives are detrimental to your health and your waistline and can cause ailments such as heart disease, diabetes and high cholesterol. The chemicals used to process the food from their natural state are often synthetic and take a longer time to digest so remain in the body for months.

The body cannot use these chemicals and additives to maintain its function, therefore, much of these items end up in fat deposits or even in organs in our body such as liver, kidney and colon where they can do damage to our health.

Fat and Salt Content

Fast food diets are full of fats as well as salts and are depleted of any nutritional value that has the potential to support the work of the body. Because fast foods are designed to satisfy a present hunger and an immediate craving, the priority is often not to prepare food that is both tasty and nutritious.

The high content of poly-unsaturated fats are contributors to damage in artery walls and of the metabolic system. The act of padding out much of the menu items with breadcrumbs, corn flour, processed potato, processed egg and milk products together with hydrogenated vegetable oil, saturated fats, gum, sugar substitutes makes these diets quite unhealthy to be adopted on a regular basis.

Healthy alternatives to fast food

Combined with lack of exercise, long-term use of fast food is detrimental to our health. Living fast paced lives, that are often sedentary, we rob our bodies of nutrients and mobility it needs to remain healthy.

We do not have to submit to this any longer. We can determine to live healthier lives and move step-by-step to improve our quality of life. It is a lifestyle change that may need to be adopted but it will mean a healthier, happier you.

Diet

This calls for us to get back to basics. We need to include more foods in our diets that are in their natural state or as close thereof as possible. For example, we need to have more organic cuts of meat and more fresh fruits and vegetables. This is so much trouble you may say. However, we say your health is worth it and we have several markets island wide where you can purchase fresh fruits, vegetables and meat from our local farmers.

Of course this would require us to home cook our meals more often. But if you create your meal plans ahead of time, this is not as problematic or inconvenient as one would be led to believe. Focus on eating the right type of foods more than on counting calories.

Lean cuts of meat are great alternatives to the unhealthy fast food options.

Exercise

A daily walk on the beach, a plan at the gym, a personal trainer; whatever you can afford in terms of time and money, make getting more active a priority to complement the healthier eating.

Our health should be our number one priority for without it no amount of money in the bank or luxury car or house will make our quality of life better. Therefore, we should take the time to avoid unhealthy options such as fast food and implement healthy practices such as organic and fresh foods while incorporating a more active lifestyle.