When I say “fast food” I primarily mean anything such as Kentucky, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King?
Health advocates say “Junk food is bad and to cut it out” but what exactly is it?
Would you describe other types of take away as being “fast food or “junk food” such as Indian take away and Chinese take away?
What primarily are the “bad parts” of “junk food”?
What types of restaurants, food outlets would not be considered “junk food”?
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In addition to the other excellent answers – one of the things that makes KFC, BK and McDonald’s particularly bad is how the food needs to processed to make it fast.
Deep frying potatoes creates acrylamide, which is a possible carcinogen and neurotoxin. At home, you’re frying the taters and generally not reusing the oil more than a few times, so you get just a bit of it. In restaurants, that oil is used for days or weeks allowing the acrylamide to build up and attach to your fries. The same issue would be present for breading on chicken.
The increased time at high temperatures also means the fat in the oil starts oxidizing. Oxidized fats are a large contributor to blood vessel blockage.
Fast food is often held at ‘danger zone’ temperatures for a long time. Regulations say you have to toss it before enough bacteria builds up enough to make you very sick. A burger held at 100 degrees for 10 minutes will still have excess bacteria on it, and that bacteria is not doing you any good. Even if your stomach acid kills it all, it can release endotoxins that paralyze your blood vessels, preventing them from expanding when called to.
This will make you feel like crap if you’re healthy, but if your blood vessels are narrowed already, this could cause major heart problems.
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