Is fast food bad for you?

Question

a lot of people i ask this to tell me yes its bad for you but cant tell me why

they say there arent enough vitamins or something but vitamins are electrolytes and i have no idea what that means

anyway i ask them what has vitamins they say vegetables. but burgers have pickles lettuce tomatoes sometimes onion ketchup mustard and mayonaise which are all vegetables.

and i did a lot of research and found that meat has protein and burgers have meat or if you go to kfc they serve something called fried chicken which is really just another name for meat

my highschool teacher told me that carobs (sp?) are important for energy and you can get them from rice but rice is really expensive to get so i asked what else he says noodles but i dont eat soup and i said what else and he goes potatoes. and i thought aren't french fries a kind of potatoes? but maybe i was wrong so i asked him about french fries and he said yes they were potatoes and i KNOW french fries are sold too

so wtf?

same answers as always
sugar drinks contain water and thats good for you

what is moderation? what foods is it in usually?

okay first all you all are using a lot of big words i dont understand like cholesterol and i forget the rest

but i know what oil is i put it in my car so the engine doesnt break and from that i know we need oil so our engines dont break i am guessing our heart and so our arms still work and dont lock up

but what d you mean it cancles out the veggies? so the tomatoes in ketchup are not tomatoes anymore??????????????

i dont understand how can you have vegetables and carbs and protein and everything you need in fast food bu thwen you eat it it disappears???

and i cant eat once every two weeks because i get too hungry after two days.

okay lets start again
we need vegeatbles, carobs and proteins to live right?
which of these aren't found in fast food?

Answer 1

It's ok to have it like once or twice a week

Answer 2

Fast food tends to be higher in sugar, salt, fat and calories than non-fast food. So any nutritional benefit it may have is usually negated by this.

The vitamins in fast food that you mentioned are pretty minimal. Ketchup, for instance, is high in sugar and salt so it has no real health benefit - it contains very little tomatoes.

Your point about fast food containing things we need to live like protein and carbs is correct. We do need these things. That is, if you eat fast food each day, you won't starve to death. However the question was if fast food is bad for you. While fast food contains essential components like protein it also has too much of other components like fat and sugar.

A healthy diet is about getting the right balance which fast food does not provide - it contains too much of certain things and not enough of others.

Answer 3

First of all Mayo is not a vegetable. It's fat. pickles have zero calories, and zero nutrition....it's like eating chemicals.
The veggies on burgers from fast food places are loaded with chemicals too, to preserve them.
Mustard and Ketchup are not vegetables.....veggies are fresh not mixed with a million unrecognisable ingredients and sugar.....oh the sugar.
Fried chicken is meat, you finally got something right. but it is fried in OIL, which is a form of fat. Meat is protein, that also is true. It's not even the meat in the burger that is that bad for you...it's the bun, loaded with sugar and white flour....did you know flour and water is a form of glue? think about that when you are eating white bread or buns...Also, it's the sauces like ketchup and mayo that are just loaded with empty calories.
Carbs are a kind of energy, but protein is the purist form of energy...Your body stores carbs, and burns off protein.
There are a kind of carbohydrates called complex-carbohydrates....those are the bad ones, your body can't break them down as well.
So, fast food is bad for you because it's loaded with chemicals and extra sugars and oil that tip the average fast food meal at almost your entire caloric intake for the day.

Order a salad, or chicken fingers, or go somewhere where they have healthy options.....
Read a book about nutrition.....educate yourself.

Answer 4

Everyone says that Fast Food is bad for you. I am not so quick to say that. I think there are "good" choices and "bad" choices that a person can make. Also the frequency of eating Fast Food makes a difference also.

Answer 5

I think the question ought to be, 'Is fast 'food' food.'

Burgers? Ground meat from diseased animals. You want to eat that? Why not research how KFC raises chickens. Could put you off. Most meats are loaded with hormones, dairy too. These hormones can displace human hormones necessary for normal development.

Buns? Made from flour which has nutrients removed. Sugar in them? Oh yes. Highly addictive.

Vegetables. Yes, token ones. What is the percentage of lettuce and tomato? 4 or 5 percent maybe? Precious little.

Carbs to which you refer. There is a huge difference between refined and whole. Nutrients are stripped and body will quickly turn them to fat.

French fries are considered by some to be one of a few MOST offensive and unhealthy things one can eat. Thing is here, most calories--energy provided--comes from FAT. And in the fat there may be cancer producing agents--produced when fats are heated, and nickel which some associate with hair loss. Donut producers don't use fresh oil, maybe no one does. They chemically treat it and keep on using it. You are eating those chemicals.

As for condiments I'd be concerned about two things. What sorts of chemicals are used to make them taste good--ketchup is HIGH in sugar. Mayo lots of hydrogenated fat and perservatives. Pickles--VERY high salt. And the heat used in processing all of these destroys about 90% of nutrients.

I think food is something which, when consumed, supports life and health. I think fast 'food' simply isn't.

Eat fresh raw fruits, vegetables and unprocessed grains. That's FOOD.

Brown rice--unpolished, unrefined, which is the only kind that's good-- is expensive compared to white, but try comparing the cost for quarter a cup to the cost of a burger. Half a cup of rice--cooked volume-- would have at least the food value of a burger, I think. Bought in bulk rice has a lower per-unit cost.

NOODLES? Almost certain to have the food value of your fast food buns. Please find a better advisor.

Fruits and vegetable cost are very low compared to fast 'food.'

Is fast 'food' tasty? Well, yeah!

Does that make it good for you? I think NOT!

Answer 6

Hear enough about fast food bad almost every body eats it.may be its ok to eat when nothing else is available also.may be they says because some may have tech meat in it. may be the meats or othe items are frozen in some places before cooking and serving you.if the one says its bad looks in a great shape naturally without big tackle may be its worth listening to them.I don't eat out much but won't say every fast food is bad if it is start cooking your own.

Answer 7

it's because fast food is processed a lot and the way they cook it isn't healthy. Such as using 5week oil to fry your chips or food causing your bad cholesterol to increase leading to increase chance of a heart attack or other fatal diseases occuring.

The processing removes a lot of valuble nutrients and vitamins away from the food since there is 20-21 essential amino acids that we cannot synthsise in the body we must consume them continually eating of fast food will cause malnutrition and obesity.

Answer 8

fast food is unhealthy but if your exercising you have no worries just dont eat fast food every day or limit it to what your eating, like instead of getting a double cheesburger grab a grilled chicken sandwich those are healthier than a burger and most of the time at least where i live are served on wheat bread healthy again! so you just have to know how to balance it out.

Answer 9

Fast food is bad for all of us.

Answer 10

okay, all the grease in fast food kinc of cancles all of the veggies. yeah there is protein there is also loads of grease and fat. there are good carbs and bad carbs. good carbs dont convert to sugar slower thatn the bad carbs. yeah those veggies are probably old. rice is not that expensive. its a staple food, eaten almost every day, in so many places because it is cheap and easily accessible. noodles have good carbs. i think your teacher might be wrong.
bad carbs: rice, potatoes, white bread
pasta is in salads, alfredo, spaghetti, lasagna, and so many other dishes. frech fries are FRIED in OIL. that totally destroys the potato part and then potatoes are BAD carbs. oh and those canded soups unless its a healthy choice or reduced sodium, it doesn't cout cause its loaded with salt!

ALL IN ALL FAST FOOD IS BAD!!!

add: oh and moderation means twice a week maybe

Answer 11

Yeah, I know what you mean about the big words. I hat it when the dr. does that to me, but simply put, french fries are potatoes, but they are fried in oil, which is very bad for you. it has a lot of fat in it. Hamburgers do have protein which is good for you but they do not drain the grease which is almost solid fat. Carbs are needed for energy and you get light-headed from not getting enough. You are supposed to have 300 (or about) each day. I totally encourage a lot of carbs, but remember that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. I'm 5'5" and about 124 lbs. and I eat a lot of carbs. The low-carb diet is NOT good for you. I am a rice, potato, and noodle freak. :) The veggies on hamburgers are good for you, but everything else (the grease, mayo...) are not good for you. You should just eat the veggies if you want it to be healthy. I'm sorry, but I don't know what carobs are, but I assume they are carbs, so yeah, sorry about that, but rice, noodles and potatoes do have a lot of carbs. BTW, mayonnaise is not a vegetable. In conclusion, fast food is mainly bad for you because it is fast. They deepfry things in oil because it makes cooking fast, and the oil is very high in fat. Also, cholestrol was a hard one for me to understand also, but it is basically the amount of fat in your blood. It is good to have some fat in your blood, but too much is definitely not good. I really don't know what the unit is, but cholestrol is supposed to be under 200. Fast food sends your cholestrol up in a hurry. So, fast food really is not good for you, but everything in moderation. That means that as long as you don't eat too much, it's OK.