| When you have no time to cook your own food, | | | | lengthy meal. It makes more sense to buy some |
| what do you do? The answer is obvious, of | | | | take-out or bring the family out for a meal. |
| course. You go out to your local fast food | | | | |
| outlet (in deference to your kids' | | | | People are aware that they need to eat |
| preferences), you go out to the food strip at | | | | healthy food. However, what do you do if you |
| the mall, or you order take out. It is | | | | are misled into thinking that restaurant fare |
| convenient and you can eat your fill at these | | | | and fast food taste better than home-cooked |
| joints. What's not so obvious, however, is | | | | food? Sadly, there's also an underlying |
| what such a practice is doing to you and your | | | | effort to make people think that food in |
| children's health. | | | | restaurant and fast foods are all healthy, |
| | | | that there's really not much difference when |
| Healthy eating habits are crucial to | | | | you eat in or out. It's all the same, but |
| achieving a healthy mind and body. Healthy | | | | eating out is more convenient. |
| eating habits refer to eating meals | | | | |
| regularly, eating well-balanced meals, and | | | | As people continue to be bombarded with mass |
| eating only what's necessary. Healthy eating | | | | media advertisements advocating the value of |
| habits do not involve eating burgers and | | | | fast food and eating out, and as people |
| fries for lunch. | | | | become even more busy trying to hold on to |
| | | | their jobs, more and more people stop cooking |
| The Fast Food Culture | | | | and begin taking these commercials to heart. |
| | | | People have deserted home-cooked and |
| Unfortunately, some people do think that it | | | | nutritious meals that need hours of |
| is healthy to have burgers and fries for | | | | preparation for big servings of calorie- and |
| lunch. Advertising spiels have a lot to | | | | fat-rich food that gets served up within |
| answer for this. In a world filled with fast | | | | minutes. |
| food and restaurants, it is but natural that | | | | |
| the companies serving up this food have to | | | | The Diseased Nation |
| undermine people's preference for home-cooked | | | | |
| meals or they will become redundant and not | | | | The success of the fast food industry in |
| make any profit. | | | | establishing a culture that thrives in fast |
| | | | food and meals eaten out, our people's health |
| As such, big food corporations put millions | | | | has been placed on the balance. Thus, America |
| of dollars into TV commercials that assert in | | | | is now an ailing nation. Incidence of heart |
| not so many words that a meal eaten at a fast | | | | disease, diabetes and high blood pressure |
| food is special while eating at home with | | | | continues to rise as obesity becomes even |
| your family the meal your mother cooked is | | | | more prevalent. |
| nothing but ordinary. | | | | |
| | | | I am not saying that fast food is to be |
| Such a reversal of values was helped along by | | | | avoided at all costs. What I am saying is |
| the faster pace of life, where people have no | | | | that a trip to the fast food should be made |
| more time to devote to preparing home-cooked | | | | only very infrequently, not three times a |
| meals. People are always driving or commuting | | | | week as most people now are wont to do. A |
| to work, attending business meetings, or | | | | change should be instituted to bring back the |
| maybe holding one or two jobs. You cannot | | | | days when there's no doubt about what healthy |
| expect someone who has already been working | | | | food is and where to find it. This is all I |
| 12 hours straight to come home and prepare a | | | | ask. |