Is Fast Food Healthy?

 What do you think ? Do you think fast food is healthy or unhealthy ? Possibly reading       this article about how fast food like McDonalds, Tacobell, and Burger King can be healthy, you might change your opinion on whether or not fast food is healthy.

       You were probably told that fast food is unhealthy by your parents, friends, or teacher, but that isn’t always the case. There are plenty of healthy fast food options like salads, grilled chicken, and all vegetable options. Some items in fast food like vegetables can actually benefit your health. Fast food is healthy depending on what you order to eat.

 

       Fast food has a wide range of choices with fruits and vegetables that you might not even know about. This can maintain healthy blood pressure and has no cholesterol. Many fast food chains have mostly or all vegetables meal options. For example, Burger king has a veggie burger with all vegetables and no meat. In addition, Mcdonalds gives the option of apple slices in their Happy Meals, and Salad Works has tons of fruits and vegetables like lettuce, olives, spinach, to create your own salad. This allows customers to control what they’re eating on their salad.

 

        On the other hand some people may argue that most fast food has fat, sugar, sodium, and chemicals. However, there are so many options that have a minimum of those ingredients. You can order a fruit parfait at McDonalds that only has 2gm of fat, 5mg of cholesterol, 22gm of sugar, and only 75 mg of sodium (salt), compared to a McDonalds Small Chocolate McCafé Shake that has 15gm of fat, 60mg of cholesterol, 75 gm of sugar and 260 mg of sodium (salt).

 

       In addition to healthy fast food, many restaurants are making changes to their menu to make it healthier. Some of the changes are adding fresher ingredients, adding options with little or no trans fat, and making kids meals healthier by adding options of fruit. For example, McDonalds is adding more options of fruit and milk in their Happy Meals. Instead of soda and fries, you have the option of replacing it with low fat milk, and a pack of apple slices or a Go Gurt.

 

     Some may argue that not all restaurants have those options. But the more popular ones like Burger King, Chipola, and McDonald’s have these healthy meal options. So even though their whole menu might not be healthy, there are still those healthy food options that you can choose like salad or low fat white milk.

 

     Fast food has a variety of healthy options.  Based on recent student research, McDonald’s has 9 healthy options, Burger King has 11 healthy options, and Taco Bell has 10 healthy options on their menu. Some of options are the 2 Power Menu veggie bowls from Taco Bell and Garden Grilled Chicken from Burger King. Salad with Grilled Chicken which contains 340 calories, 15 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 100 milligrams of cholesterol, and 770 milligrams of sodium. Compared to a Big Mac from McDonalds, a Big Mac has 563 calories and a salad with Grilled Chicken from Burger King only contains 340 calories. In conclusion, the  salad with grilled chicken is a more healthier option. So If you want to eat healthy, you can pick any of those healthy fast food options.

 

       Some consumers may argue that unhealthy fast food stills outweighs healthy fast food options, but there are still plenty of healthy fast food options that you can choose. The 2 Power Menu Veggie Bowls from Taco bell, salads from Subway, fruit parfait from McDonalds, and low fat milk from kid meals are all healthy meal or snack options consumers can buy. All of these are low in calories, sugar, and salt (sodium).

 

      Therefore, fast food is healthy depending on the meal choices you make. There are many fruit and vegetable options that you can choose from that increment your health. With many options with low fat, sodium, sugar, and cholesterol, fast food can be healthy.

 

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Works Cited

Editors, Shape.com. “Nutritionists List the Healthiest Things You Can Order at McDonald’s.” Shape Magazine, Shape Magazine, 22 Feb. 2018, www.shape.com/healthy-eating/meal-ideas/healthiest-orders-mcdonalds-menu.

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