Healthy fast food – Truth or Myth?

About every article, blog and magazine on healthy living and eating will tell you to that fast food is absolutely rubbish and will do you no good. Then there are others that say otherwise. Who do you listen to, why is there such confusion with Healthy fast food?

The conflict of psychology

Fast food and psychology don’t seem to be in harmony with each other, but quite surprisingly there is a connection between the two. The reason you see so many Fast food restaurants around because of buyer’s psychology. Fast food is popular because it is fast. People don’t want to wait up when they are hungry and hence fast food, and let’s make no bones about the fact that it takes time to make healthy food!

This is where all the trouble starts, on one hand we want food that comes fast to us, simultaneously we expect it to be healthy. It is not entirely impossible to reconcile with our needs and still eat healthy, but it will take efforts from all stakeholders – manufacturers and consumers primarily.

What the food industry is up to? 

Having said that, the need for instant gratification should not affect us the wrong way; thankfully there are fast food restaurants that are doing everything within their powers to improve the quality of food. New age foods have more micronutrients that are known to benefit consumers. There is also a very conscious effort from every conscious fast food restaurant to cut down on the amount on fats and lipids in fast food. But in order to see a complete change in the ingredients of fast food, we might have to wait an awfully long time. The challenge is in using those ‘high in micronutrient’ ingredients without bumping up costs.

What is the interpretation of ‘health’ in fast food?

What may be healthy for me may not be healthy for you. We are all entitled to our own interpretation of healthy ingredients in fast food. Fat and lard is not exactly unhealthy but consuming it in large amounts has no known good effect on our health. There are ingredients that are known to have definite health benefits but are presumed to be tasteless! Deep fried items and sweetened beverages are hardly considered healthy but the repercussion of consuming cold drinks or finger fries is not as fatal as smoking tobacco.

How to eat healthy at a Fast food restaurant? 

You could exercise self-restraint and stay away from fast food all together if you are assiduous about eating healthy, but expecting fast food to change overnight is impractical. The demand for fast food will never wane off and chances of substituting it with something superbly healthy is very slim. We suggest you take the middle path. Know your constitution; understand how your body reacts to ingredients in your fast food and eat accordingly. Also, always choose a fast food restaurant that is known to serve healthy food.