Design your diet
14. Fast Food - What's in it for me?
Are you a fast-food eater?
Is fast-food part of your downfall?
Have you ever wondered why that is?
Is it just the way you were brought up?
Is it something to do with the tastiness of the food?
Is it something to do with ‘expectations’;
‘it’s what everybody does, don’t they?’
Is it the convenience of getting the stuff delivered
with just a click on your phone app?
I’ve wondered about these questions myself.
Why is it that hamburgers and beefburgers
are so easy to advertise and sell,
when carrots and cauliflowers aren’t?
I am guessing that going onto a veggie diet
was not one of your New Year resolutions?
Traditionally, fast food has not included many vegetables.
In the fast-food adverts when they show you a burger in a bun, they make it look more attractive by having some green leaves poking out of the bun. A similar idea is to add a brightly coloured slice of ‘cheese’ to the mix. If the green leaves and yellow cheese weren’t there, the picture would look too dull. The more colourful, bright layers, the more attractive the burger’s appearance can become.
One of the problems with ordinary vegetables, lettuce, celery, is that commercially, they can’t be ‘branded’ with special names, but see Section 15. The Italian Job (Salad). All the fast-food products can have attractive individual names that their followers come to know – ‘Lip-smacking, Giant Double-Monster’. A burger in a bun can be made to look like a meal if some ‘fries’ are added with a fizzy drink and by giving the ‘bun-dle’ a catchy name. I understand that the majority of the profit is in the 'fries' and the drink which have a big mark-up with fast food.
Fast food is alright, nothing wrong with it,
BUT, it is high in energy.
It is the Frequency of eating fast food
that YOU should think about
and Quantity
if you are overweight.
What’s in it?
It is not just (beef or ham) burgers. Today, chicken is much cheaper than the beef, or ham, or the fish that we used to eat in our fast-food fish and chips. If chicken can be deep-fried in 'batter' and sold for a similar price to the fish or beef, it can deliver a much higher profit.
There's nothing wrong with profit.
Profit is what it must be about, to sustain the business.
Who pay for the profit?
Delivery
Choosing to eat the product of fast-food outlets is probably hugely driven by what the food looks like in the adverts, plus the ease and speed of getting it delivered. It is easy to fall into the habit of eating it every day and this is NOT the fault of the companies concerned. It is up to the consumer to choose.
Could that consumer be you?
Is it just your laziness?
How could YOU control the fast-food habit?
How can you cut down?
It’s a tough one for fast-foodies.
To try to help you, we can look at the basic ingredients and maybe I could appeal to your purse or wallet to encourage you to gain some control?
Too much of a good thing?
The basic knowledge is that meat (protein) is rich in energy. Cheese (fat) is rich in energy. Bread buns (carbohydrate) are rich in energy. Many Fizzy drinks (sugar) are rich in energy. Chips and sauces are rich in energy. Then there are all the additional sweet cakes, buns and treats (sugar) that come as ‘Deserts’ or ‘Treats’ from fast-food sellers.
What will your body do with all that energy?
You know the answer.
That’s why you are fat.
You need help.
If you are at home, you CAN control fast food.
First, forget the fast-food Delivery App.
Be SMART !
You need to plan this and it is easy.
A strategy?
This might look complicated -
but stay with it.
ALL of those individual ingredients we’ve just mentioned need to be controlled by anybody concerned about their weight and health and it CAN be done. Financially, the components are Not cheap if you buy them together as a fast-food meal. You can get the ingredients for much less money, if the time to get them and prepare them, is taken out of the equation. You can check this online with your favourite supermarket.
Compare this Total single-meal price that includes the drink and fries, with a Medium price, Quarter pounder with cheese (Extra Value) 'bundle with drink and fries) from your favourite fast-food seller, where the total price will be in the region of £6.50 for this meal. Prices vary from outlet to outlet. Prices from fast-delivery companies can be much higher. You are paying hugely for the ‘convenience’, but delivery speed will depend on your distance from the supplier.
D.I.Y.
This is NOT a difficult meal to assemble at home if you will cook.
This is why it is important for you to have tried to cook.
Preparing a similar meal at home would take about 20-25 minutes (because of oven chips).
It might be quicker than ordering on line, depending on distance etc.
If you bought the ingredient packs from the Supermarket
you would have more than enough to make the meal at least four times.
Paying for a single supermarket ingredients-delivery is much cheaper than 4 fast-food deliveries.
Why bother?
The separate ingredients and quantities can be controlled by you. You might even be getting higher quality. You can reduce or change quantities if you want to, so by tinkering with the items you could get 5 meals instead of 4, meaning a big reduction in sugar and fat, which is the most important thing.
You would have a large financial saving
5 meals x £ 6.50 (plus delivery) = (at least) Total £32.50
OR
5 meals x £1.88 = Total £9.40)
It’s your choice, but you need to plan it.
If you order on-line the Supermarket will deliver it.
Quotes from TV programme
Secrets of Fast Food Giants – Alexis Conran
A ‘Royal’ Burger company sells 2.1 billion
burgers annually worldwide
690 million burgers eaten in UK in a year
One every 22 seconds.
How many have you eaten?
How to cook
Chips in oven - heat frying pan
Good quality burger - Very hot - 200°
4mins each side. Rest for 2 mins.
‘Flame grill’ with a kitchen blowtorch
Assemble
tomato slice, lettuce leaf, cheese, mayo.
How hard is that?
It CAN be QUICKER than on-line delivery.
It WILL be much cheaper
Walking. On my walks I am getting to know the names of the dogs. I just ask: ‘What is the name of your dog?’ and their owners are really happy to tell me, because their dog is part of their family. I had a friend who had a ‘Westie’. Little white dog with an appealing face. He was called, ‘Nimbus’ (A cloud) which I thought was a great name. Next time, I greet the dog.
The owners are keen to talk about their dogs.