A quick trip through the drive-through or running into one of your nearby fast-food restaurants happens more often than we would like to admit. Fast food is cheap, convenient, and is advertised to us as kids in hopes that it would stick with us throughout our whole life. Sadly, that trick has worked on me and many others in the world. I used to go to Mcdonald’s and Dairy Queen when I was a kid with my Grandma. And I still do that with them to this day. It’s become a tradition but not a healthy one.  Although it is called fast food, it really isn’t food if you think about it. The definition of “food” states “any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth.” That in turn implies that non-nutritious substances that cause cancer, tooth decay, and make you obese might not qualify.

Although Mcdonald's is the first fast food restaurant that comes to most citizens minds, it was not the first ever fast food restaurant. It was actually a restaurant called White Castle which was established in 1921. There were two creators that went by the name of Edgar Waldo Ingram and Walter Anderson. Walter had experience with his own hamburger business but with only $700 dollars to make their restaurant they were fighting a tough battle. At that time people did not really enjoy hamburgers nor did they think it was healthy. To change their minds they made the outside look spotless with steel exterior and brought stainless steel to the interior. They also transferred the spotless look over to the employees, who had to be well groomed in stain-free tuxes. To also lure customers in they had the grinding of the beef in full view so the consumers knew what went into their patties. It eventually worked. About two years later, White Castle started to branch out and the first two states it went to were Kansas and Nebraska. There they sold 5-cent small burgers which became the first fast food hamburger ever. By the 1990’s the company had their restaurant in major cities and states some of them being New York and New Jersey. White Castle continued to grow in the 1930’s but Edgar and Walter were not satisfied yet. To show even more that their burgers are not dangerous they started a study that tracked the health of a college student eating their products. According to a study done by the University Of Minnesota found that a student, who ate nothing but their burgers and water for about 2 months, was in “tip-top” shape. Back in the day they knew how to make good burgers without too many calories.

Now, according to a study done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16-20 year olds alone spend 44 percent of their money on eating out. Also the average American family spends 50 percent of their money on restaurant food. In 1977,  under 39 percent of families money was spent eating out. Turing eating out into a habit, like the fast-food industry wants you to, can have a bad effect on your health including digestive issues, you can get fat, you have too much sodium in your system, and it can also affect the respiratory and integumentary system. When consuming fast food you get unneeded calories which cause you to gain weight. Eating like this may lead to obesity. Obesity grows your chances for respiratory issues such as asthma. The extra weight can add pressure on your heart leading symptoms to show up with little to none exertion. You may start to notice heavier panting when exercising or even walking. The risk of developing respiratory problems is much more noticeable in children. Studies show that children who eat fast food weekly increase their risk of getting asthma. Next is the integumentary system and the fast food you are eating may be affecting your skin. In the past, chocolate and foods like pizza with loads of grease have been blamed for breakouts on the skin. But according to a study done by Mayo Clinic on October 31st, 2017, “... carbohydrate-rich foods — such as bread, bagels, and chips — may worsen acne.” Those certain types of foods lead to jumps of blood sugar and those jumps can cause acne as well.
One problem you could have is in the digestive and cardiovascular system. Most, almost all, fast food drinks and foods are overflowed with carbohydrates but lacking the fiber. When the digestive system starts to break down the foods you have just eaten those carbs are unleashed as sugar into your bloodstream. In return, your blood sugar spikes up high. Your pancreas reacts to the spike in sugar by providing insulin. Insulin moves the sugar through your body to the cells that desperately need it for energy. Then as your body uses and stores the extra sugar, your blood sugar returns back to normal. This process occurs every time you eat fast food. If you constantly do this you can end up with insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and weight gain. Speaking of weight gain, most fast-foods have added sugar which means extra calories and little nutrition. According to The American Heart Association, they say to only eat 100 to 150 calories or 6 to 9 teaspoons of added sugar per day. In fast food drinks alone they have over 12 ounces of added sugar. The mixture of sugar, fat, and loads of sodium(salt) makes fast food taste so much better to some people. But those diets in high sodium consumption can lead to water retention, which can cause bloating after you eat fast food.

The debate that fast food does more damage than tobacco is more defendable than it may seem. According to the National Library of Medicine in 1993 the mixture of not enough people involved in physical activity and eating poorly was riding tabacos tail on the list of most common causes of premature death and chronic disease. Then a decade later the gap shortened, this is just one of the reasons why warning labels are needed. Warning labels can help decrease the risk of obesity and many other things that are listed above. They can tell you what is actually going into your body when you eat Mcdonalds, Taco Bell, or any type of fast food restaurant you can think of. Cigarettes have a warning label and if parents find out that the food that they feed their children and themselves have that same warning label, they will hopefully never go back.

White Castle knew what they were doing back in the day. Making sure that the burgers were healthy while also tasting good. They showed what went into their meats when most restaurants are shy about producing that. If we put the “if you want to die slowly but surely, don't buy this!” type of label on the food that will not do the job. Because food is not like drugs or alcohol, it's supposed to be healthy and good for our bodies. We want it to be good for ourselves, not stab us in the back. We can’t do drugs and avoid them at the same time, but we can do that with healthy food and fast food. Now if you make a quick trip through the drive-through or just run into the restaurant to grab something quick just remember what is in your “food” before you eat it.