Fast food; Why not?
Most people find it easy to talk about the convenience and positive side of fast food and take away. We tend to say that it is fast, easy, and delicious. But of course, the downside of it all is that it is unhealthy, it can affect your mood negatively and it is more expensive than cooking yourself. I talked about it with a native English speaker and sporadic fast food consumer from the UK, Jed Simister.
You get home late from work or school, you have no cooking talent whatsoever, and there's a fast food restaurant right by your house. Fast food for dinner sounds like a convenient, harmless option, right? Lately, a lot of people are thinking this way. This is mainly due to the fact that nowadays you can find a take away on every corner of the city, especially in the UK. Cooking has almost become a hobby instead of a daily chore.
Obviously, fast food is not only popular in the UK. Worldwide there are around 534.000 take away or fast food restaurants, of which around 46.248 are situated in the UK. To Compare, in Belgium you can find only 900 of them. McDonald's and Subway are most dominant in the world today. In Manchester, Five Guys is the most liked for their burgers and fries. According to Jed, take away is becoming more and more of a culture amongst students in Manchester. They often tend to turn to fast food after a night out, which didn't surprise me. Coming home after a night of clubbing, hanging out with friends, or after an evening studying at the library and then you still have to provide supper. Not many people feel like cooking then.
Fast food can have some negative effects on your mood. There are studies that tell us that people who are eating take away or fast food on a regular basis, tend to have a higher chance of depression even. Jed mentioned that physical and mental health are certainly linked. When you eat too much unhealthy food your physical health is obviously declining, and therefore you aren't going to feel well mentally either.
On top of this negative impact on mental health, fast food isn't that good for your wallet either. In spite of the fact that it is indeed cheaper compared to the food you order at a restaurant, it is actually still pretty expensive. As a family of five it is way cheaper to get fresh vegetables and some meat or fish from the supermarket to create a homecooked meal. Having a mother that cooks for you almost every day is therefore such a blessing. Jed also lives with four other roommates, and they simply cannot afford to get McDonald's every day, which is why he cooks most of the time.
Fast food is not for nothing a billion dollar, and still growing, industry. These companies are very good at seducing you to eat at their restaurants. Some of them are not unhealthy at all, but others really are. My advice is to keep the negative consequences in your mind though, to make sure you stay healthy both physically and mentally. After all, you don't want the cause of your bad health to be your laziness.