That Health Rules

The Fast Food Craze

I flew in to Beijing yesterday to attend a convention. If you count the waiting time , the early check in and the flight times… it totals to around 12 hours. But this was made less painful because of an interesting book introduced to me by my bro-in-law Wilson (www.bizdrivenlife.net) who is a true book enthusiast ( He’s my Oprah). I was able to finish the book in time before we landed and its called: Fast Food Nation (a New York Times Bestseller).

Let me share with some interesting facts of the book relevant to what we are trying to preach… What You Eat Matters….

1.     Do you know why fries taste so good? Because there’s “beef” in it. Some fast food companies fry their fries using beef tallow and not plain vegetable oil as claimed.

2.     Do you know that due to hamburger, there was an epidemic of E coli infection caused by low food safety standards in the slaughterhouses handling the beef meat? As consumers, all we see is the beef patty nicely fried and tastes good but we don’t know from where the meat came from and how they were processed. Likewise, tainted beef with mad cow disease organism has resulted in a fatal disease in some countries. The problem with Mad Cow Disease is the incubation period is long and it may remain silent for years. Really Scary thought!

3.    Advertising of these companies are geared toward children… who will bring their parents and their grandparents to enjoy their food which are high in fat and calorie and therefore contributes much to childhood obesity! The American Academy of Pediatrics in a statement declared that: “ advertising directed at children in inherently deceptive and exploits children under the age of 8”

MY RECOMMENDATIONS?

Know Better on what you eat because “tastes good does not mean healthy”

1. Ban advertising directed at kids or again limit what your kids watch on TV
2. PREVENTION…. I am writing about this to warn parents about fast food craze which are not always the most nutritious but due to its Tasty High Fat Food Can result in food habits very difficult to break.
3. Remember… we are still at the losing end of obesity because its one difficult disease to treat. Our main thrust is…

Prevent the Onset of Obesity …

Start the Right Healthy Habit

with the Kids!

This entry was posted on August 1, 2006 at 10:05 am and is filed under The Truths on Obesity.