(A) The caloric requirement in a day is set by our own standards of eating

(B) The caloric requirement in a day is set by nutritionists who have specified amounts to be taken in a day

(C) The caloric requirement in a day is set by the fast food restaurants providing upsize meals

Which one makes more sense? Our eating habits have changed a lot with the evolution of variety of food chains booming nowadays. With so much to choose from, fast foods chains are the favorites. Not only good in taste but they are quick to order and deliver and are easy to eat anywhere. The trends in eating are changing at a faster rate that on one side is boosting profits for fast food chains and on the other are boosting health problems in people.

With over 300,000 fast food establishments only in the US, eating frequent fast food meals is developing among the teens and adults. Research also shows that these chains are feed 25% of the US population daily that is around 77 million. Where they are feeding half the nation they are generating billions and zillions in sales.

Out of the daily nutrition requirement, research also shows that some meals are closer in range to the Calorie, Fat and Sugar percentages of daily intakes and some meals are crossing the ranges by about 20-30%, these mostly include the upsize meals. Most of these meals are eaten temptingly by the youngsters which leads them to obesity. And by the time the youngsters are developing their systems many start experiencing health issues because of the huge amount of fast food intakes since childhood. These majorly result in stomach problems and many in worst illnesses like diabetes.

By this time many of us are aware that once you’ve developed diabetes, you are not going to get rid of it you can only control it. Diabetes start affecting every part of human body once it is in the body and out of control. One failed organ leading to another and in the end the whole system is ruined. So what to do?

An important point to consider is, are the fast food chains responsible for our health or we ourselves are. These are merely service providing companies selling meals based on people’s choice. Making them available in small, medium, upsize and combo are to fill out the hunger needs of people. For many upsize and combo is a beautiful idea but if you consider it this way, when you order an upsize or a combo meal only the fries and the drink is more in size and not the sandwich or the burger. What you are doing is allowing more sugars and fat intake in your body. This is damaging nobody but your own body. Surely it is filling our hunger requirement; the more obese we are the hungrier we will feel.

Our Prophet SAW asked us to take meals leaving some hunger for the next meal. This is an ideal way of taking meals no matter what you eat. If we eat in the right quantity, these fast food meals will not really be affecting us as they are to the world. So the choice is ours either we follow ways that can help us lead a healthy life or we can let these fast food chains tell us how should we eat so that they can help us lead an unhealthy life.

Eating healthy does not mean eating only food that has some amount of some energy more than others. Every food is healthy if it is taken in the right quantity. That is the only thing people need to control to control health. We really don’t need some fancy fast food chain setting our standards of nutrition, we need to do it the right way.

Sadaf Siddique
Sadaf Siddique holds a degree in Computers and a Masters in Business Administration. She is the mother of a 2-year-old boy, a part-time writer and a full-time homemaker.