The boy recently brought up a good topic of discussion that he gathered from his morning talk show. In the midst of Lent, one of the hosts was talking about her children giving up fast food. However, they came to a stand-still at putting a definition on fast-food. After a big conversation, they decided that fast-food is anything that has a drive-thru. Sayonara McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, Hardees and even some Panera's. For this purpose, I feel as though that is a pretty good description of fast-food and an easy way to target the majority of it. However, let's look at the true definition of fast-food.
Fast-food, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "of, relating to, or specializing in food that can be prepared and served quickly; designed for ready availability, use, or consumption with little consideration given to quality or significance"[ Side Note-Wow! That last part really hit me. Not only is fast food readily available, but this food is defined as low in quality].
The Google definition even goes a step further to include all "food that can be prepared quickly and easily and is sold in restaurants and snack bars as a quick meal or to be taken out". If we look at that description it includes many many more foods and fast-food is hard to escape in our society. This means that any processed food (crackers, cookies, chips), any pre-made carry out food and any vending machine or snack bar food is fast-food. I would say that a good majority of us are consuming this definition of fast-food on a regular basis.
Now, this doesn't mean that all fast-food is terrible for us. There are absolutely better options when it comes to fast-food and there are certain situations where we have less of a choice to avoid it. However, I think that we have to start looking further into our daily intake and realizing that many of us can fall into a rut that relies heavily on fast food. And that this type of food, by definition, is lower quality than others that we could be providing our body. What changes can we make and are we willing to make to give our body the fuel that it needs?
Food for thought on this Friday!
Fast-food, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "of, relating to, or specializing in food that can be prepared and served quickly; designed for ready availability, use, or consumption with little consideration given to quality or significance"[ Side Note-Wow! That last part really hit me. Not only is fast food readily available, but this food is defined as low in quality].
The Google definition even goes a step further to include all "food that can be prepared quickly and easily and is sold in restaurants and snack bars as a quick meal or to be taken out". If we look at that description it includes many many more foods and fast-food is hard to escape in our society. This means that any processed food (crackers, cookies, chips), any pre-made carry out food and any vending machine or snack bar food is fast-food. I would say that a good majority of us are consuming this definition of fast-food on a regular basis.
Now, this doesn't mean that all fast-food is terrible for us. There are absolutely better options when it comes to fast-food and there are certain situations where we have less of a choice to avoid it. However, I think that we have to start looking further into our daily intake and realizing that many of us can fall into a rut that relies heavily on fast food. And that this type of food, by definition, is lower quality than others that we could be providing our body. What changes can we make and are we willing to make to give our body the fuel that it needs?
Food for thought on this Friday!