As we all know, fast food has become a multi-national obsession in the last few decades. If we were to speculate upon the reasons for this, we may choose to consider things like the increasing pace of everyday life, technological revelations - such as television and personal computers - which demand and take up so much of our precious time and even the saturation advertising campaigns of the bigger chains which make their products appear so appealing and so appetising. It is a list which I am sure could very easily grow to quite a considerable length, but what we must not lose sight of is the bigger picture of what regular and sustained consumption of these foodstuffs can do to our bodies, both in the short and in the long term.

In the UK, although all the big American fast food chains are very well represented, our national favourite fast food very much remains the traditional fish and chips. This incorporates fillets of white fish deep fried in batter and served with "chipped" potatoes. It is traditionally animal fat that is used in the frying process as opposed to any type of vegetable product and the amount of salt sprinkled liberally over your soon to be wrapped purchase can be mind-blowing! I must say in defence of fish and chips, that if cooked well, it can be a delicious eating experience, but I have on many occasions sampled offerings where the fish actually appears to be still swimming - only this time in grease! - and the chips are so soggy that they buckle over and break when you attempt to lift them to your mouth. The very state of our hands when we are finished consuming such a "delicacy" can be annoying, as they can be literally covered in grease and require immediate washing...but how many of us can truthfully say we stop to think about the amount of that same grease we have just ingested in to our bodies?

A few years back, there was much press coverage here regarding the latest fast food offering from the chip shops: deep fried Mars Bars! The bars are dipped in batter as the fish would be and then deep fried. I cannot in all honesty claim to have tasted what I personally consider to be a most unappealing concoction but I believe they were reasonably popular and to the best of my knowledge are still available in some outlets to this day.

I think, to sum up, that what each of us has to bear in mind is that while it is probably acceptable to consume these products on an occasional basis - be it as a special treat for your children, a purchase at a sports stadium, or whatever - it is very bad news for our bodies and our futures if we are, or are tending towards becoming, what I believe is colloquially known as a "fast food junkie."

Remember, the next time you wash the vestiges of fast food grease from your hands...spare a thought for where the rest of it went!

Learn more about this author, Gordon Hamilton.
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