Eating High Fat Foods example essay topic

Dear Juri, As you know, your father, your brother, and I are going to visit your grandparents in Estonia for five weeks. I am writing this letter to you because you " ll be staying at home alone while we are away. Of course, you are 17 years old, and you are quite adult already. I don't worry about payments of bills on time and your ability to wake up in the mornings at 5: 00 a.m. However, there is one problem that I am very worried about. I know you don't like to cook.

So, you probably will eat in fast-food restaurants like you did last time when you lived alone for five months. I hope this time I can convince you to prepare food for yourself at home, because home-made food is much better for you. In our busy days, many people don't have time to prepare food at home. They often hurry to work, to school, to shop, or somewhere else, and instead of eating at home, they buy burgers, sandwiches, and French-fries in fast-food restaurants. Of course, I realize that fast-food is very convenient.

This kind of food can be eaten quite quickly. If you don't have time to spend in a restaurant, you can eat this food in your car while driving, or you can watch a soccer game with friends while chewing on a sandwich. In addition, you don't have to spend a lot of time preparing food. You also don't have to waste electricity or gas for cooking. Moreover, you don't need to wash dishes after eating. Nice workers in those restaurants are always ready to serve whatever you desire.

I know too that fast food tastes very good. Furthermore, this kind of food usually is inexpensive. I know all your points of view regarding your status as a busy man, but I still consider I have stronger arguments that the best solution for you is cooking at home. First, do you really like to eat sitting in the car or even in a fast-food restaurant?

Assume you have bought your hamburger and coca-cola and you are rushing somewhere. You are sitting in your car and eating this food. Meanwhile, you should keep your hands on the steering wheel and keep your attention on the road. With your right hand, you bring this hamburger into your mouth, bite it, and chew it.

Step by step, your hamburger is eaten leaving you with some crumbs on your jeans. Did this hamburger taste good to you? I don't think so, because your attention was concentrated on the traffic, not on the food. By the same token, it isn't safe to drive and eat at the same time. So perhaps you have decided to waste fifteen minutes and stay in the restaurant, does the environment of this restaurant please you? Would you prefer plastic rectangular tables, crowds all around you, and crying children instead of being in your mother's beautiful dinning room with nice curtains at the windows and flowers on a lovely round table as you listen to your favorite music?

Probably, you would remember Mother's tasty borsch and your appetite will increase. You may say you don't care about the place where you eat and it's more important to you to eat tasty and save time and money. Recently, I read a book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Let me give you the author's words: "During two years I spent researching this book, I ate an enormous amount of fast food.

Most of it tasted pretty good. That is one of the main reasons people buy fast food; it has been carefully designed to taste good. It's also inexpensive and convenient. But the value meals, two-for-one deals, and free refills of soda give a distorted sense of how much fast food actually costs. The real price never appears on the menu" (Schlosser 9).

Furthermore, what do you say if I tell you that at home you can prepare food that takes the same time that you waste going to the restaurant and waiting in lines? Besides, this food really will cost less than fast food. The cost of a hamburger or a bunch of French-fries is approximately 4-5 dollars. To quench your thirst after eating, you need to buy some drinks such as coffee, tea, or soda. You have to eat at least three times per day.

Let's suppose you will eat every meal in a restaurant and spend a minimum of $5. While we " re away, you are going to spend $525 to eat. Now, let me leave for you several recipes of quick foods that will cost for you at least half as much and preparing them won't take any longer than you spend driving to a restaurant. Plus, I know you hate to wash dishes after eating. In this case you can buy paper plates. You need 105 ea for 35 days.

In BJ's it will be cost 11$. As you can see, you still save a lot of money, which you could spend on whatever you want! You may ask why you need to learn how to cook if so many restaurants along America's roadways? However, can you imagine all the benefits from preparing food by yourself? By learning some easy recipes from the book, which I'll leave for you, step by step you are going to get some excellent experience. You " ll understand that the food prepared by your own hands tastes much better and it can be prepared according to your own tastes.

Finally, I want to ask you, "Do you like to lose your handsome appearance?" Do you want to be super-sized like many Americans? Do you know that American's community blames the huge quantity of fast-food restaurants and the barrage of burger advertising on television in real cause in increasing of overweight people? I hope you don't believe advertising. According to one source, "The fast-food companies' ad writers, food technologist and consumer psychologist devote their careers to developing ways to persuade you to buy their products" (Jacobson, Ph. D. 42). The one reason why fast food is so unhealthy is the high level of calories, which are loaded with fat and sodium. I have been looking on the periodic about the content of calories in fast food.

Here is what I found out: U.S. Department of Agriculture figures show that Americans eat an average of 148 more calories each day than they did 20 years ago. While that doesn't seem like very much, it adds up to an extra 15 pounds per year. The Big Mac meal contains 63 grams of fat and 1,700 mg sodium. Compare that to the recommended limit of 73 grams of fat and 2400 mg sodium per day and you can see why it's hard to fit these meals into a balanced diet. McDonald's isn't the only restaurant that has high-fat food.

A Burger King Whopper contains 680 calories and 39 fat grams. Wendy's Big Bacon Classic has 580 calories and 31 fat grams, and Hardee's All-Star bacon Burger has 660 calories and 43 fat grams. Chicken sandwiches are slightly lower in fat, but not in calories. A bread chicken sandwich at KFC contains 450 calories and 22 fat grams. Burger King's breaded chicken sandwich has 660 calories and 39 fat grams, and McDonald's Crispy Chicken sandwich provides 550 calories and 27 fat grams...

These foods are quick, easy, and tasty and have become a way of life. Yet including in fast foods as making Americans fat. Obesity, a risk factor for diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and several types of cancer, has doublet since 1980. One study suggest that eating high-fat foods could even lead to osteoporosis, a disease in which bones become thin and break easily (Murphy 4). The other reason why fast food is unhealthy is huge portions. As I read recently, "They " re out of control.

Portions served in restaurants today start at 'large' and from there they go to 'extra large' and 'jumbo'. People are pushed to order and eat more with convincing words, such as 'It's good deal,' 'super-size,' 'combo meals,' 'and all-you can-eat buffets. ' (Translation: You get to overeat and save money.) " (Warshaw 3). The third reason why I don't recommend you to eat fast food is how it is prepared. Competition leads fast-food restaurants to design their food to taste good. According to Schlosser, "The taste of a fast food fry is largely determined by the cooking oil.

For decades, McDonald's cooked its French fries in a mixture of about 7 percent soy oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mix gave the fries their unique flavor - and more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald's hamburger" (120). Murphy reports, "Fish is supposed to be healthy, right? Not when it's deep-fried. Among Burger King, McDonald's, and Hardee's, McDonald's has the "healthiest" fish sandwich, with 470 calories and 26 fat grams. Burger King's fish sandwich was the least healthy at a whopping 710 calories and 38 fat grams" (4).

If you will cook at home, your food will by tasty and healthy because it will be fresh and not "designed to taste good" (Schlosser 9) with unhealthy ingredients for reason to attract a big amount of customers. I hope, my dear son, I have given you enough reasons to stop eating fast food or, at least, eating out will be the exception in your life while cooking at home will be the rule. I look forward to talk to you and see if my arguments were strong enough to make you change your mind.

Bibliography

1. Jacobson, Michael, Ph. D. ; Fritsch ner, Sarah. The Fast-Food Guide. Workman Publishing, New York, 1986 2.
Murphy, Dee. Are super-size meals good deals? (nutrition). (Statistical Data Included). Current Health 2, a Weekly Reader publication, Dec 2001 3.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston New York, 2001 4.
Warshaw, Hope S. Nutrition tips: on estimating portion sizes. Diabetes Forecast, May 2002.