Fast food: pros and cons for athletes

Pros and Cons for athletes:

What speaks for it, what speaks against it ?!

They laugh at us on every street corner, every motorway service station and every train station: fast food chains and express restaurants. For a few euros you can get your burgers, pizzas and fries in no time. Every child knows that fast food is anything but healthy.

But do you also know why other athletes should keep their hands off the “food to go”? Or that there are also positive aspects ?! Here you will find the biggest fast food advantages and disadvantages at a glance! You can Read More about Fast Food Prices In UK. fastfoodmenuprice.co.uk

Benefits of fast food

Let's start with the - admittedly - few advantages that fast food athletes have:

Time factor: Fast food means fast food - and that's exactly what it is: You only have to wait a few minutes and you will receive your order. Fast food also fits into any lunch break, no matter how short.

Rapid availability of nutrients: The nutrients in burgers and the like are available to the body very quickly - of course, this also applies to the protein they contain, which is particularly important for athletes.

Taste: Opinions are divided here, but for the most part it’s true: Fast food simply tastes good.

Cons of fast food

You already guessed it, of course, but the disadvantages of fast food clearly outweigh the following:

High calorie: Fast food makes you fat, that's simply a fact. A menu consisting of a cheeseburger and a portion of French fries with mayo, plus a cola ... On average, people consume 1,000 - 1,200 calories per meal in fast food restaurants! In the case of less active people or children, this is easily half of the daily calorie requirement!

Short satiety: Although burgers and co. Have tons of calories, you get hungry again shortly after eating them. 

Why?! Quite simply, fast food contains almost no fiber, and the appetite is stimulated by the many artificial additives and amounts of salt. Good for the manufacturer, really bad for your gains.

Questionable food quality: Of course, the operators of well-known fast food chains want to make as much profit as possible. If you pay a euro for a burger - do you seriously expect it to be the best quality meat and handpicked gherkins ?! Seriously, folks: the food quality is more than questionable. 

And I don't want to go into any further details here under which conditions the animals grew up.

And that should not only interest the environmentalists among you, but everyone who wants to be healthy and fit. Because: "You are what you eat" - if you eat cheap meat now, tons of antibiotics or genetically modified soy, with which the animals were treated or fed, get into your body.

Just think about the food scandals of recent years - the quality of your food should be very important to you!

Deceptive price: The price only looks cheap at first glance. But if you calculate how much you would have to spend on a home-cooked dish and how much you would pay to be full of fast food … The result speaks for itself.

Poor nutrient distribution: Put simply, fast food is full of fat, carbohydrates and salt, while it contains virtually no vitamins and fiber. 

In addition, the fats contained are almost exclusively trans fats - trans fats are "bad" fats that are very unhealthy and promote diseases including heart attacks. 

And all that salt makes you thirsty - intentionally, of course, because that's how you buy a second, third, fourth ... Cola. Pure calorie and sugar shock!

Getting used to: Fast food spoils the taste in the long run. Over time you get used to all the artificial additives and natural, clean food no longer tastes good. 

The good thing: You can reprogram your taste buds again by consistently eliminating fast food from your diet for a few weeks.

Environmental pollution: Cheap raw materials, high meat consumption, long transport routes for the animals and, above all, an incredible amount of packaging waste - fast food is very damaging to the environment.

Harmful for the social aspect: Sure, you probably mainly go to the famous fast food restaurants with your friends, right ?! But honestly, how long do you sit there compared to a "real" restaurant? - Just. Fast food, with its "quick, quick" mentality, boycotts the social aspect of eating. Often it is even eaten casually while walking or standing.

This in turn means that you eat faster and more, because the feeling of satiety only sets in after around 15-20 minutes.

The disadvantages clearly prevail. Is that why you never eat fast food again ?! Nonsense. If you don't want to save your favorite pizza or delicious fries for your Cheat Day, you should simply make your own fast food in the future!