Okay, its common knowledge that fast food is bad for you. So why do people still eat it? There are tons of reasons: no time to cook a real meal, its cheaper than going to a restaurant, or that people genuinely like the vile, greasiness that is hidden underneath the bun. I personally believe its because people don’t truly understand the adverse effects that can come from eating the stuff. If people fully understood why fast food is so disgusting, maybe they wouldn’t eat it as much.

Like any food, fast food starts out as something that’s alive. Unlike most foods, however, animals that are sold to fast food companies, such as McDonalds, are fed many things that a regular chicken, beef cow, pig, or fish would not regularly eat. For example, a fast food cow’s daily diet includes high-bulk grain and expired dog and cat food. In worst case scenarios, the same cow’s diet could also include leftover restaurant food or even poultry feces.

This is not the only thing that they ingest. An excellent example of this is the average fast food chicken. Chickens that are condemned to be nuggets are given antibiotics to counteract their filthy living conditions. Though this seems like a smart idea, the overuse of antibiotics can create a bacterium that is immune to the antibiotics. This can result in the consumer having elongated food poisoning episodes. The horrible medicinal intake does not stop there. Chickens, like other fast food animals, are also given hormones to speed up their growth. A chicken’s body will sometimes grow so fast that its bones cannot support its own weight. More commonly, the chicken’s heart and lungs do not grow fast enough to support its body and the chicken dies of a heart attack or lung failure.

The horrible things that are added to fast food do not stop at what the animal ingests before turning into food. McDonalds’ French Fries are a good example are an excellent example of how additives are put into fast food. The Russet Burbank potatoes that become McDonalds’ French Fries get beef flavoring added to them, and of course, lots of salt. The hamburger patties have some potentially fatal additives. Cow feces will sometimes get into the meat that is turned into the hamburgers. That’s right, there could be cow poop in your food! Though its totally accidental, this can cause serious food poisoning episodes, sometimes resulting in death.

This fatal equation adds up to an equally horrible answer, when eaten regularly. This was proved in the documentary “Super Size Me”. The man ate three meals a day at McDonalds. His average daily calorie intake was five thousand calories. The man soon went from one hundred eighty pounds to two hundred ten pounds. Big shocker there. In addition to the weight gain, man’s cholesterol skyrocketed to two hundred twenty-five, which meant he was at high risk for a heart attack. To make matters worse, the man also developed a toxic liver and could no longer digest fatty foods.

Now that you know how horribly fast food can effect you, I’m sure you’ll rethink you answer to the infamous question, “Would you like fries with that?” I’m not saying that you have to give up fast food entirely, though that would improve your health amazingly. However, I do suggest that you learn more about the foods that you eat!