Fast Food Is Slowing You Down

Fast Food Is Slowing You Down

Getting your nutrition dialed in for optimal health and performance might seem challenging at first. For many people, it’s something new to think about. In previous articles I have covered some essential points to help you learn about what optimal nutrition looks like and how you can improve your health and performance through better food choices. One thing you can do immediately that is a significant game changer for your long term health is to stop eating fast food. If it’s your only option occasionally, there are a couple work-arounds that I’ll explain later in the article.

In order to focus on optimizing your nutrition simply consider “what am I putting into my body?”. Bring that question to your mind regularly to be conscious of your food choices.

In the Standard American Diet (S.A.D), over 70% of calories come from food that is entirely new to humans in a long-term view of our genetic makeup. This means we aren’t designed to properly digest, assimilate and use these ingredients. The S.A.D is full of processed grains, sugar, and highly polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Our digestive systems have real difficulty with these ingredients.

Carbohydrate calories not burned immediately are converted into triglycerides in the liver and stored in fat cells. When you ingest a high carbohydrate diet your body has to produce more insulin. In turn, this can trigger stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline in excess amounts. These chemicals tax your adrenal system, pancreas, and your immune system and result in systemic inflammation. Systemic inflammation damages your cardiovascular system. When systemic inflammation becomes chronic, it can lead to heart disease, arthritis or other autoimmune conditions, and possibly contribute to cancer.

Fast food is also notoriously high in sodium. Your body needs salt to survive, but in a better form than the sodium contained in fast food. Your kidneys have to balance your sodium level which requires your heart to work harder which can increase blood pressure. 

The vegetable oils in fast food are toxic, industrially produced products. You do not want to eat any of these oils if you’re working to optimize your nutrition. The best way to eliminate these oils is to avoid any fried foods, including french fries, tater tots, onion rings, fried chicken, etc. Fried foods from fast food restaurants will cause systemic inflammation.

Any drink you’re getting with your fast food meal is going to impact your health. Sodas are full of sugar and coloring agent chemicals. Diet sodas contain artificial sweeteners which have been shown to impact gut health, behavioral health and potentially contribute to cancer. Drink water with your meal.

Here’s some real numbers on fast food: A Big Mac Combo Meal has 1,120 calories. That might be half of what you need for the day depending on your physical size, age, gender and activity level. However, it only contains 30 grams of protein, which is your most valuable source of nutrition. At the same time you’re getting 145 grams of carbohydrates and 59% of your recommended daily sodium intake. You’ll see similar numbers from other fast food chain nutritional analysis.

The best alternative is for you to pre-plan your meals and take food with you to work. You can meal prep on a day off and pack meals containing protein, some vegetables and rice. You can also simply get high quality deli lunch meat like turkey or ham (naturally cured without nitrates) and some high quality cheese slices, along with some fruit or vegetables.

Another option if you find yourself on overtime or in a situation where it’s fast food or nothing and you simply can’t wait to get home to your own food is to carefully choose menu items. Take the meat patties off the burger, choose grilled chicken over fried, find a salad with meat, and skip any fried items.

Getting yourself to an optimal nutrition status does take some work, but it’s the single thing you can do to optimize your health and performance. With some carefully applied choices, you can be successful. If you make an effort to ditch fast food, you’ll see quick results in your overall health, your body composition, your digestive health and your energy levels. Challenge yourself to make a 28 day commitment to eliminate fast food from your diet and you won’t go back to it.

If you or a family member are having any issues with mental health or relationships, please reach out for help. Responder Health (responderhealth.com) is an organization that offers resources specifically for first responders and their families. Responder Health provides confidential and full-service solutions that support first responders through stress and traumatic events, and provides them with the education, resources, and community they need to live healthy, happy lives. Our peer advocate hotline (206)459-3020 offers a confidential 24-hour crisis referral service for all public safety employees, all emergency services personnel, and their family members nationwide.