Relished as nectar, treated as medicine, and even worshipped as sacred in ancient times, food today, due to modernization, has been stripped of its delicacy, potency, and divinity. To fit the fast-paced lifestyle, food too has become “fast food,” served at quick-service restaurants – where it is prepared quickly, served quickly, and eaten quickly. The discovery of fire and its controlled use to cook food was a turning point in the evolution of humans. Cooked food is easier to digest than uncooked food but, due to its moisture and temperature, it also gets spoiled faster than uncooked food. Thus, until about a century ago, cooked food was always eaten fresh but today that has become a luxury rather than a norm. With both parents working and not having the time, energy, or interest to cook at home, fast food seems a rather convenient option, and while it might be cheap, it comes at a huge price. Merely scratching the surface shows its true colors and its impact on not just physical but also mental health.
Unlike meals and cuisines prepared with fresh, natural ingredients, fast food is cooked way in advance in bulk quantities. For this reason, it is not just low in essential nutrients but also replete with ultra-processed ingredients that have food additives for artificial flavors and preservatives to extend its shelf life. With hardly any vegetables in it, high in trans-fat, empty calories, sugar, and salt, combined with its large portions and addictive taste from artificial flavors, fast food is dangerous for health. A fast-food diet is known to increase the risk of chronic diseases: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cancer, to name a few. Despite being labeled as “junk food,” due to clever marketing and false advertising, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, French fries, noodles, tacos, pancakes, donuts, sugary cereals, salty snacks, cookies, ice creams, milkshakes, soft drinks, and other fast foods have penetrated the market around the world and become the favorite fun food of not just parents but also children. Fast-food restaurants are the most common restaurant chains and many of them have become multinational corporations with international outlets, their only motive being to increase their shareholder value, with the least regard for the health of the people.
“You are what you eat,” says an adage, and what we eat creates not just our body but also our mind. Research has shown that the gut communicates with the brain and thus acts as a “second brain.” The gut plays a major role in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood and sleep. Ultra-processed ingredients can disrupt this gut-brain connection and hence result in low mood and disturbed sleep. Not surprisingly, regular consumption of fast food has been linked to depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Teenagers with their busy school or college life and young professionals gripped in the hustle culture are the biggest victims of this tragic trend. Gobbling up food that is prepared from frozen or canned products, picked up at drive-through, and wrapped in foil or plastic will never be able to deliver the taste and health, let alone the comfort and happiness, of home-cooked food. The experience of eating delicious home-cooked food, served with love, in the company of family members provides emotional comfort as no comfort food can. In the endless race to earn more, the food industry has distracted consumers from seeing the simple fact that humans are not machines but conscious beings with life force and emotions. The only antidote to this poison is to deeply recognize our human nature and act – or rather eat – by it.