Fast food is hard to resist, despite the often hysterical warnings from adults. Let’s not get into the taste debate and instead focus on a few simple numbers.
A teenager, for example, needs 2000 to 2700 kilocalories per day depending on his sports or nighttime expenses. Consider three particularly fashionable products.
First, the classic hamburger, fries, soft drink meal: it represents around 1,200 kilocalories. This means that there will not be much left for the other meals of the day if you do not want to coat yourself in fat. Especially since the recommended maximum daily fat consumption is 30 g, whereas with this simple burger and fries, we easily exceed 50 g.
Eat better … The essentials
Now let’s move on to pizza, another successful fast food restaurant. Although it’s probably the least bad of the choices, four servings of soda water is about 1,000 kilocalories and 28 g of fat. It’s a little better, but we are still far above the daily possibilities.
Limits crossed by the worst fast food, chicken and chips. With two small pieces of fried breaded chicken, a bun, fries, sauce and soda, we exceed 1,300 kilocalories, and above all, we reach 60 g of fat. Double what you should consume.
Should we do without this type of food?
If common sense should answer “yes”, fashion will sweep it away. It is therefore necessary to adapt, and to be cunning, without appearing to be a killjoy with friends. A few tips: Avoid multi-layered burgers which are much richer in mayonnaise. Increase the doses of mustard, salad, tomato, onion and ketchup. Ask for a small fries instead of a large one. The taste effect will be the same and your brain, after twenty minutes, will send you the same signals of fullness as with a large portion. For the pizza, reduce the number of servings – from four to three – avoiding cold cuts and olives. If your choice is decidedly chicken, skip the fries on the side and opt for the salad. A large soda based on sweeteners – 0 calories, no sugar – allows, with the previous advice, to obtain a fast-food meal at less than 500 kilocalories and 20 g of fat, which is perfectly tolerable.
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