Consumers 1

Health Risks for Consumers

Delisa Morris
NUTR 2200
Professor Brannan
Literature Review
November 23, 2014

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Abstract
Although fast food chains are trying to make their menu items healthier for their customers, the
products being sold are still detrimental to citizens health and nutritional needs. Fast food is a
term used every day in most peoples vocabulary. How bad is fast food for ones health? No one
knows this answer but if one starts researching, one will fine some very interesting facts. When
choosing to eat fast food one can make a relatively smart choice from their menu but it will not
be the best food that someone could be putting into their body as a meal. The next time one goes
to a fast food restaurant, he or she could stop and think twice about what his or her order and
what it might contain or do to their body. He or she should think if it really is a smart choice to
be consuming fast food products.

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Thesis: Although fast food chains are trying to make their menu items healthier for their
customers, the products being sold are still detrimental to citizens health and nutritional needs.
I. Introduction
A. How widespread fast food consumption is in America.
II. There are some tips for making healthier fast food choices.
A. When is it healthy to eat fast food?
B. Guides can help you make healthier meal choices.
III. The mystery ingredients are industrial chemicals.
A. The mystery ingredient number one is MSG.
B. The sweetener in sport drinks is made through a process that also makes an
embalming chemical.
C. There are some of the same ingredients used in chalk as fast food.
D. Do chemicals in fast food wrappers show up in our human blood?
IV. There are dangerous diseases that are caused by fast food.
A. There are four main diseases caused by eating fast food.
1. One can get heart disease.
2. It can cause liver damage.
3. One can have a stroke.
4. Diabetes (Type 2) can also become a problem consumer.
VI. Conclusion

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Although fast food chains are trying to make their menu items healthier for their
customers, the products being sold are still detrimental to citizens health and nutritional needs.
Fast food is a term that is used every day in most peoples vocabulary. In this year 2014, it seems
that most people consume fast food everyday for at least one meal a day. How bad is fast food
for ones health? No one knows this answer but if one starts researching, one will find some very
interesting facts.
There are some that can help one make healthier fast food choices. When is it healthy to
eat fast food? The short answer is: rarely. Typically, fast food is low in nutrition and high in
trans fat, saturated fat, sodium, and calories (Paul & Robinson, 2011). Some meals from Burger
King contain more saturated fat than the American Heart Association suggests to consume in two
days. In moderation, fast food can be ok but it cannot be a daily habit. Finding a completely
healthy meal at a fast food place can be hard but one can chose some healthier ones over others.
It has been thought that though working out or avoiding calories later makes it ok to eat
fast food in the moment. The truth is that it does not help, because once you consume fast food it
stays in the body. Some times years later after the toxins have gathered and settled they can
become serious illnesses like cancer or diabetes. Only in the past few years has this deposit of
toxic chemical ingredients in fast food become such a lethal problem. In order to boost profits,
food purveyors use chemicals which have a similar effect to the tobacco industrys addition of
nicotine to tobacco, making a substance at once more addictive and more deadly (Green, 2011).
The mystery ingredient number one is MSG. MSG was grandfathered into the GRAS
without any testing to verify its safety. This is present in almost every non-dessert item on KFCs
menu. MSG is in almost every fast food places food, salads even contain it. It is linked to
obesity, depression, migraines, mental confusion, dizziness, anxiety, panic attacks, stiffness, and

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joint pain, loss of balance, speech problems, blurred vision, and ADHD. During an experiment
given a great number of the subjects reported nausea, headaches, dizziness, chest pressure,
burning, fatigue, sore jaw, stomachache, numbness, feeling cold, and heartburn with taking MSG
for one week (Shimada, et al., 2013).
The sweetener in sport drinks is made through a process that also makes an embalming
chemical. This ingredient is found in McDonalds Baked Apple Pies and commercially prepared
salad dressings. This is also frequently contaminated with mercury due to the method used to
make the ingredient in factories. It is full of calories but does not satisfy ones hunger making
people want to eat more. This mystery ingredient is HCFS. HCFS is high fructose corn syrup.
There are some of the same ingredients used in chalk as fast food. This ingredient is
dimethypolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent. This is used in chalk, sealants, and silly putty,
which are products that one should not eat, and if one did consume them they would be taken to
the hospital. This is also used in McDonalds Chicken McNuggets, McDonalds fish filet patty,
Wendys natural cut fries; KFC BBQ baked beans, KFC biscuits, and many other food items.
These are all items that citizens eat but no one rushes to the hospital afterwards.
Do chemicals in fast food wrappers show up in our human blood? Toxic chemicals used
to line fast food wrappers migrate easily into the human blood, according to a study conducted
by researchers from the University of Toronto (Gutierrez, 2012). Oily foods like those that
microwave popcorn and food from fast food places are normally packaged in paper or cardboard
with PAPs (polyfluoroalky phosphate esters) which do not let water or grease out. PAPs leave the
packaging and travel into the food inside the package. One then eats the food and consumes the
PAPS. This is a concern because ones body then metabolizes the PAPs into a very toxic class of
chemicals, called PFCAs (perfluorinated carboxylic acids). In this class of chemicals is found an

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active ingredient in Teflon, which can be linked to causing tumors and infant death. A material
also used in non-stick pans and fast-food containers can be linked to retarding the growth and
brain development in babies. Teflon has been experimented also to look into the link between
different types of cancers and the exposure to it; it was found to have some links (Consonni, et
al., 2013). One is exposed to more chemicals than they would guess. This finding of such toxic
chemicals in our fast food is an important finding because consumers need to know what they are
putting into their bodies. Researchers are looking more and more into the problem to try to find a
reason and source of this problem.
There are dangerous diseases that are caused by fast food, and they can generally be
grouped into four major diseases: heart disease, stroke, liver damage, and diabetes (type 2). Fast
food consumption is growing rapidly in the United States due to people seeing it as a quick,
cheap, and easy meal to feed their families during their busy lives. By doing this though they are
causing an increase for their own family to become diagnosed with dangerous diseases. Fast food
is almost always higher in total energy (calories), saturated fat, sodium, carbohydrates, Trans fat,
and sugars. All of those can lead to stroke, diabetes, liver damage, and cardiovascular disease if
not watched carefully. The proliferation of fast food outlets and the increased consumption of
fast food globally is of particular concern in the light of this knowledge (Duffey, 2013). In
addition, fast food can cause liver damage. One may also have a stroke from consuming the
products from the fast food chains. Diabetes (Type 2) can also become a problem for the
consumer. The more fast food one consumes increases their chances of obesity, which then
increases the risk for heart disease. The main problem becomes low levels of good cholesterol
and high levels of bad cholesterol. Since fast food is not evenly placed in ones body, it seems to
settle in the liver, which then causes permanent liver damage, inflammation, and even scarring.

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Obesity causes blockages in the arteries from high levels of bad cholesterol, which leads to high
blood pressure. These blockages cause the blood that flows to ones brain to not be able to reach
it, which results in a stroke. Diabetes is also an obesity-related disease. This is where ones
pancreas cannot supply enough insulin to convert sugars to energy in ones body. This
unconverted sugar floats around in the blood and can raise the risk of one getting Type 2
Diabetes (Medical Daily, 2012).
When choosing to eat fast food one can make a relatively smart choice from their menu
but it will not be the best food that someone could be putting into their body as a meal. Good
health is more than what one inputs into their body and one is not likely to simply eat their way
to a healthy lifestyle. The next time one goes to a fast food restaurant, he or she should stop and
think twice about what his or her order and what it might contain or do to their body. He or she
should think if it really is a smart choice to be consuming fast food products.

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References
Adams, M. (2010). Natural News. Health Insurance Companies Invest Billions in Fast Food
Chains , NA.
Consonni, D., Straif, K., Symons, J. M., Tomenson, J. A., van Amelsvoort, L. G., Sleeuwenhoek,
A., . . . Bertazzi, P. A. (2013). Cancer Risk Among Tetrafluoroethylene Synthesis and
Polymerization Workers. American Journal of Epidermiology , 350-358.
Daily, M. (2010, November 8). Dangerous Diseases that are caused by fast foods body.
Retrieved November 2014, from Medical Daily:
www.medicaldaily.com/news/20101108/3451/dangerous-diseases-that-are-cased-b....
Duffey, K. J. (2013). Greater intake of Westren fast food among Singaporean adults is associated
with increased risk of diabetes and heart-disease-related death. Evidence Based Nursing ,
25-26.
Green, T. (2011). Natural News. Fast Food Nurtition Facts-Mystery Ingredients are Industrial
Chemicals, NA.
Guierrez, D. (2012). Natural News . Chemicals in Fast Food Wrappers Show up in Human
Blood , NA.
Jaworowska, A., Blackman, T., Davies, I., & Stevenson, L. (2013). Nutritional challenges and
health implications of takeaway and fastfood. Nutrition Reviews, 310-318.
Robinson, M. W. (2011, December). Healthy Fast Food: Tips for Making Healthier Fast Food
Choices. Retrieved November 2014, from HelpGuide:
www.helpguide.org.life/fast_food_nutrition.htm

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Shimada, A., Cairns, B., Vad, N., Ulriksen, K., Pedersen, A., Svensson, P., & Baad-Hansen, L.
(2013 ). Headache and mechanical sensitization of human pericranial muscles after
repeated intake of monosodium glutamate. Journal of Headache and Pain, 1-9.