Food can be as powerful a substance as any other drug. You may have seen programmes like half-ton hospital where patients are bed-bound for years and their sleep interspersed with deliveries of fast food. These are at the extreme end, on the brink of death through overloading their systems to freakish proportions. So what is the pull with food and what about the rest of us who aren’t quite that extreme?Well there are many systems at work both physically and psychologically when we eat and we often get the signals confused. Like a need for company translating as a need to eat.For example lets look at carbohydrate cravings. When we could just murder for fresh bread and butter, a gooey chocolate cream cake or a hot bowl of steaming salt ‘n’ vinegar chips. Some of us can control these urges but for others nothing else will do, control goes AWOL; it’s no longer a want it’s a have to. Sensations are magnified especially when we’re on a diet and have been restricting and obsessing about the food even more than usual.The drive, the urge, the cravings, the salivating, the heart beating, the steely focus, the excitement and the anticipation of the fix of sinking our teeth into the juicy triple cheeseburger, our taste buds are tripping out.Then we get it in our sweaty hands, the wait is over, our whole day has been leading up to this moment. Our jaw aches and our mouth slobbers, oh my god, the release, the escape, the euphoria, it’s practically orgasmic!It’s funny, we only taste the first few bites properly but for some reason we can’t stop until everything is finished, gorged down with swigs of coke, then fries, then hot apple pie. Then a couple of bars of chocolate on the way home. Can’t breathe, painfully satisfied, feel bad, greedy, dirty as emerge from the bingeing frenzy back to earth with an overweight bang. We’ve let ourself down. Again. We have no will-power, just a fat pig and we hate ourself even more. There’s only one thing for it, we have to diet tomorrow.There are often also powerful emotional factors at play, as we eat to change the way we feel. And of course when we binge, it blocks stuff out really effectively, especially when the internal chatterbox becomes too unmanageable, too raw, and too real.The all too familiar story: no time to cook, kids are late for soccer practice and McDonald’s is on the way. Since it won’t take more than a few minutes to shoot through the drive through we’ll do the stop fast food in Lunch. Or all too familiar story number 2: lunch hour at work and I need to pick up my dry cleaning, fill a prescription, and take the car to get gas and find time to eat. Sure enough Taco Bell is on the way and they have a drive through as well. These real life situations play out for all of us, millions of us, everyday. Since time has become one of our most precious commodities the sacrifice we make is often in our diet. x

There are two sides of the same coin. You may have heard arguments on both sides regarding healthy foods and fast foods. You may have asked yourself one time or another, are all fast food fat foods? Can you binge on fast food without worrying about your health? How can you eat fast food and still stay healthy?The United States is the leading country when it comes to obesity. The country is top three in the world in terms of existing fast food chains. When you put two and two together, you get to the conclusion that the popularity of fast food restaurants is affecting the health of the consumers.McDonalds’, one of the famous fast food chains in the world, faced a lawsuit in 2003 when parents of a teenage girl claimed that the fast food restaurant is responsible for their daughter’s health problems. Although the case was dismissed, it started the battle of fast food restaurants against health experts.Obesity is not something to laugh about. It can lead to all sorts of complications such as diabetes mellitus type 2, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and, of course, cardiovascular diseases. Aside from that, being on the heavy side can make a person the butt of jokes which ultimately results to social outcasts and suicidal attempts. Sedentary lifestyle and overeating are the main reasons why there are people who are considered obese.You should be familiar with the daily calorie intake. Your calorie intake highly depends on your weight and lifestyle. On average, health specialists stated that the daily calorie intake for women is 1200 calories while it is 1800 for men. Generally, one fast food meal has around 1000 calories.Most of the food offered by fast food restaurants are deep-fried or heated up in the microwave. These processes of food preparation take minimum time unlike home cooked meals. As a result, most fast food products have high calories and are practically swimming in trans-fat.If you take all of these into consideration, then yes, fast food is fat food. Health experts have grounds why they are against eating fast food products. On the other hand, it does not mean that you have to avoid fast food altogether to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Fast food restaurants were a hit because they serve food in minimum time, in good taste, and in lesser price. So how are you going to make the two ends meet?