You’re relaxing at home, flipping through some channels and a news headline suddenly catches your eye, “Buffet worker stomps garlic with boots.” You find this to be surprising but yet, sadly, this is not new information to you.
The fast food industry may be providing us with a convenient source of food at times but is it really worth it? The ongoing concern of how fast food is handled and prepared has been around for a while, but why aren’t the “dirty” aspects of this industry exposed?
The Horror Stories of Fast Food
As a vivid reader of all sorts of new information regarding food-borne illnesses, I often reconsider taking a drive to my nearest McDonald’s to get a late night meal. It seems as though, now more than ever, unsanitary practices within the working environment at restaurants are at an extreme. I’ve heard so many fast food horror stories of workers dropping beef patties on greasy, disease ridden floors and casually placing the meat back on the buns as if this is a normal procedure. How frightening!
Another incident which I’m sure a lot of people have heard about is in regards to a woman ordering a bowl of chili from a Wendy’s restaurant. Instead of satisfying her palate with the wonderful taste of chili, she received an additional surprise; a human finger! You may say to yourself, “What on earth! How could this have possibly happened?” My reply would be that although this story was purportedly a hoax, it very well could’ve happened.
What Health Inspections?
You may find a section in your local newspaper pertaining to various health inspections that were performed in your town by the health department. The results that are displayed at times are just so alarming! Negative ratings reflect restaurants’ unsanitary practices. For example, a Chinese restaurant in my area was cited because refrigerated food was not at the appropriate temperature for meat products. On top of this major issue, the restaurant’s workers were not wearing hair nets or gloves while handling customer’s food.
You can never be too careful when consuming any type of fast food. Fast food is certainly called ‘fast’ for a reason. The quality of the food that is prepared with speed is rarely of high quality. There is an array of calories to consider as well. While consuming a regular sized burger, you can be consuming more than 500 calories per burger! That is 25% of the average daily calorie requirement.
So, where would you rather take your chances? In the comfort of your own home or the dreadful new fast food chain down the street from where you live called “Flav-O-Burger?”
Read Regularly About Healthy Eating
With the amount of information available related to healthy eating habits these days, it is easy for one to regularly go through it. If you do pay attention to such information, it slowly starts affecting your choices in a healthy way. You’ll start to check yourself before ordering that king size dish full of fat and cholesterol. It does, however, take some time to break the old habits but it’ll eventually start paying off in the form of improved health for you.
Virgil Afterwit says
I understand the paranoia and fear that can accompany sensational news stories about poor food handling. But to infer that more often than not food is mishandled is to say that the average food handler, (a young American who most certainly knows the difference between what is sanitary and healthy and what is not) is an uncaring or intentionally malicious fiend. Yes there certainly do seem to be more stories now than there ever was which include “grossly seasoned” entrees, however don’t you think that this could possibly be because of the greater dissemination of information (and misinformation) now than ever before? And honestly, if you think that you can live your entire life and avoid getting a meal that has been tampered with either deliberately or inadvertently than you are much less intelligent than you sound. Trust me; I have worked in a couple different types of restaurants, not to mention an upscale, national ice-cream parlor chain, abuse of privacy and control when handling food are present in all manner of restaurants. So in the future just accept that at some point in your life you’re going to eat a piece of meat that has fallen on the ground. At some time you will ingest something that has either fallen off, or out of a human. It’s just the way it is. Go with it.
Gina says
you’ve defintely got a point there. I’m no longer really worried about germs. I don’t eat fast food either. But, If I had to, I would do so without worry. we worry way too much in this country, huh?
Thanks,
Gina