Why some people prefer takeaways than home cooking?
Posted on May 31st, 2012
Dr Hector PereraƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ London
Takeaways or fast food is an easy and quick way to grab a meal on the go. There are many side effects of eating fast food frequently, the body gets a high amount of calories, saturated and trans-fats and sugar with limited vitamins and minerals. It doesnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t happen over night but this can lead to an increased risk for illness and many diseases.
There are many reasons behind the fact of fast food whether they are healthy or not. A few reasons why people prefer fast food are: time factor in food preparation at home, the cost of consumer goods, and the cost of fuel such as gas and electricity that is used up to prepare meals.
We just for grant
I still remember in the good olden days, when we had servants to cook at home; I think, they virtually took the whole day to prepare meals. Actually the conditions were awful that is smoke filled kitchen because they had to use fire wood stoves. I never realised the values of these things or never wanted know these things in those days. If you asked me why, I cannot give a straight forward answer. We just assumed the food is prepared and served to the table by servants but never valued their hard labour; until such time that we had to work for ourselves.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What a change!
In Sri Lanka, I think until a few years ago, there were not many takeaway places, fast food restaurants and supermarkets as much as you find today.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ These places are thriving in every little town so fast, attracting more and more new customers. Those entrepreneurs know exactly where to get their business started to succeed quite successfully. I might be wrong, if you go along Kandy Colombo road, from Kelaniya, Kiribathgoda and Kadawatha it looks like a one long shopping parade with everything. Is there a reason that towns names begin with ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-KƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ are doing well? What about along Galle road, itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s everywhere as well. I am sure it wasnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t like this a few years ago. Those days one has to go Colombo for good shopping but now itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s virtually at your door step, am I correct?
When you drive along any major road, you would notice the names of these fast food, takeaway and supermarkets from a distant. They make the places quite attractive, huge glass fronted doors, windows and colourful lights in decorative style in an eye catching style. There will be ample parking spaces right in front of these places, so the hungry customers just drive in. Once they get out of the vehicles there is no turning back without spending a fortune on food, either takeaway or eat in. The atmosphere is full of food odours, driving you hungrier plus entertaining music. There will be long counters covered with glass covers, with a variety of food to choose, you name it they have it. Once you go to a counter, sometimes you have to wait in a queue for your turn. That moment of delay is enough to make up your mind to choose which ones would full fill the hunger and the thirst. You feel restless, itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s like you are waiting for hours, reminds me the feeding time in the zoo. If you are with kids, I am sure you know their list of demand to eat and drink. The kids normally go for fried and oily food such as chips, beef burgers, cheese burgers, chicken or spare ribs, then cakes and ice creams.
Why fast foods are bad, even in moderation
The researchers and doctors have found out that, eating these kinds of fast food have an increased health risks and very likely to increase your waistlines. No wonder when some ladies who went on holiday to Sri Lanka, on their return flight they complain that they cannot fit into their favourite dresses. They say eating this kind of food for a considerable time; they are pronged to develop some signs of insulin resistance which is an early indication of type two diabetics. Trans-fats, or partially hydrogenated oils, are found in many fast foods and also in baked goods and processed snacks. They dramatically increase the risk of heart disease – even more than saturated fats found in animal products. Further these Trans fats tend to grow more abdominal fats and this is some what similar to ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-beer belly conditionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. Some UK school children eat fast food on regular basis, sometimes after school or lunch time one cannot get nearer a fast food counter easily, due to school children. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Some UK local authorities once said no to fast food places, within a certain distant from the schools. They say eating fast food could lead to behaviour problems, diseases and one of them is diabetics which is usually an age related disease.
Type 2 diabetics
This is a disease in which the body becomes increasingly sensitive to insulin which is produced constantly by the pancreas. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Insulin is needed for the cells to absorb the glucose or sugar to give us the energy the body requires. The truth is, even if you stuff yourself with so much food, in the absence of insulin, will leave you hungry and starved. This feeling of starvation results from the inability of the body to absorb the calories due to lack of insulin. In some people, over the time, the pancreas begins to produce little to no insulin leading to the lifelong need for medication. Diabetes contributes to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease and blindness. Fast food contains a high amount of sugar that when consumed in large amounts cause an increased risk for diabetes.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ According to an article on CBS News, every day nearly one-third of US children aged 4 to 19 eat fast food. As mentioned before, fast food is high in calories and sugar that contribute to increased weight gain that means leading to obesity which can increase the risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and certain cancers.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Western style diet
Some people assume eating rice and curry is Asian type of diets and eating fried food is Western style of food. Sometimes I wondered whether some of these Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s present younger generations get regularly fed with Western style of food. The only thing is that kind of foods are loaded up with these trans fats, sugars, salts, artificial colourings, additives, less fibre, least amount of vitamins and minerals.
What can we do something about it?
I am not in favour to say completely no to fast food because there are circumstance that we have a eat something but we must limit, not sky is the limit, you are not obliged to eat everything in the given portion. If possible try and avoid trams fat products by reading the labels, avoid any oily food or eat only a small portion, include more fruit and vegetable products, try and eat just a few biscuits, cakes and pastries or avoid if possible. At home try and use vegetable oils for frying, definitely not ghee because it is a saturated fat of animal origin. If you learn some basic cooking that would help in the long run to cut down these fast foods or takeaways. When I say cooking, try and learn some scientific cooking because we need to change with time. Any comments please perera6@hotmail..co.uk
May 31st, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Dr. Hector Perera,
You made a very important point here. Just remembered our grandparents, they did not have any health problem and at the age of 90+ they passed away only due to old age. The next generation, some even could not make 50+, cancer, Parkinson, stroke, diabetes are the killer diseases in the modern world. You need to convince people to eat more Jack fruits, Bread fruits and freely grown greens ( Pala and keeralai) and less and less string hoppers, Pittu, fried rice and Kottu roti.
May 31st, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Fast food is progressing because both husband and wife needs to work and has no time to cook. This is part and parcel of of the economy which has used high house prices and borrowed money to fuel and unsustainable economy. Printing money and fiat money which in Obamas words monopoly money is nothing more that stealing money from the savings of the people. For example the money invested from the EPF in the stock market in corrupt deals is nothing but stealing from the working people.This destruction of society, be it in terms of the diseases or social instability or environment are part and parcel of an economy that we have been pursuing since 1977. If this destruction is to stop society and the government needs to take a hard look at itself. Fast food is only a side effect and only represent a small part of the destructive process.
May 31st, 2012 at 8:17 pm
One should open more and more fast food shops in Jaffna so that they could spend time on politics and elam building.
Kelaniya is not only famous for retail and fast food shops but also for bellicose politicians and gold.
They save time go gold digging with fast food and spend all that at Thilakaratna junk shops.
June 1st, 2012 at 7:31 am
“ For example the money invested from the EPF in the stock market in corrupt deals is nothing but stealing from the working people. This destruction of society, be it in terms of the diseases or social instability or environment are part and parcel of an economy that we have been pursuing since 1977”
The money has to be invested for it to grow. How? It has to be lent for interest or in the stock market.
Stock market whether you like it or not is a gamble, pure speculation, sometimes you win sometimes you lose. For one to win one has to lose. There is no stock market for the poor or third world. EPF money and pension money is used in invested in stocks all over the world, otherwise it will not grow with inflation, so that the members could be paid when time comes.
June 1st, 2012 at 2:45 pm
In modern economic reality it is quite obvious that both husband and wife need to work for living. Here in London we don’t go for junk food because both of us are working for living.By the way, Corruption is common in everywhere. In UK There is a strong perception of corruption among political parties and Parliament, allied with a lack of trust in the government to fight corruption. Although many people suspect that corruption may have taken place on particular occasions, and an overwhelming majority would like to report it, comparatively few people would know where to report it. Read http://www.transparency.org.uk/our-work/publications/91-corruption-in-the-uk–part-one—national-opinion-survey
In Sri Lanka I think we are better off than most of the other Asian countries and you should appreciate the fact that we still can maintain positive growth while England and some European countries are in double recession now.
Watch this for further information
http://finance.uncommonwisdomdaily.com/reports/RWR/DEC-VSP/dec-vsp-alt.php?ccode=&em=&sc=NMAX&ec=4901132
June 1st, 2012 at 3:57 pm
As long as sycophants continue to defend a system that cannot be defended the corruption and the detioration of society will continue. Criticism should be accepted and corrective measures taken. Denial is the response of lotus eating sycophants who are beneficiaries at the expense of the poor.
June 1st, 2012 at 4:23 pm
Nandimitra
At least Google it and learn it. All pension funds are managed by investing on stock markets or lending on high interest rates deposits etc. i.e in re-investments. Perhaps, for Sri Lankans, it may be a new thing that average people don’t understand it. By the way, If you have corruption in Sri Lanka , at least you have got a powerful opposition, why can’t they discuss corruption cases in the parliament, rather than discussing it like gossips in the internet. Even though corruption is so common in the Western world, they try to discuss these specific incidents in the open. Why can’t we do that? Please note that we are not trying to be sycophants or trying to flatter GOSL. Why should we flatter politicos in Sri Lanka if we have comfortably settled down in US, UK Aus or NZ. We are just trying to tell you something you can not understand.
June 1st, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Neelamahayodaya,
Obviously you are a sycophant. The recent NDB scandal is good example. The insider dealings have been proven The astrologer director and the political appointees have resigned but no legal action is taken. This is how the EPF money has been used. Open any paper the corrupt practices in the petroleum corp, Health services etc are apparent this is a daily occurrence. People are suffering whilst a small group of people are benefitting. In spite of winning the war the people are suffering with a high cost of living. , Malnutrition is increasing. If as a Lankan you do not feel for the predicament of the people you are inhuman.
June 2nd, 2012 at 4:58 am
Nadimitra!,
I am not sure whether you really understand the meaning of sycophant before you call others sycophants.According to World English Dictionary sycophant is” a person who uses flattery to win favours from individuals wielding influence” or” a servile self-seeking flatterer”. Mind you, most of us who place comments on Lankaweb are Sri Lankan professionals, and expatriated well settled down their respective host countries and never to return to Sri Lanka to settle down,and never expect anything from politicians
You blame only politicians for corruption in Sri Lanka, look at yourself more closely, practically everyone in Sri Lanka is corrupt to the core, from office peon to the professional lawyers and doctors no exception. Take for example , school teachers in Sri Lanka, they don’t teach at the schools where they are supposed to work, instead, they run private tuition classes for money. Is it not corruption? Take for example, lawyers, how many of them issue receipts when they charge their clients?. They avoid issuing receipts because they don’t want to have income trails. Is it not corruption? Same with the doctors who run channel practices. How many of them declare their income properly? Police and council officers are also the same. Recently I have to pay money to get the plan of my ancestral land approved by the council before sale. In a way, politicians are little better, because, they know that when they get caught that will be the end of their carrier and the bribery commission is always after them and sooner or later they can get caught.