Burger King — Restaurant in Ottawa

Not healthy food.

The Effects of Fast Food on the Body



Medically reviewed by Natalie Butler, RD, LDon July 25, 2018 — Written by Ann Pietrangelo and Elea Carey and Kimberly Holland

Digestive and cardiovascular systems

Sugar and fat

Sodium

Respiratory system

Central nervous system

Reproductive system

Integumentary system

Skeletal system

Effects on society

Popularity of fast food

Swinging through the drive-thru or hopping into your favorite fast-food restaurant tends to happen more often than some would like to admit.

According to the Food Institute’s analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, millennials alone spend 45 percent of their budget’s food dollars on eating out.

In comparison to 40 years ago, the average American family now spends half their food budget on restaurant food. In 1977, just under 38 percent of family food budgets were spent eating outside the home.

While an occasional night of fast food won’t hurt, a habit of eating out could be doing a number on your health. Read on to learn the effects of fast food on your body.

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Effect on the digestive and cardiovascular systems

Most fast food, including drinks and sides, are loaded with carbohydrates with little to no fiber.

When your digestive system breaks down these foods, the carbs are released as glucose (sugar) into your bloodstream. As a result, your blood sugar increases.

Your pancreas responds to the surge in glucose by releasing insulin. Insulin transports sugar throughout your body to cells that need it for energy. As your body uses or stores the sugar, your blood sugar returns to normal.

This blood sugar process is highly regulated by your body, and as long as you’re healthy, your organs can properly handle these sugar spikes.

But frequently eating high amounts of carbs can lead to repeated spikes in your blood sugar.

Over time, these insulin spikes may cause your body’s normal insulin response to falter. This increases your risk for insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and...

I will NEVER be returning to this location. The boyfriend and I got 2 whopper meals (this is what we usally order) waiting for 20 mins... staff is WAY to slow. After my 20 minute wait I returned home with my meals (8 mins away). We noticed discoloration in our salad but we have both worked in food and know this can happen with heat from the burger. Needless to say we thought nothing of it. With in 30 mins we both got sick. Only 30 minutes later! We had the runs were rehydrated and server cramping. We thought, do to the recent recalls with wendys salad greens, that maybe we should call and let then know how sick we got. Head office was great about it. We got a refund and they told us they were going to inspect the location and to go in when we were ready to get a free meal. WELL.... while head office was pleasant, The manager was a imcompitant and rude. He told us "my staff are trained perfectly and you couldn't of got sick here". (we explain we had worked all day and this was the first thing we got to ate, Only thing we ate) to which he replied to my boyfriend "some people don't do well with beef" my bf lives off protine and is 6.3" and 250 pounds i think he can handle a single burger. Plus we BOTH got sick... anyways the manager was being rude and denying everything and refused to take any responsibility for us getting ill. Getting our free meals was also hard work as the manager was being complicated about it and trying to not give us anything(we got a milkshake and a poutine NOT A BURGER OR ANYTHING WITH ICE) . Anyways we reported the whole location after our experience there to ottawa health and saftey to which they replied and confirmed we did in fact get sick there and they were gonna offer the staff proper training, they also thanked us for reporting. NEVER GOING BACK AGAIN!! Gross and we got sick from contaminated hand to food...

Awful is the only word to describe the food and the overall experience. I very rarely write negative reviews, but this has been bothering me and I thought something should be said. Hopefully, management reads the reviews.

I had not had a Whopper (with cheese) in years and was looking forward to what I remebered to be one of the best fast-food burgers going...

The young lady that helped me was nice, but after a moment was distracted by a drive-thru order and a young man took over. He was very nice as well, but the shirt he was wearing was so completely covered in grease and food stains, it looked like he'd worn it to work everyday for a week. Not a great look.

After receiving my meal, I went to look for a reasonably clean table to eat at. Only one table was occupied by another customer so I was optimistic, but it turned out that all of the other tables had food or drink spilled on them, so I chose the cleanest one.

As soon as I picked up my burger and bit into it (after re-arranging the toppings to avoid them having fall out the sides), I realized that the bottom bun and burger patty had been microwaved and the top bun had not. The top bun was stale and the whole thing tasted a little off. I was so thoroughly disappointed.

I've looked at other reviews for this location and some people seem to have had a great experience, so maybe I went on an off day (Sunday afternoon). Perhaps I'll try another location and have...