While waiting at a Chinese airport terminal, I was looking for a place to grab a quick bite at before my flight. You had your usual noodle and dimsum shops, but even more surprising was the wide selection of international brand name restaurants. I eventually settled on a Whopper at Burger King, more for the familiarity than anything else.

It’s not just the airports. While traveling around Shanghai, you get the feeling that the world around you is starting to look the same. There were the usual assortment of luxury brands in Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Prada. The restaurant choices were McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Yoshinoya, among others. Maybe it’s a sign of the modern age, but you had to do a lot of walking to find a good authentic Chinese restaurant in China!

Fast food is fast, inexpensive, and convenient. The drive-thru is the embodiment of this philosophy. You get in and get out with your food in a matter of minutes. And with today’s busier and faster paced lifestyles, it’s very easy to turn to develop a habit of eating fast food.

Eating fast food is not the problem in itself, it’s eating fast food all the time that causes problems. An article the January 2005 issue of The Lancet details the results of a study by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute wherein test subjects ate at fast food restaurants multiple times in a week. People who ate fast food frequently gained an additional ten pounds compared to those who only ate once per week. In addition, they had developed an increased risk for diabetes.

Fast food has become ingrained in our culture. If you’re in a foreign land and you’re not particularly adventurous when it comes to trying the local cuisine, fast food will probably be your safe haven. The point isn’t to completely avoid fast food. The point is for us to put more thought in the food we choose to eat. Instead of thinking, “I’m tired and I’m hungry, I’ll go get fast food,” we should think of healthier alternatives rather than choosing the easy way out. Be more selective in what you order. Be more selective in the fast food restaurant you choose.

We’ll next discuss ways to eat healthily at fast food restaurants.