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Food In Fast Food

Decent Essays

Living in a society encompassed by innovation and strict schedules, we cannot help but choose the ingredients most prevalent and available. Animals. Animal-based products make up the foundation of fast food in fast food chains such as McDonalds and Taco Bell, even grocery stores. Deli meats, rotisserie chickens, soups, and cheeses are all foods we grew up with and never thought twice about eating. The reality is…we do not need to be consuming animal based products. Meat harms the body and is no longer needed in the human diet. There is a stigma around a plant based diet, that it provides little to no protein; nevertheless, all things that grow from this Earth contain proteins. New York Times author, Sophie Egan answers the question of daily protein intake, explaining that the recommended daily protein intake for men and women rests in between 46 and 56 grams a day. Despite this recommendation, the average intake in America is 100 grams of protein per day (Egan, How Much Protein Do We Need?). Many Americans believe that they do not consume enough protein, so they eat chicken, steak, and other meats. In a 9 ounce. steak, is roughly 80 grams of protein and nearly two times the recommended calorie intake from protein. Nutritionist Rochelle San Gabriel explains in a private interview that if you choose to continue eating meat, use it as an ingredient to flavor your food as opposed to being the main course. Too much protein harms the body, damaging the kidneys, and causing inflammation of other organs (Doctor Oz, The Dr. Oz Show). If anything, Americans need to be eating less meat in order to sustain a healthy diet. Meat is naturally harder to digest because of its protein density. To understand why, you need to know what protein is and how our body reacts to it. Protein is built up of amino acids, which aid in the “synthesis of proteins, enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, [and] metabolic pathways” (Greenfield, Ben Greenfield Fitness). Our body cannot produce the amino acids it needs, so consume them through protein. In order to break apart the proteins to absorb the essential amino acids, our body produces enzymes which are in our stomach acid. Although, it is not the stomach acid, or

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