The fast food menace - The hidden dangers in the Burgers

Burgers that are commercially made are mass-manufactured patties, buns and cheese! They need to stay in the shelf without getting spoilt and hence many preservatives are added to them. Most of these preservatives are sodium-based additives. While the US FDA classifies them under GRAS (Generally regarded as safe) category, too much of them is not good for the body.

These sodium-based additives like sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, sodium benzoate, Ajinomoto (Mono-sodium glutamate) etc can increase the blood pressure because of the sodium content.

Yet another additive that may be added to them is transfat – again to improve the texture, increase taste, the shelf-life, flakiness etc. Transfat can cause high cholesterol in the blood.

Further, most of these patties are fried and made in the restaurant, almost always in the same reheated oil, which increases cholesterol!

Also, these individual food items when combined together will amount to a massive calorie intake, but with low satiety quotient. They are hence almost always had along with French fries and Coke /Pepsi etc. This also adds up a whopping amount of fat and sugar calories and eventually ending up in a MASSIVE calorie surplus. This will not only make a person gain weight, but welcomes a host of other metabolic diseases, high triglycerides etc!

This is why they are generally considered to be unhealthy!

That said, it can be included in the diet once in a while, as long as the total calorie intake is handled… It will be even better if they are made at home!

Health Nuggets from NuvoVivo (www.nuvovivo.com)