Moyeenudin

 Health Implications on consumption of food at fast food outlets in Chennai

 

Abstract:

The recent lifestyles of youngsters has changed in such a way that, it led to an impact on their dietary patterns. Nowadays youngsters prefer to go for the food which is available in fast food outlets, although these foods are high in caloric content, sugar, salt and fat some of which will also laden with preservatives, there is a great demand for this foods and the expansion of multinational fast foods are the evidence for its growth. The health implication starts with overweight and hypertension which will reduce the life span. Foods prepared at fast food outlets will be at extreme heat to complete the cooking process. Fast foods have become a prominent feature of the diet among youngsters and the main reason is fast food outlets deliver food quickly which is convenient to lifestyle in metro cities and also in developing countries. A balanced and nutritional diet is required to have a healthy life and it is a responsibility of fast food outlets to full fill the dietary requirements of consumers. The objective of the paper is to highlight the health implications on consuming food and beverages with high calorific value, inadequate cooking, food laden with colorings and additives.

Key Words: Fast Foods, Food contamination, Inadequate cooking, Food Additives, Health implications.

Introduction:

 

The fast food outlets in Chennai have been grown to the max in the recent trend that is because of the people lifestyle with the convenience on receiving food. The foods that are prepared from fast foods outlets will consist high nutritional value with high calories, sugar and fat, and it will lead to various health implications. Consuming food at fast food outlets leads to cardio metabolic disorders and this is considered as a global health issue in recent trend ¹. Fast food has strong association with the development of type2 diabetes and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in adults ². There are too much of calories found in foods like Fats, salt and sugar, has insufficient vitamins, minerals, and protein.  Food is a basic need for survival and that has to be in proper ratio according to age and type of work to have a better health, irregular balance in food consumption will leads to bad nutritional value and that will spoil the proper functioning of the body to regulate ³. In recent trend snacks such as pizza, burgers, tacos, Fried chicken Club sandwiches, and instant noodles; in addition kebabs fall under the fast food category. Fast food has strong association with the development of type2 diabetes and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in adults. Food is a basic requirement for human survival; it helps in living healthy. Food and beverage is a basic commodity which fills stomach with satisfaction and makes us happy and emotionally satisfies with taste. Especially after the globalization fast food outlets has gowned faster in cities, especially in Chennai. The foods which are deep fried have high calories because it fully cooked in fat such as vanaspathi, coconut oil, and ghee, some of the foods have already laden with more calories, Mutton & Chicken kebabs, Kentucky French Chicken, Crumb fried chicken, Nuggets and croquette are the ultimate sources of unsaturated fatty acids, increasing hypertension, and it leads to blocking arteries on the arterial walls of the heart ⁴. Because mainly these foods are fried in full of fat with intense heat due to which there is a substance produced carcinogen acts as a cancer causing agent. In addition it is being served with Acrylamide substance that damages the nervous system; they are also laden with sodium that increases the risk of hypertension and heart diseases.  Mutton kebabs, samosas and Patties, from food outlets contain high amounts of unsaturated fatty acids. Foods prepared from margarines, cheese spreads, and frying oils to preserve the food for longer duration will become unhealthy ⁵.  Consuming high calorie foods causing health implications, Fast food outlets are using some additives and colourings which are harmful to health. Fast food items are tastier, but the effects on the health are detrimental ⁶.

Noodles are most commonly consumed in western countries and it is prepared from unleavened dough. However in today’s trend the instant noodles are easy to prepare and it is easy to cook and serve ⁷, by added preservatives with the addition of certain sodium additives, due to high carbohydrates and sodium it is detrimental to health, as well as it is not containing required proteins, fibre, vitamins. Noodles are coated with wax kind of substances like Propylene glycol and added with MSG (monosodium glutamate) which is not advised for regular consumption ⁸, It has harmful effects like hypertension, cancer and harmful to health. Foods prepared with preservatives the main reason is to avoid the formation of bacteria in longer storage, The action of preservatives not only preventing the food from spoilage as well as they also can prevent you from pleasure of  healthy life⁹. The main effects of food preservatives on the body will be in various degrees with type of preservative added with the food and it also have changes with age and health of a person. The major effects of preservatives are breathing difficulties reducing the preservatives from diet will have relief from diseases like asthma and the another effect will be the behavioural changes in recent years most of the foods contains preservatives and it mainly affects the young generation like children’s are becoming more hyperactive the major cause is consumption of foods with preservatives and additives¹⁰. Preservatives are also containing a substance called carcinogens which has harmful effects when it gets digested it leads to cancer. The rural areas produced foods recipes have both nutritional and medicinal values¹¹. Food habit in Chennai among students and youngsters had a tremendous change in the past two decades the most preferred foods are from fast food outlets which have high calorific value, salt and sugar content¹². In spite of great attention in gathering nutritional needs for daily consumption in order to attain good healthy life style, most of the youngsters are not particular about their food and disregard with their healthy food¹³.

 

Materials & Methods

The quantitative and qualitative methods of Statistical analysis is carried out by collecting the data’s for this research. A total of 140 questionnaires were distributed randomly among the consumers of fast food in Chennai, out of which only 125 were completed and used for analysis. This study was carried out from June 2018 to August 2019 at fast food outlets in Chennai.  The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 24 version) is used for data analysis and the data comparisons was conducted after the collection of data’s  from youngsters, who consume food at fast foods in Chennai. Secondary Data has been collected by literature survey.

Results & Discussions

 

Figure 1 Comparison on consumption of Vegetables with Pizza in a week

            In Figure 1. It shows the association in consumption of pizza with vegetables, the results having the value 1 shows as 1 to 2 times consumption in a week, value 2 for more than three times and 3 denotes daily consumption, at this juncture youngsters shows their interest on consumption of pizza minimum twice in a week comparatively similar with the consumption of vegetables. As well as some of the consumers are aware with health implication on consuming pizza thereby consumption is reduced to twice in a month with the value 4 and also by value 5 indicates that youngsters stopped consuming pizza. The majority is similar for pizza and vegetables with by value 1 twice in a week and the daily consumption of vegetables with the value 3 has an elevation, shows the awareness of health between the consumers. 

Figure 2 Comparison on consumption of Fruits with Burgers in a week

The Figure 2. Illustrates the comparison between the consumption of burgers with fruits among youngsters in a week, with the value 1 indicating once or twice, 2 for more than three times and 3 stands for daily consumption. Here the results are similar as in the case of consumption of pizza and vegetables, the majority shows once or twice for consumption of fruits and burger in a week and simultaneously only few have habits of consuming fruits in daily basis also it denotes even after knowing the health implications youngsters are addicted to fast foods.

 

The food choices depend on the age especially youngster’s shows higher interest in consuming foods from fast food outlets, the correlation study between nature of job and food habits are showing the majority youngsters preferring fast food outlets is significant with Pearson correlation coefficient, r, .261 for fried chicken and wish to be regular for consuming pizza with the statistically significant (r = -084 ) this value shows that youngster from heart of the city is mostly addicted with fast foods by having P-value = .003, shows that youngsters are frequently consuming fried chicken.

 

The consumption of pizza shows relatively in high frequency with the p- value .350 as it is one of the most popular Italian foods around the globe and the comparison between consumption of vegetables and pizza shows the majority of the consume pizza regularly than vegetables simultaneously many youngsters not consuming fruits regularly by having lesser ratio of consumption in Chennai from more than two decades it is considered as an easily available food ¹⁴. The pizza is loaded with cheese, sauce and also with meat will not get easily digested, due to high calories with fats and other mineral leads to acidity¹⁵. The basic topping for the pizzas are tomato sauce and it will not go with people who have acidity complaints because tomatoes have high acidic content. The Main reason for acidity is due to people tends to eat more number of pizzas, by substituting their normal diet with pizza like the consumption of sweet has coefficient r = .0005 with p-value .955. However there are various views related with the consumption of pizza in daily life like the ingredients added shows it is a healthy food with so many herbs and vegetables meat and milk products, especially when it is baked with the dietary needs. The stunning taste of pizza makes people to feel why to stop eating it. The major reason is it is heavily added with sodium and carbohydrates; cheese that has high calorie counts a cause of hypertension¹⁶, cardiovascular disease and obesity. Consuming pizza regularly will lead to poor health, results in health implications.

 

The consumption of burger among youngsters are in regular basis may become detrimental to health the majority of youngsters are consuming burgers with coefficient r = -.121 with p-value .178. The Burgers are mostly rich in dietary cholesterol. It will raise levels of cholesterol in your blood and that leads to hypertension and it became a harbinger for heart disease, this study also show that the consumption of meat also frequent for the consumers who consume burgers with the coefficient r= .363^** with a p-value .000 shows a greater significance, furthermore a double hamburger contains 25.2 grams of saturated fat, and 193 milligrams of cholesterol that increases the percent of the daily calorific value in diet.  By consuming a single-patty stuffed with a burger you can reduce 3.5 grams of saturated fat and 26 milligrams of cholesterol. Generally burgers are with the blend of mayonnaise, meat, cheese, patty and deep fried bacon added with sauces rich in sugar and sodium, and they tend to raise the cholesterol and sodium levels. So burgers are considered as one of the worst junk foods with more than 1000 calories in each serving which can be raised or reduced according to the preference of a consumer.

 

The correlation between consumption of sweets and pizza shows the results coefficient r= .005 with a p-value .955 has a higher significance on consumption of Junk food and a most favourite sweet dish of youngsters like Donuts; it is mostly sprinkled or spayed with many colourful and delicious toppings like chocolate, jam and appetizing sugar Candies, due to blending of these ingredients along with the unsaturated oils, sugar and dough fried in intense heat, when fried they release harmful cancer causing substance carcinogens and the unsaturated fatty acids causing harmful effects on the body and the consumption of meat and sweets also has the value (r=-.047) with a p-value .600 shows the significance of consumers. The frequent consumption of these foods will elevate the sugar and cholesterol levels.

 

Conclusion

 

This study reveals the food habits among youngsters are mostly related with consumption of foods like pizza, burgers and deep fried meat from fast food outlets^{15, 16}. Hence awareness to the fast foods consumer is required and the fast food outlets should have alternatives on their food which have proper nutritional values and without preservatives, food colouring, and food additives. In addition medical practitioners need to know about that these kinds of eating habits are the cause of major diseases which are generally affecting the people in Chennai. The fast food outlets and food handlers should focus on hygiene standards and the nutritional value of the food which in turn help the community to grow with health. Food safety education is essential for food handlers and consumers as poor food habits result in food related diseases. The findings suggest that in modern business trend, it is difficult to stop the foods which are available from the market easily but consumers can opt for the foods which have good nutritional value, pastries are made out of rich milk cream and it is delicious when it is combined with sponge cake, and cake is one of the perfect choices for desserts ¹⁰. Yet, an enticing piece of cake contains sugar and fat combined with all-purpose flour rich in carbohydrates that contain high calories causing high blood glucose levels in the body. Likewise the fresh cream is topped on sponge cake added with chocolate, flavouring essence and some colouring agents are having harmful effects on health when it is frequently consumed.