Wellness Wednesday

The Fast Food Phenomenon

The Millennial Generation likes everything fast, including their food and the health problems that come with it...

The BBC recently conducted a study and found that most people ate fast food an average of two days per week. However, one out of six millennials (16-34 year olds) ate fast food twice a day. The study also found that half of those surveyed thought that a meal wasn't a meal unless it had meat, and that the daily portion of recommended meat was double that of what it actually was. This confusion over the amount of recommended meat has led to most adults eating fast food twice a day and only having six meatless days a month. 

From The BBC

The study also found that social media also had a significant influence on the dietary habits of millennials, as 40% had posted a picture to Instagram, 33% had cooked a recipe they found on social media, and 33% also were influenced by YouTube when grocery shopping. Over 25% of millennials were also found to skip breakfast , and were the most likely group to skip breakfast. The study, however, found a promising note in that 86% of millennials exercised regularly. The biggest problem that those who conducted the study found, was that the top-5 meal choices of millennials were all heavily based in calories, carbohydrates and sugars which can lead to obesity and ultimately the leading 11 cancers. 

Takeaway: While the increase in exercise is promising, all of those habits are easily nullified by the very poor dietary choices millennials are making for themselves.