Fast-Food: Is it Diminishes Health?
Mount Kailash, one of the most wonderful places in the entire universe. Their lives elephant-headed Lord Ganesh with his entire family. Lord Ganesh is one of the most celebrated God in India, he is everyone’s favorite and adorable. People have deep faith in him, they believe that he removes an obstacle from their life.
At the beginning of any holy occasion we all first worship Lord Ganesh so our task will accomplish without any obstacle also he recognized as the god of wisdom because he spreads the wisdom to people.
One fine day Lord Ganesh was thinking about to visit earth on last recent Ganesh festival. He wanted to meet people and bless them. At that time Narad Muni paid him an unexpected visit, as he always does. Narad Muni is considered as the great devotee of Lord Vishnu and very famous for his diplomacy. They were doing their usual talks, and in discussion Lord Ganesh expressed his desire to visit earth on Ganesh festival. Narad Muni was more than happy to accompany him on earth.
On the first day of the Ganesh festival, Lord Ganesh and Narad Muni started their journey to visit the people on earth. As they reached a city they took human form and started visiting various places. Lord Ganesh saw an enthusiasm in people for him and he blessed all the people. During their travel, Narad Muni asked him one question that, what he loves the most? Lord Ganesh simply replied that he loves the entire universe! He does not discriminate between human, animal, trees, gods of heaven or demons of hell whether they worship him or not. They are all equal in his eyes. Narad Muni smiled broadly and mockingly said that he was excepting food as an answer. On hearing this Lord Ganesh laughed loudly and agreed with him that he also loves food.
As a food came in conversation, Lord Ganesh asked Narad Muni, “let’s eat something. What do you want to eat, Narad?”
While walking and discussing this, suddenly Narad Muni saw one fast-food restaurant on their way and suggested, “why don’t we eat fast-food? I heard, nowadays most people on earth use to have fast-food regularly and it is also delicious. What do you suggest Lord?”
Lord Ganesh looked at a restaurant and with a gentle smile on his face, replied, “I was thinking why we don’t go to one of my devotee’s house and have the pleasure of traditional lunch of laddu and modak.”
Narad Muni frowned, “Why not fast-food?”
Lord Ganesh shook his head and with a smile asked, “Do you know what is meaning of fast-food and where and when it started and what is its impact on society?” Narad Muni replied negatively and showed interest in knowing more about fast-food.
Lord Ganesh started narrating, “During mid of 20th century the economic growth of country name America was escalating. This growth brought lots of opportunity for people, now obviously people wanted to lift their living standards, so also women started to go for a job. Due to women were also working, it was an easy option for people to eat which can easily available and quickly served to them. This was the reason for the growth of fast-food business, and do you know why burger, fries, wraps, pizza, and hotdogs are known as fast-food? Because it served to the customer in very less amount of time. Normally in a fast-food restaurant, food served on average within 5 to 15 minutes, which is a lesser time compared to a regular restaurant.”
Narad Muni asked curiously, “wow, so it saves time, who started this when and where?”
Lord Ganesh replied, “During early 20th century Automat and white castle is among first business of fast-food, well after mid of 20th century the businesses have been grown at rattling pace.”
On hearing this Narad Muni again asked curiously, “So where these business reach today? I mean what is the status of these businesses today?”
Lord Ganesh pleased with Narad Muni’s curiosity, “Narad these businesses doing extremely well today. McDonald, Dunkin’s Donuts, Burger King, Domino’s pizza and KFC are few well known foreign fast-food chains, which are doing great business here.”
Narad Muni interrupted, “and what about India, how Indian industries are doing? And …”
Lord Ganesh cuts in, “patience Narad, I will tell you everything.” He took a deep breath and continued, “Indian business-like café coffee day, Barista, Monginis are also doing great business.”
Narad Muni started self-applauding himself introvertly for his choice of having fast-food and in excitement, he said, “That is why we need to taste a fast-food, all people loves fast-food, let’s have it.”
Lord Ganesh stopped and calmed him and said, “I am not finished yet, I told you about history and business of fast-food, but don’t you want to know whether it is good for health or not?”
Narad Muni eventually looked in his eye, he could only see the love and care for people. Nard tried to control his eagerness and replied, “well of course yes! It is always good to know about what we feed to our stomach.”
Lord Ganesh’s facial gesture was indicating that he is worried a lot for people, with the more serious tone he continued, “it is true that nowadays this kind of food has become more popular and many people’s first choice, but it doesn’t mean that fast-food is good for health. Sometimes it can cause major health issues and individual may pay a high price.”
Narad Muni asked with doubt, “What do you mean? Are you suggesting that people must not eat fast-food?”
Lord Ganesh again cuts in, “Narad let me complete first.” He paused for two minute and took a deep breath, “To run business successful these business does compromise with food quality. They use additives many of them are unacceptable for the human body and in the name of nutrition, there is a complete drought. Thus, an individual can face many kinds of miseries. These kinds of food may look attractive but, health point of view they are worst.”
Narad Muni asked curiously, “oh, so what ingredients these fast-foods contain which make them so averse? That you are opposing it.”
Lord Ganesh responded quickly with intense tone, “business! these fast-foods contain business!”
Narad with shock, “what?”
Lord Ganesh closed his eyes and calmed himself, he continued, “yes, these fast-foods contain business and another name of a business is money.”
Narad was confused. He did not understand the answer of Lord Ganesh and with confusion, “I don’t understand Lord.”
Lord Ganesh laughed sarcastically and continue, “These types of food are completely engineered to make person addictive. Fast-food giants used it as a pure business strategy because they need to sustain in the market and need to give challenging competition to other fast-food giants. To make food testier they use excess amount salt, sugar, fat, and other ingredients and as I mention earlier that, in name of nutrition, have very less to offer. These types of food are also known as processed food. When a person eats something sweet than the sugar level increases in his blood, an element calls insulin which delivers this sugar of blood to the body cell, thus sugar level maintains in our blood. If a person eats and drinks fast-food desserts and cold-drinks on a regular basis then there will be an excess amount of sugar in the blood, due to this, the functionality of insulin can become defective. These create circumstances for a disease like type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes at a very early age.” Lord Ganesh stopped and looked at Narad Muni. Narad Muni’s face was expressionless, he couldn’t speak anything.
Lord Ganesh continued, “Narad, the story doesn’t end here. Fast-food constitutes too many fried ingredients like patty in burger and fries are too much fried, also these fast-foods contain much amount of saturated fat, which invites the high cholesterol and makes a person obese. I assume that you would know that obesity is always unfavorable for the body. Cholesterol and obesity create high chances of serious heart disease. To make food testier they use much amount of salt. Salt contains sodium and over needed sodium can make people suffer from high blood pressure problem. Yes! I forgot one thing, fast-food desserts and cold drinks have a very high sugar level, which destroys enamel. Enamel is protecting layer around teeth, due to an annihilation of enamel, people faces cavity problem.” Lord Ganesh with a smile, “and you know that teeth are very important, healthy teeth make people more appealing.”
Narad Muni was not able to speak after hearing all this because before hearing all these he was introvertly self-applauding. After two minutes with the worried tone he asked, “So, Lord are you suggesting that people must abandon the fast-food?”
“If they can, yes! But if they don’t, they must eat fast-food in certain limit not regularly. India has been adopting many things from the west for decades. Adopting is a good thing but blindly adopting and following it, certainly not good. The culture of fast-food is one of the many adoptions, but people need to think where it can become a curse for them. Till today most of the Indian women are housewives and they prepare food for their families with care and love. People must respect it and need to give first preference to homemade food.” A kind smile was playing on Lord Ganesh’s face. He knows that people can ameliorate themselves.
Narad Muni took a deep breath and with the satisfaction, he said, “Lord, you always satisfy everyone’s curiosity, thank you for this priceless wisdom. Truly you are the god of wisdom. Let’s go to your devotee’s house and eat tasty traditional food.”
Lord Ganesh mockingly, “Narad, if you want to taste a fast-food, you can. I will wait for you after that we will go to my devotee’s house.”
Narad Muni joyfully replied, “Why do we ask for a way, where we don’t want to go!” Both laughed loudly and continued their journey.
Thank You,
Nikhil Musale
Here are some references of my story which can be helpful to you to understand this subject more deeper.