Why is fast food slowing us down?

Answer 1

Because, despite its 'fast' name (which refers only to the speed of service in delivering it to hungry patrons) fast food is generally high not only in calories, but in fat and sodium as well.

Being high in calories means that a typical patron is going to ingest (take in) more calories than he winds up using. This leads to weight gain, one form of slowing down: a heavier body is harder to move.

The high fat content leads to digestive difficulties -- the body prefers to burn carbohydrates first, since they're easier to convert back into energy -- which leads to storage problems. One storage place is on the insides of arteries, which in turn narrows them, leading to difficulties in blood flow. This results in a chronic feeling of sluggishness, one of the early warning signs of Heart disease.

This is only made worse by the vast amounts of flavor-enhancing salt found in most fast foods, which (among other things) causes those same arteries to constrict further, limiting blood flow even more.

The main solution, which (judging by our waistlines) most of us really don't want to hear, is to eat less, exercise more, and restrict our fast food intake.