Food is a basic necessity. One can not live without food for than ten days. Man in order to fulfill his tummy has been known to eat different kinds of food. When there was no fire, fruits and vegetables were eaten in the raw form. When fire was invented man started hunting animals and meat from them was smoked to eat. With the passage of time and advancement of technology modern cooking came into existence. However people do not need to hunt now. What most cultures do today is farming, ranching, and fishing. The meat from the cattle, chicken and fish is simply taken from the supermarkets and cooked.

A person should adopt a healthy lifestyle and develop healthy eating habits. A healthy meal is one which contains a variety of foods from the basic food groups (meat, dairy, grains, fruits and vegetables, breads and pasta). Carbohydrates, fats, proteins should be taken in proportion required by our body. But in todays fast pace world nobody has the time to actually go through the calories counters and see what food contains what food group and how many calories. The trend that is followed these days is that of western food.

Rich in calories, loaded with saturated fats and high in refined sugars these western foods are simply irresistible. They appeal the taste buds in such a manner that a person finds it difficult to stop his hand when once started eating. The only bad thing this western diet does is increase weight. All the calories, saturated fats and refined carbohydrates definitely make the food taste wonderful but they slowly and gradually add up to excess body fat. In today’s world of technology when computers have already restricted peoples exercise to just going to the work place and sitting online, doing everything with the click of the mouse such eating habits do not predict a fit and healthy lifestyle. The kids today learn to say burger and fries even before they learn to say the word ‘Mom’. It is time for these moms to act a little smart and realize that these fast foods are just gathering up extra fat around the child’s tummy and not actually making the child healthy from inside. They should realize that they are not doing their kids a favor by buying them such foods but actually weakening them from inside. All this fat can cause a lot of diseases in the later age. They can cause problems related to cholesterol, problems related to obesity which are one of the major risk factors for getting type two diabetes.

The influence of the western food is no more restricted to the western world only. The Asian countries which were known for their healthier lifestyles have also been affected by the western food. Food chains of different burgers, fried chicken, fries and soft drinks which were a part of the western world have hit their market and are the cause of the increasing obesity problem.