Maria Emmerich - Keto Restaurant Favorites: More Than 175 Tasty Classic Recipes Made Fast, Fresh, and Healthy

General Index

When did it become so common to eat out? Eating out used to be a rare treat. Now, if you walk into a restaurant during the lunch hour, it is usually packed! People are attracted to fast food because of the low cost and the convenience, and even children are drawn to the brilliant marketing that large restaurant chains put out there. Sometimes it just seems so much easier to eat out rather than go grocery shopping and cook at home.

But eating out comes with a priceliterally as well as figuratively.

I hear many complaints about the cost of healthy eating, but the cost of eating out is much higher. My family of four went to brunch the other day, and we all got eggs and salmon with extra hollandaise, a side of chorizo, and a side of bacon. Craig ordered organic coffee while the boys and I drank water. The bill? Sixty-three dollars! For eggs! Seriously, people. Its almost comical that I had gasped at the idea of paying four dollars for a dozen eggs at the grocery store the day before.

I understand that some people are on a tight food budget and worry about spending more on groceries to cook at home. I get that; I count my pennies, too! However, there are six very busy coffee shops in my small town that are always packed with customers ordering four-dollar mochas. There are lines outside of Chipotle to buy eight-dollar burritos when you can make them at home for a lot less. Restaurants are thriving, and eating out costs way more than eating in.

And lets talk about what were actually getting for all that extra money were spending to eat out rather than cook at home. In 2011, a lawsuit against Taco Bell alleged that its taco meat was only 35 percent beef. Taco Bell fired back proudly that its meat was 88 percent beef and 12 percent seasoningsbut those seasonings include things like chemicals to change its texture and taste, sugars, artificial colors and flavors, and preservatives. These are not the nutrients that our body needs to thrive. Worse, according to a 2008 study, fast food meat in general contains, in addition to skeletal muscle, peripheral nerve tissue, cartilage, bone, and plant material. If that doesnt deter you from eating that junk, I dont know what will.

Even though real, whole foods from quality sources may seem expensive at first, most people tell me that they end up saving money on their grocery bills because they arent buying pricey processed junkwhich only leaves them hungrier and craving more junk.

If youre thinking that youre willing to spend extra on eating out because you dont have time to cook, I have a suggestion: instead of going to the gym and walking on a boring treadmill for thirty minutes, then being pressed for time and stressed out because nothing is ready for dinner, walk around the grocery store while you shop for food and then dance while you cook your family a healthy dinner. Its cheaper than driving to Applebees, and its so much healthier!

Have you seen the 2004 movie Supersize Me? Im not usually one for documentaries, but Morgan Spurlock sure made his movie worth watching! He decided to eat nothing but food from McDonalds for one month and filmed the entire experiment. The first time he was asked if he wanted to supersize his meal at McDonalds, Spurlock enthusiastically agreed; he had a rule that if he was offered a supersized meal, he had to say yes. He received his meal, happily walked back to his car, and gobbled down a giant burger, fries, and soda. Before he even left the parking lot, he felt queasy, and his not-so-happy meal eventually came back up.

But something interesting happened as the days went by: he began to crave the same high-sugar meals that had once made him sick. At the beginning of the experiment, the food was clearly toxic to his system, but toward the end, he felt irritable, anxious, and depressed unless he was getting that same food in regular doses. In other words, he was going through physical withdrawal.

Large fast-food chains spend a lot of money on developing food additives and smells that are literally addictive, and sadly, its working. Spurlocks experience was so dramatic that nutrition experts use his movie to prove an important fact: not only is fast food unhealthy, but it also can make us addicts.

The first things that come to mind when we hear physical addictions are probably alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. But research shows that some of the ingredients in fast food can have a similar addictive effect. Fast-food burgers, overstuffed burritos, french fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, and even fast-food chicken breasts are loaded with sugar and highly processed carbohydrates. Eating foods with a lot of sugar triggers the release of a brain chemical called dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter thats also triggered by drugs like heroin and cocaine. When our brains get that hit of dopamine, its pleasurable, and were inclined to repeat the experience. But over time, our brains adjust to the trigger and release less and less dopamine in response to it. That means we need more of the feel-good foods to get the same pleasurable experience, and we seek them out more and moreeven though theyre bad for us.

Even if you plan on choosing a healthy option, once you enter a fast-food restaurant, the overwhelming smells attract you to the less-healthy options instead. (Do you really want a salad, or do you want those delicious-smelling french fries?) Immediately after you eat your meal, the spike in dopamine creates a feeling of euphoria, but soon after, your blood sugar crashes and your mood plummets. You crave more sugar-filled foods to restore those good feelings. Fast-food fans tend to overeat in order to feed their addictions.

Studies also show that when you eat a lot of fast food, overeating itself becomes habitual because youre not getting the nutrients you need, even though a single fast-food meal packs as many calories as the average person should consume in a whole day. Unfortunately, fast food is extremely calorie-dense but devoid of nutrients. Most of the products on the menu come from food products, far removed from the farms, fields, and orchards where food naturally comes from. This means that they are less nutritious and leave our brains and bodies unsatisfied.