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Despite your best efforts, not every day will be full of your best eating habits. Sometimes you may slip and indulge in an extra sweet treat before bed or overdo it on the pasta at dinner, and these moments, so long as they don’t transform into regular habits, will have no bearing on the success of your healthy lifestyle. It’s when occasional treats turn into everyday decisions that your health will suffer and your body will reflect your unhealthy choices.
Fast food is one of the most common meals that people indulge in, and while they may be delicious, a habit of fast food breakfast sandwiches can do a number on your body after a while. If fast food is your vice and you find yourself falling for readymade breakfast sandwiches again and again, a registered dietitian breaks down what can happen to your body when this treat becomes a consistent lifestyle.
Unsurprisingly, fast food breakfast is not apt to be the healthiest option to start off your day. Aside from being calorie dense, those meals are also often loaded with a number of preservatives and are low in nutritional value, making them essentially empty calories. “Fast food breakfast sandwiches are loaded with sodium, trans fats, saturated fats and often sugar and preservatives. They are often served on refined grain breads which lack the fiber we might get in a whole wheat grain,” says registered dietitian Shena Jaramillo.
Although refined bread and the overwhelming amount of unhealthy ingredients in these fast food breakfast sandwiches are delicious, they can have lasting consequences on your body when eating on a consistent basis. “Regular consumption of fast food breakfast sandwiches can lead to unwanted weight gain, bloating, and potentially even GI distress related to the high fat content of the food choices,” Jaramillo warns.
Your body needs a nutrient dense diet to thrive, with an abundance of macro and micro nutrients to build strong muscles and leave you feeling satiated. Fast food breakfast sandwiches may fill you up temporarily, but the enjoyment will be short lived and you’ll be itching for a snack to fill your nutritional needs shortly after finishing the meal.
If you need to rely on fast food breakfast sandwiches more often than you would like, there are simple adjustments you can make to your order which will provide more value in your diet overall. “Some ways that one could improve the nutrient content of fast food breakfast sandwiches would be to see if there are options to add veggies to the meal. Often tomato, lettuce, or other veggies are available in the establishment and could be added to the sandwich. One could also choose to omit condiments like mayo or other high calorie products to reduce the overall caloric intake of the meal,” Jaramillo suggests.
At the end of the day, the occasional fast food breakfast won’t create any real lasting damage on your body, but over time it may actively work against your health goals, causing weight gain, bloating and other uncomfortable stomach issues that can easily be avoided. If taking care of your body is truly a priority, making breakfast at home is one of the easiest ways to start off your day on the right foot and nourish yourself with foods that can energize you, working for your goals instead of against them.
