A student is walking back home from school hungry: what options do they have? They could return home and choose a healthy meal to eat or alternatively they can resort to the popular option of fast food. Fast food has become a staple of American culture which has not just impacted the United States, but has spread around the world. Have we ever stopped for a second though and wondered that perhaps all of this fast food is doing us more harm than good? While fast food may have its benefits in time or money, it has become a large cause for health issues in people and causes much harm to the environment as well making it one of the most overrated aspects of modern western society. 

The first and arguably most important reason for fast food being overrated is the effects it has on our health. Fast food is often very high in sugar and consumed regularly can result in people developing issues related to high blood sugar levels. As the fast food industry has grown it has also been observed that obesity rates are on the rise. That is as a result of fast food being high in fats as well. Yet, fast food companies often don’t make any of this clear to their regular consumers causing many to keep eating fast food on a regular basis and enjoying it without knowing that they are seriously harming their health as they do so. Even in typically healthier places where natural diets are often very good for health have seen fast food introduced to those countries and following it, health issues. People in places with Mediterranean diets like Greece who never had to deal with ailments like diabetes are now dealing with it on a regular basis. This is no coincidence but simply a clear link between fast food and health problems. 

Further, another important reason why fast food is overrated is people don’t observe the high price fast food gives to the environment as well. The materials often used in the packaging of fast food can cause many environmental problems. Often, these bags and straws can end up in oceans, altering sea habitats which can force species to move. This can cause many bad effects in terms of biodiversity and environmental stability. Fast food has also been linked to pollution as looking around a fast food store will tell you, there’s often trash everywhere. Many people just find it easier to throw these wrappings on the floor and fast food places make no effort to stop this. This pollution only makes Earth dirtier, further causing environmental consequences. 

Now there are some people who may argue that fast food in fact deserves its recognition and is not in any way overrated by arguing that it provides cheap, quick food to many people. It is true that fast food is quick to make and often cheap but what's important is human health and not slightly cheaper food. Every human life is priceless and not worth consuming popular fast food. There are often options for cheap food like salads among others that are very healthy and easy to make without endangering your health or the health of the environment.

To conclude, fast food is extremely overrated as its serious flaws including endangering  people’s health and the environment are overlooked by people in favor of taste and price. Unless the fast food industry takes steps towards addressing the problems it causes in people and the environment, we should seek alternatives to it and stop giving fast food more credit than it really deserves.