Festival foods are easy to eat but hard on the body

It's that time of year again. The leaves are falling, pumpkins are being sold and, of course, festivals are occurring.

Back where I come from, festivals are everyone's favorite. The best part of any festival is obviously the food. Who doesn't love food?

Unfortunately, even though funnel cakes, giant turkey legs and anything you could put into a deep fryer sounds amazing, they are terrible for you.

If you ask people how much they eat at a festival, nearly everyone will say they indulge themselves.

It can be OK to eat a little festival food here and there, but when you indulge yourself in it is when it can cause problems.

The amount of calories and fats that are in festival foods are ridiculous.

As a matter of fact, WebMD states those funnel cakes everyone loves so much consist of 760 calories and 44 grams of fat.

If you think that sounds bad, just wait. For all you giant turkey leg lovers, one leg contains  1,136 calories and 54 grams of fat. You can find a list of how many calories and fat are in any festival food, but it is not pretty.

Festivals promote bad habits to our society. They teach us that it is perfectly fine to eat excessive amounts of deep fried foods, and they get people hooked. People love the way the food tastes so much that they come back year after year, sometimes only for the food.

 I know from personal experience that I am one of those people.

I enjoy getting as many fattening foods at the festival as I can. The smell of walking past each food place makes you want more and more, no matter how full you are. This is the worst thing to do though. Eating when you are not hungry is never a good thing.

This can be difficult to resist, especially with so many food vendors there. For example, for anyone who has been to the Taste of Chicago, there are 70 different food vendors.

So, how do you avoid them all? You can't.

Just be wise about what food you eat. If you are full, just walk away and tell yourself you do not need it.

Those fattening foods you shove down your throat can lead to obesity and high cholesterol.

The way adults eat at festivals also has impact on their children. If they see you indulging yourself with food, then they will think it is OK for them to do the same thing. We should avoid this, considering America's obesity rates keep increasing every year.

Next time there is a festival near you, just remember that it is OK to eat a little bit of the food here and there, but don't go crazy.

It is not going to be easy, but you will be grateful you did not stuff your face in the long run, I promise.