1. Fast food has a very high energy density. That’s about 65 percent more than a typical diet and more than twice the recommended healthy diet, forcing us to eat more than we would otherwise. Energy density refers to the amount of calories an item of food contains in relation to its weight. Foods with a high energy density confuse the brain’s control system for hunger, which is based solely on portion size.
2. British researchers from the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Center and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have determined that frequent meals at McDonald’s or KFC or Burger King are more likely to make people gain weight and become obese. This is because fast food not only contains many more calories than conventional food, but is also more likely to undermine the normal appetite control system.
3. By eating a Big Mac and fries, the body consumes almost twice as many calories as if you ate the same weight of pasta and salad. Fast food restaurants feed the obesity epidemic through constant advertising by getting people to eat more calories than they need.
4. McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King menu items using nutritional data from the web sites of fast food restaurants found that when we eat foods with a higher energy density, we do not reduce portion sizes, So we get a lot of calories from us. need. Our current society has a weak innate ability to recognize foods with high energy density. Food intake is measured by portion size, yet a fast food meal contains many more calories than a similarly sized portion of healthy food. The conclusion is that we are all being fooled into eating too much food.
5. Eating portions regularly makes people obese, but since the food has a high energy density, people gain weight. In evolutionary terms, the human appetite was designed for foods with low energy density. In other parts of the world where these foods are still a staple diet, obesity is virtually non-existent. Our bodies were never designed to deal with the high energy dense foods we consume in the West. This is a major reason why fast food contributes to the major increase in obesity.
6. Another fact is that fast food can accelerate people’s risk of clogging of arteries which can lead to heart attack. Researchers at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Francisco have demonstrated that a certain type of fat, called oxidized fat, can accelerate plaque build-up in the arteries. And many fast foods like hamburgers, pizza and french fries are loaded with oxidized fats. The conclusion is that fast food meals tend to be high in saturated fat and low-quality carbohydrates, white bread and lots of soda. Our bodies need fiber and more healthy types of fat. Fast food represents a dietary pattern that is the opposite of what is recommended for a healthy body.
