1. Fast food has a very high energy density. About 65 percent higher than a typical diet and double that of a recommended healthy diet, leading us to eat more than we would otherwise. Energy density indicates how many calories a food contains in relation to its weight. Foods with a high energy density throw off the brain’s appetite control systems, which are based solely on portion size.
2. British researchers from the Medical Research Council’s Human Nutrition Center and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have found that people who repeatedly eat at McDonald’s, KFC or Burger King are more likely to gain weight and become obese. This is because fast food not only contains many more calories than traditional food, but is also more likely to subvert normal appetite control systems.
3. By eating Big Mac and fries, the body uses almost twice as many calories as with the same amount of pasta and salad. Fast-food restaurants are feeding the obesity epidemic by tricking people into consuming far more calories than they need through persistent advertising.
4. Using nutritional data from fast food restaurant websites, McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King menu items found that when we eat high-energy-density foods, we don’t reduce portion size, so we end up consuming far more calories than we do to need. Today’s society has a poor innate ability to recognize foods with high energy densities. Food intake is judged by portion size, yet a fast food meal contains many more calories than a similarly sized portion of a healthy meal. The bottom line is that we are all tempted to overeat.
5. People get fat when they eat normal portion sizes, but since the food has high energy density, people gain weight. Evolutionarily, the human appetite was designed for foods with a low energy density. In other parts of the world where these foods are still staples, obesity is virtually non-existent. Our bodies were never designed to cope with the high energy density foods consumed in the West. This is one of the main reasons why fast food contributes to the great rise in obesity.
6. Another fact is that fast food can increase the risk of clogged arteries, which can lead to heart attacks. Researchers at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Francisco have shown that a certain type of fat called oxidized fat can accelerate the formation of plaque in arteries. And many types of fast food like hamburgers, pizza, and french fries are loaded with oxidized fat. The bottom line is that fast food meals are high in saturated fat and low-quality carbohydrates, white bread, and lots of soda. Our bodies need fiber and healthier types of fats. Fast food represents a diet that is the opposite of what is recommended for a healthy body.
Thanks to Glenn Freiboth