A 2013 study published in JAMA Pediatrics showed that children and adolescents take in more calories in fast food and other restaurants than at home.
When fast food frequently replaces nutritious foods in your diet, this is what it does
Read More: http://www.healthline.com/health/fast-food-effects-on-body
Take Action: https://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/countering-fast-foods-health-effects
Do Not Enter
As of 2012, there were 263,944 fast food restaurants in America with a combined revenue of well over $100 billion.
A Gallup poll revealing that 8 in 10 Americans eat fast food at least monthly and half saying they eat it weekly.
But did you know what they serve up and how they manage food as a business?
1. MCDONALD’s is the world’s largest distributor of toys. Now you know why your kids are drawn to their joints. Incidentally they sell 75 burgers every second. And its daily customer traffic is larger than the entire population of UK.
McDonald’s hamburgers don’t really rot. The burgers have very low moisture content, which basically leaves the meat dehydrated.
A 30 oz. McDonald’s sweet tea has as much sugar in it as two Snickers bars.
The McNuggets is apparently a mixture created when the bones and carcass of a leftover chicken are mixed together in a food processor.
2. Did you know that Colonel Sanders was disgusted by KFC’s food after he left the company? He once described the food as “the worst fried chicken I’ve ever seen” and said the gravy was like “wallpaper paste.”
3. Taco Bell has attempted to open stores in Mexico two different times. Their food was labeled as “American Food.”
4. Subway is the largest restaurant chain in the world. There are more Subways in the world than McDonald’s. After receiving complaints that their “footlong” sub was only 11 inches long, Subway released a statement that said, “”With regards to the size of the bread and calling it a footlong, ‘Subway Footlong’ is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for the sub sold in Subway Restaurants and not intended to be a measurement of length.”
David DiSalvo, a writer at Forbes, decided to really look into the eggs in popular fast food breakfast sandwiches. What he discovered was that their “eggs” are really a strange concoction that includes eggs and “premium egg blend.” It also includes glycerin, a solvent found in soap and shaving cream, dimethylpolysiloxane, a silicone that can also be found in Silly Putty, and calcium silicate, a sealant used on roofs and concrete.
5. The large fries at Five Guy’s are the most unhealthy fries in America. They have nearly 1,500 calories and 71 grams of fat.
6. About two new Starbucks have opened every day since 1987.
7. Most fast food restaurants don’t list the exact ingredients in their lettuce but many places dust their salads with propylene glycol to keep the leaves crisp. While considered safe for consumption, propylene glycol can be found in antifreeze and sexual lubricants.
8. Despite the addition of some healthy kids’ meal options, less than 1% of all kids’ meal combinations met recommended nutrition standards. In 2012, fast food restaurants spent $4.6 billion in total on all advertising. In fact McDonald’s, spent 2.7 times as much to advertise its products as all fruit, vegetable, bottled water, and milk advertisers combined. In 2012, preschoolers saw 1,023 fast food ads — 2.8 per day. Fast food restaurants continues to target black and Hispanic youth, who face higher risk for obesity and related diseases.
Take action: check out http://www.fastfoodmarketing.org/
Source: Multiple including Huffington post.
To preserve the meat the industry uses Nitrates/Nitrites which are carcinogenic.
[tag: mcdonald’s, fast food, burger, food]
William Neuman talks about how the F.D.A. and food companies make labels for serving sizes that bear little reality to the way people eat.
Watch this video at
http://www.nytimes.com/video/2010/02/05/business/1247466717641/serving-size-sleight-of-hand.html
Read this good news report from CSPI.
They found that average price per serving of healthy fruits and vegetables was less than unhealthy options for both snacks and side dishes.
The average price per serving of the fruit or vegetable snacks was $0.34, while that of the unhealthy snacks was $0.67.
The average price per serving of vegetable side dishes was $0.27, compared to $0.31 for the less healthful side dishes.
Differences in calories per serving between the fruits and vegetables versus the less healthful options often were large, with fruits and vegetables having 15 to 260 fewer calories than the unhealthy snacks and 35 to 150 fewer calories than the unhealthy side dishes.
STUDY:
From Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
People were asked to estimate the calories in their meals, then the researchers collected their receipts and figured out how many calories the meals actually contained.
FINDINGS:
· The study found that Teens underestimated the calories in fast-food meals by 34% and parents of school-age children by 23%
· One-fourth of participants underestimated the calories in their meals by at least 500 calories.
· Teens’ fast-food orders contained an average of 756 calories, but they underestimated their orders by an average of 259 calories.
· School-age children got meals that had an average of 733 calories, but their parents’ guestimates were 175 calories too low.
· Diners at Subway underestimated the calories in their orders by a larger amount than diners at McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Wendy’s and Dunkin’ Donuts.
So How does Fast food meal compare to home cooked food?
| Food | Calories | Fat |
| McDonald’s Big Mac | 563 | 33 grams |
| Medium-sized McDonald’s French fries | 384 | 20 |
| Medium-sized McDonald’s vanilla shake | 733 | 21 |
| Total for one meal | 1,680 calories | 74 grams |
| Burger King Whopper with cheese | 790 | 48 |
| Medium-sized Burger King French fries | 387 | 20 |
| Medium-sized Burger King vanilla shake | 667 | 35 |
| Total for one meal | 1,844 calories | 103 grams |
| Compare that to a meal prepared at home: | ||
| One-half of a roasted chicken breast | 142 | 3 grams |
| Medium-sized baked white potato | 130 | 0 |
| Half a cup of green peas | 67 | 0 |
| 8-ounce glass of 1% milk | 102 | 3 |
| 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce | 105 | 0 |
| Total for one meal | 546 | 5 grams |
Source: Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
So What can you do about it?
1. Eating fast food once in a while won’t hurt you, but too much of it can cause serious problems.
2. Keep in mind that kids ages 7 to 12 should eat about 2,200 calories per day, while adults should consume around 2,000 calories per day. Exercise levels and current weight can affect these numbers. Note the totals of the single meals at the fast food restaurants comprise almost a full day’s calories!
3. Some options for NOT-SO-BAD Fast Food Meal:
· Grilled Chicken Sandwich and Fruit Cup (Chick-fil-A)
· Chili-Topped Potato (Wendy’s)
· Chicken Teriyaki Bowl (Jack in the Box)
· Southwest Salad and Fruit n Yogurt Parfait (McDonalds)
· Veggie Burger and Garden Salad (Burger King)
· Veggie Delite Sandwich and Tomato Orzo Soup (Subway)
· Fresco Burrito Supreme and Pintos ‘n’ Cheese (Taco Bell)
For more information:
Check out http://www.fastfoodnutrition.org/
