Why fast food makes you get fat

BBC ^ | 22 October, 2003

[traumer]

Why fast food makes you get fat

The nutritional make up of fast food encourages people to gorge on it unintentionally, increasing their risk of obesity, research suggests. Experts at the Medical Research Council found most fast food is very dense in calories - you only need a small amount to bump up your calorific intake.

They found that these "energy dense" foods can fool people into consuming more calories than the body needs. The research is published in the journal Obesity Reviews.

Our bodies were never designed to cope with the very energy dense foods - Professor Andrew Prentice

A typical fast food meal has a very high energy density. It is more than one and a half times higher than an average traditional British meal and two and a half times higher than a traditional African meal.

The researchers concluded that a diet high in fast foods will increase a person's risk of weight gain and obesity - even though they may feel that they are eating no more than they would if they ate an average meal.

Subconscious ability

Researcher Professor Andrew Prentice, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "We all possess a weak innate ability to recognise foods with a high energy density.

"We tend to assess food intake by the size of the portion, yet a fast food meal contains many more calories than a similar-sized portion of a healthy meal.

"Since the dawn of agriculture, the systems regulating human appetite have evolved for the low energy diet still being consumed in rural areas of the developing world where obesity is almost non-existent.

"Our bodies were never designed to cope with the very energy dense foods consumed in the West and this is contributing to a major rise in obesity."

Professor Prentice drew particular attention to the consequences of a diet high in fast foods for children.

"Children have not yet developed any of the learned dietary restraint that needs to be exerted by anyone wishing to remain slim in the modern environment.

"It's surely a stark paradox that the strategy used to achieve rapid weight gain in malnourished children in Africa - the frequent offering of energy-dense foods - has now become the norm for many overweight children in affluent societies."

Limited choice

Dr Susan Jebb, of the MRC Human Nutrition Research Centre, said: "In many outlets, the choice is so limited that it's virtually impossible to select a combination of items with even a moderate energy density.

"You'd need to eat well below the portion size offered to avoid greatly exceeding recommended energy and fat requirements.

"Fast food companies could play a major part in halting the rise in obesity if they adopted a more positive attitude to healthy eating such as providing meals of lower energy density, appropriately marketed and with point-of-sale nutrition labelling."

Dr Jebb said many supermarket ready-meals and convenience foods were also very energy dense.

"If we're going to stem the tide of obesity, it's important that we don't just swap one unhealthy meal for another.

"Research has shown time and again that to maintain a healthy weight, we need to eat foods with less fat and added sugars and to take more exercise."

[At _War_With_Liberals]

Better than the 'Big Macs are physically addictive' conspiracy theories.

[Reeses]

Our bodies were never designed to cope with the very energy dense foods

"A million years of meat and nuts are getting old. I think I will invent tofu."

[JRandomFreeper]

Snort! I have an opinion that the good Doctor wouldn't appreciate. He might learn a lot by standing in a kitchen for a few months.

Smells sell. There is an optimum interval between someone entering a food establishment and encountering the smells, and the amount of food they consume when they are served.

I've used that in the military to enhance the troops appreciation of really crappy canned food. It works.

/john

[southernnorthcarolina]

The Atkinites will be here with their advice to eat the 800-calorie burger and throw away the 100-calorie bun in, oh, three minutes or less.

[PLMerite]

I just finished eating a medium Ledo's Pizza. Am I bad?

[countess]

I love Ledos pizza, but I could never eat a medium in one sitting!

[Porterville]

Um, when I go to MC D's I get a hamburger and a small fries with a diet coke..... My body deals just fine with calorie dense foods.

[speekinout]

"Fast food companies could play a major part in halting the rise in obesity if they adopted a more positive attitude to healthy eating such as providing meals of lower energy density,

Maybe it's the marketing. The McD plain hamburger is not a diet buster. The Big Mac is.
But in the end, we are the ones who choose what to buy. I'll buy a Big Mac if I have someone who wants to share it.

[FreeKnight]

It takes 1000 calories to burn the 800 calorie burger and only 50 calories to burn the 100 calorie bun, the other 50 are stored as fat. Sorry it took longer than 3 min. to respond, had to refresh first to find the post.

[ladyinred]

The nutritional make up of fast food encourages people to gorge on it unintentionally

Oh no! The burger made me do it! How stupid. Self control folks.

[Optimist]

Sorry it took longer than 3 min. to respond, had to refresh first to find the post.

Well, THANKS A LOT!

There goes my 6-figure grant from the US Government. ;-)

[JRandomFreeper]

their advice to eat the 800-calorie burger and throw away the 100-calorie bun in, oh, three minutes or less.

Actually, the burger, usually 4 oz before cooking, is going to be much less than 350 Kcal per. But the body reacts differently to the meat than it does the bun. Ingesting proteins and fats triggers a different response than ingesting carbohydrates.

I don't diet. I cook for a living. I'm healthy and slim. I eat any damn thing I want. I don't do Atkins. My body type, and my upbringing don't require it. But I am a culianary professional, and I know what I see. Different body types respond differently to foods.

I'll always have a low-carb plate for those that desire it. I've seen it work.

/john

[openotherend]

Where's the gun pointed to people's heads making them buy this?

[Tall_Texan]

Wanna see "dense food"? Try those Shepherd's Pies those Brits have been eating for friggin' centuries.

One local radio host says the news is now "all obesity, all the time" and I'm beginning to believe him. The Food Nazis are coming out of the woodwork.

[ijcr]

Look at the British menu from 1465,

"In September 1465, the enthronement of George Neville as Archbishop of York was celebrated at Cawood Castle to demonstrate the riches and power of his family, 28 peers, 59 knights, 10 abbots, 7 bishops, numerous lawyers, clergy, esquires and ladies, together with their attendants and servants arrived at the castle.

Counting the archbishop's own family and servants there were about 2500 to be fed at each meal.

They consumed 4000 pigeons and 4000 crays, 2000 chickens, 204 cranes, 104 peacocks, 100 dozen quails, 400 swans, 400 herons, 113 oxen, 6 wild bulls, 608 pikes and bream, 12 porpoises and seals, 1000 sheep, 304 calves, 2000 pigs, 1000 capons, 400 plovers, 200 dozen of the birds called "rees", 4000 mallards and teals, 204 kids, 204 bitterns, 200 pheasants, 500 partridges, 400 woodcocks, 100 curlews, 1000 egrets, over 500 stags, bucks and roes, 4000 cold and 1500 hot venison pies, 4000 dishes of jelly, 4000 baked tarts, 2000 hot custards with a proportionate quantity of bread, sugared delicacies and cakes.

300 tuns of ale were drunk, and 100 tuns of wine, a tun containing 252 gallons according to the usual reckoning. There must have been well over 60 pints of wine for each person.( not forgetting 180 pints of beer!)"


[R. Mitchell and M. Leys, A History of the English People, 1950]

This menu would drive PETA and the Fat Polizei stark staring bonkers.

[Pelham]

There's nothing like bitterns and peacocks to whet the appetite.

[PLMerite]

Well, I didn't actually finish it, but it sure knows I was there!

[Agnes Heep]

In my opinion, more food, especially protein food, equals better immunity. Western people are living longer in spite of their dietary habits.