Hidden Health Dangers: The Fast Food Lie
Mindy Shuman
Issue date: 10/26/04 Section: News
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There is something comforting about walking into a favorite restaurant. The smells of cooking burgers and frying food, as characters like Ronald McDonald, Jack, Carl's Star, and the newly reconstituted Burger King character, all stare back with happy plastic smiles. No matter what town, there is familiarity in design, logo and menus. Go to a McDonald's in Los Angeles and know it is exactly like the one in Dallas and the one in New York. It is easy to choose favored items, sit at a booth, eat and leave in about 15 minutes. There is no mess to clean up and no effort, just food that tastes as expected.
Drive from Yuba City to Yuba College and there are 4 Burger Kings, 4 McDonald's (one inside the Yuba City Wal-Mart), 2 Carl's Jr., and 2 Jack-in-the-Box restaurants. That is not counting more than 20 other fast food choices, each with drive through access, eagerly willing to serve each customer food in greasy bags or boxes. Often the servers are encouraged to offer the chance to up the size of your food to large or really large.
Fast food is everywhere, at highway rest stops, airports, inside stores and even hospital cafeterias.
But what is the real cost of eating all that high fat food?
Take a look at the nutritional information for the food ordered. One can almost feel arteries beginning to harden and pants becoming too tight, just by the reading.
Consider a basic medium meal at Burger King consisting of a Whopper with cheese, french fires and a vanilla shake. In that one meal, scarfed down in only ten minutes, are 87 grams of fat and 1,480 calories.
You won't fair much better with a McDonald's meal. A Big Mac, fries and shake contain 59 grams of fat, but still 1,460 calories.
Similar meals at Carl's Jr. and Jack-in-the-Box get even worse. A Famous Star meal contains 71 grams of fat and 1,680 calories, while a Jumbo Jack with Cheese meal tops the scale at 96.5 grams of fat and 1,805 calories.
A lot of numbers, right? Let's put them into perspective. According to dietary advice, the average amount of fat a person should eat in one day should not be in excess of 65 grams. Caloric intake should be around 2,000 calories. These numbers do vary slightly depending on gender, activity, and whether the person is trying to lose weight, but numbers drop more than rise when these factors are considered.
Drive from Yuba City to Yuba College and there are 4 Burger Kings, 4 McDonald's (one inside the Yuba City Wal-Mart), 2 Carl's Jr., and 2 Jack-in-the-Box restaurants. That is not counting more than 20 other fast food choices, each with drive through access, eagerly willing to serve each customer food in greasy bags or boxes. Often the servers are encouraged to offer the chance to up the size of your food to large or really large.
Fast food is everywhere, at highway rest stops, airports, inside stores and even hospital cafeterias.
But what is the real cost of eating all that high fat food?
Take a look at the nutritional information for the food ordered. One can almost feel arteries beginning to harden and pants becoming too tight, just by the reading.
Consider a basic medium meal at Burger King consisting of a Whopper with cheese, french fires and a vanilla shake. In that one meal, scarfed down in only ten minutes, are 87 grams of fat and 1,480 calories.
You won't fair much better with a McDonald's meal. A Big Mac, fries and shake contain 59 grams of fat, but still 1,460 calories.
Similar meals at Carl's Jr. and Jack-in-the-Box get even worse. A Famous Star meal contains 71 grams of fat and 1,680 calories, while a Jumbo Jack with Cheese meal tops the scale at 96.5 grams of fat and 1,805 calories.
A lot of numbers, right? Let's put them into perspective. According to dietary advice, the average amount of fat a person should eat in one day should not be in excess of 65 grams. Caloric intake should be around 2,000 calories. These numbers do vary slightly depending on gender, activity, and whether the person is trying to lose weight, but numbers drop more than rise when these factors are considered.