Fast food Essay Example for Free

Fast intellectual nourishment Essay1 Departm ent of Clinical Biochem istry , Gentofte infirmary Univ ersity of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denm ark of Hum an Nutrition, Centre for Adv anced Food Studies, Faculty of Life Sciences, Univ ersity of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denm ark 2 Departm ent Correspondence A Astrup, Departm ent of Hum an Nutrition, RVA Univ ersity , 1 9 58 Frederiksberg C, Denm ark. Em ail ast kvl. dk Abstract.Although sustainment experts might be able to navigate the menus of unfluctuating- aliment eatery manacles, and based on the nutritional information, compose apparently healthy meals, there are fluent galore(postnominal) reasons why frequent fast-food utilization at most chains is unhealthy and cave ins to weight cumulate, obesity, type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease. Fast food generally has a advanced-potential tightness, which, in concert with large fortune sizes, induces over consumption of calories. In addition, we have engraft it to b e a myth that the typical fast-food meal is the same worldwide.Chemical analyses of 74 samples of fast-food menus consisting of French fries and deep-fried sensationalistic (nuggets/hot wings) bought in McDonalds and KFC outlets in 35 countries in 20052006 showed that the summate naughty capability of the same menu varies from 41 to 65 g at McDonalds and from 42 to 74 g at KFC. In addition, fast food from major chains in most countries still adjudges unacceptably high levels of industrially produced trans- avoirdupoisty acids (IP-TFA). IP-TFA have powerful biological personal cause and may contribute to increased weight substantiate, abdominal obesity, type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease.The food quality and portion size need to be improved before it is safe to eat often propagation at most fast-food chains. Key words trans-fat t y acids, fast food, energy densit y incoming In the documentary film Super Size Me, the character Mr Spurlock ate McDonalds food three tim es a day for 30 years and gained 11 kg. It is quite obvious that one raise by design overeat on almost any diet, but the film raises the question of whether fast food poses a special health peril.To what end this behaviour is a realistic trait in the general people, and to what completion fast-food consumption contributes to obesity and other morbidities such as type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease, is still debatable. Before drawing any conclusion as to whether there are causal links mingled with breathing in of fast foods and disease, ideally randomised trials should be conducted to provide robust show on this issue. However, it is exceedingly unlikely that such trials comparing frequent and infrequent fast-food consumption will ever be carried out.We indeed have to rely on observational epidemiology and on mechanistic studies. www. nature. com/ijo/journal/v31/n6/full/0803616a. hypertext markup language 1/5 1/3/14 International Journal of Obesity Fast food uncon genial and unhealthy Epidemiological studies A number of observational studies have assessed the association between frequent fast-food intake and weight gain. The American population study Cardia suggests that frequent fastfood consumption is positively associated with weight gain and risk of insulin resistance over 15 years.Individuals who had meals at fast-food restaurants more than cardinal times a week gained 4. 5 kg more weight and had a 104% greater increase in insulin resistance, at both baseline and follow-up, than individuals who ate less than one fast-food meal per week. 1 This study was the first long-term project to take care that people who frequently expose themselves to fast foods are at increased risk of weight gain over time and of developing type 2 diabetes.The study had several limitations such as the population size of only 3000 individuals and the fact that self-reported information about diet, physical activity and other modus vivendi factors has indispens able measurement errors. These factors, however, would normally tend to underestimate the strength of the identified associations. Other observational studies have to few extent supported the existence of a causal link. However, observational studies cannot prove that the association between fast-food consumption and weight gain is causal.It remains possible that frequent fast-food consumption is simply a marker for a generally unhealthy lifestyle (e. g. , less restrained eating behaviour, fatty and sweet food preferences, and a sedentary lifestyle), factors which are the real culprits in weight gain and in the increased risk of diabetes. Although each effort is made to adjust for potential confounders, one cannot adjust for unmeasured or unmeasurable lifestyle factors. Mechanisms by which fast food can be obesogenic Portion size.Despite the above-mentioned limitations in epidemiological observational studies, most of us would accept that the link between intake of fast foods and weight gain is causal because there are several mechanisms whereby fast foods could produce weight gain. At least two important features of fast food could explain why fast food is fattening, namely, large portion sizes and high-energy stringency. It is well established that the bigger the portion size, the more we consume. 2 Portion sizes of burgers, fried potatoes, pizzas, and soft drinks at fast-food outlets have all increased 25-fold over the last 50 years.3 Energy density In addition to large portion sizes, fast food is also characterised by high-energy density, that is high energy- bailiwick/food-weight ratio. The energy density of the entire menu at fast-food outlets is typically 1 hundred kJ/100 g. 4 This is 65% higher(prenominal) than the average British diet ( 670 kJ/100 g) and more than twice the energy density of recommended healthy diets ( 525 kJ/100 g). Humans have only a weak innate ability to recognise foods with high-energy density and to downregulate the bulk eat en to meet energy requirements appropriately. 4 Industrially produced trans fat.French fries and fried meat from fast-food outlets contain high amounts of industrially produced trans-fatty acids. Trans fats are fats in margarines, spreads, and frying oils, produced by industrial hardening of vegetable or marine oils, to make the product more stable and robust for handling and storage. The hardening results in the substructure of a so-called trans double bonds in the fatty acids of the lipids, in contrast to the normally occurring cis double bonds. This increases the melt down points of the fats, thereby increasing shelf-life.Trans-fatty www. nature.com/ijo/journal/v31/n6/full/0803616a. html 2/5 1/3/14 International Journal of Obesity Fast food unfriendly and unhealthy acids are also found naturally in meat from ruminants and in dairy products, but not nearly to the same extent as in industrially produced trans fat (up to 5%, as compared to up to 60% in fats), and not of the same types as in IP-TFA. In a worldwide study of the study of IP-TFA in fast foods, biscuits, and snacks, we found capabilitys of IP-TFA ranging up to 50% of the fat in the products, enabling consumers to ingest 36 g of IP-TFA in a single meal in the US.5 A daily intake of 5 g trans fat, corresponding to 2 energy percent, is associated with an approximately 30% increase in CHD risk. 6 data-based studies have found that a high intake of IP-TFA is stronger associated to the risk of weight gain and gain in abdominal fatness than to the intake of other fat sources. 7 Although unaccounted residual confounding cannot be command out, other sources of research support that the relationship is causal. First, IP-TFA serves as ligands for the PPAR- system and can exert a biological effect that promotes abdominal obesity.6 Second, a recently reported long-term randomised trial in monkeys delivers robust evidence that IP-TFA induces weight gain and abdominal obesity. Kavanagh et al. 8 reported th eir findings at the 66th ADA brush in Washington, D. C. For over 6 years monkeys were fed two different isocaloric, western-style diets that contained either 8% of their calories from trans fat or the same amount of fat calories as cis-monounsaturated fat. After 6 years, the IP-TFA fed monkeys had gained 7. 2% in body weight, compared to a 1. 8% increase in body weight in monkeys fed with cis-monounsaturated fats.CT scans showed that the monkeys on the trans-fat diet had deposited 30% more abdominal fat than the monkeys on the cismonounsaturated fat diet. Taken together these studies suggest that IP-TFA is obesity promoting, and that they particularly facilitate the deposition of the harmful abdominal fat associated with CHD. These findings can contribute to explaining why high intakes of IP-TFA may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. 9 Fat content in fast-food menus To select more healthy choices at the fast-food restaurants, nutritional labelling must be both accessible and ac curate.While most chains provide nutritional information about total calories, calories from macronutrients, and fibre content of their products, we do not think that the average consumer who eats at a fast-food chain has the time or ability to make a reasonable estimate of health consequences of such meals or their contribution to the days caloric intake. The results of our analyses of total fat and trans fat in 74 French fries and fried chicken (nuggets/hot wings) samples bought in McDonalds and KFC outlets in 35 countries during 20052006 are given in Figure 1.The figures represent the total fat and trans fat content in 160 g of chicken meat and 171 g of French fries, corresponding to a large serving at an American McDonalds outlet. In these meals the total fat content varies from 41 to 65 g at McDonalds and from 42 to 74 g at KFC the trans fat content varies from 0. 3 to 10. 2 and 0. 3 to 24 g, respectively. The differences in total fat content can at least in part be due to lo cal taste preferences, but this is not the case for trans fat, which does not add a special flavour to the food.The results show that the same product, by the same provider, can vary in fat calorie content by more than 40%, and in trans fat content by several orders of magnitude. This demonstrates that the same product, unknown to the consumer, can vary substantially in its residence with recommendations for healthy food. Figure 1. The entire length of the bar (both colours implicated) indicates the am ounts of total fat in a large fast-food m eal consisting of 1 7 1 g French fries and 1 6 0 g chicken nuggets.The darker colour indicates the am ounts of industrially produced trans fat. The v alues in excursus are the am ounts of trans fat as a percentage of total fat. www. nature. com/ijo/journal/v31/n6/full/0803616a. html 3/5 1/3/14 International Journal of Obesity Fast food unfriendly and unhealthy Full figure and legend (305K) Conclusions Fast-food restaurant chains may argue that the evidence linking their products to the supersizing of their customers is too weak. But should not the customer be given the benefit of the doubt?Appropriate actions would include reducing portions to normal sizes, eliminating industrially produced trans fat, and selling burgers of lean meat, whole grain bread/buns, fatreduced mayonnaise, more vegetables, lower-fat fried potatoes, reduced-sugar soft drinks, etc. Moreover, reliable nutritional information should be given by the chains, which requires better normalisation of the foods used. 10 Although these measures may raise prices, such changes in fast-food meals would have no adverse health effects but quite the opposite References 1. Pereira MA, Kartashov AI, Ebbeling CB, Van Horn L, Slattery ML, Jacobs Jr DR et al.Fast-food habits, weight gain, and insulin resistance (the CARDIA study) 15-year prospective analysis. Lancet 2005 365 3642. bind PubMed ISI 2. Diliberti N, Bordi PL, Conklin MT, Roe LS, Rolls BJ. Increas ed portion size leads to increased energy intake in a restaurant meal. Obes Res 2004 12 562 568. PubMed 3. Young LR, Nestle M. Expanding portion sizes in the US marketplace implications for nutrition counseling. J Am Diet Assoc 2003 103 231234. Article PubMed ISI 4. Prentice AM, Jebb SA. Fast foods, energy density and obesity a possible mechanistic link.Obes Rev 2003 4 187194. Article PubMed ChemPort 5. Stender S, Dyerberg J, Bysted A, Leth T, Astrup A. A trans world journey. Atheroscl Suppl 2006 7 4752. Article 6. Mozaffarian D, Katan MB, Ascherio A, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC. Trans fatty acids and cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med 2006 354 1601 1613. Article PubMed ChemPort 7. Koh-Banerjee P, Chu NF, Spiegelman D, Rosner B, Colditz G, Willett W et al. Prospective study of the association of changes in dietary intake, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and smoking with 9-y gain in waist circumference among 16 587 US men.Am J Clin Nutr 2003 78 719727. PubMed ISI ChemPort 8. Kavanagh K, Jones K, Sawyer J, Kelly K, Wagner JD, Rudel LL. Trans fat diet induces insulin resistance in monkeys. Diabetes Care 2006. legal proceeding of 66th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association Abstract 328-OR. www. nature. com/ijo/journal/v31/n6/full/0803616a. html 4/5 1/3/14 International Journal of Obesity Fast food unfriendly and unhealthy 9. Salmeron J, Hu FB, Manson JE, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Rimm EB et al. dietary fat intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in women.Am J Clin Nutr 2001 73 1019 1026. PubMed ChemPort 10. Astrup A. Super-sized and diabetic by frequent fast-food consumption? Lancet 2005 365 45. Article PubMed Acknowledgements SS and JD declare no conflict of interest. AA is medical checkup advisor for Weight Watchers, and is member of several advisory boards for food producers. The Department of Human Nutrition receives/has get research funding from over 50 Danish and international food companies. Otherwise, I decla re no conflict of interest. International Journal of Obesity This journal is a m em ber of and subscribes to the principles of the Commit t ee on Publicat ion Et hics.ISSN 03 07 -056 5 EISSN 1 4 7 6 -54 9 7 well-nigh NPG Privacy policy Nat urejobs Cont act NPG Accessibilit y st at ement Use of cookies Legal not ice Nat ure Asia Nat ure Educat ion dish up Terms RSS web feeds Search go 2 0 1 4 Na t u r e Pu blish in g Gr ou p, a div ision of Ma cm illa n Pu blish er s Lim it ed. A ll Rig h t s Reser v ed. pa r t n er of A GORA , HINA RI, OA RE, INA SP, ORCID, Cr ossRef a n d counting ER www. nature. com/ijo/journal/v31/n6/full/0803616a. html 5/5.