As obvious as this
might sound, there actually is little firm scientific data to prove the point,
especially against fast food. But now a large study released Saturday shows just
how bad super-sized burgers and nonstop tube time can be for one's health.
"Fast food emphasizes
primordial preferences for salt and fat," said researcher Mark Pereira. "This
may promote overeating."
The project did turn
up one surprise: While a lot of fast food is clearly bad for white people, it
seems to make no difference at all for blacks.
The reason for this is
unclear, but the researchers said the data suggest that black people's diets are
often just as unhealthy at home as they are at the drive-through window. So a
lot of fast food doesn't make matters any worse than they already are.
The analysis,
conducted by Pereira of Boston's Children's Hospital, was based on a 15-year
follow up of 2,027 whites and 1,726 blacks between ages 18 and 30 in Chicago,
Minneapolis, Birmingham, Ala. and Oakland, Calif. He presented the data at a
meeting in Miami Beach of the American Heart Association.
The key findings:
Whites who eat fast
food twice or more a week have a 50 percent greater risk of obesity than do
those who eat this way once or less.
Their risk of abnormal
glucose control, an inability to break down sugar efficiently that often
foreshadows diabetes, is double.
Whites who eat fast
food more than twice a week and also spend at least 2 1/2 hours a day watching
television have triple the risk of both obesity and abnormal glucose control,
compared to those who eat out once or less and watch no more than an hour and a
half of TV.
"It's clearly the
composition of fast food meals that we feel plays a role, with a lot of
saturated fat and low quality carbohydrates, white bread and lots of soda," said
Pereira. "And what you are not getting is also critical, including fiber and
more healthful types of fats. It's a dietary pattern that is the opposite of
what's recommended for health."
And of course, there
are all those calories. A super size fast food meal may exceed 1,600 calories,
more than many people should eat in an entire day.
Many of the men and
women in the study had fast food more than three times a week. Exactly what they
ate didn't seem to matter much. Fries, burgers, breakfast sandwiches and nuggets
all meant a greater risk of obesity.
Dr. Robert Eckel,
director of clinical research at the University of Colorado, noted that the
people studied are at unusually high risk of weight gain, since people pile up
the most pounds between ages 25 and 34.
While the hazards of
hyper-caloric meals and vegging out in front of the tube are clear, people who
do these things probably have other bad habits, as well. "I suspect it relates
to an overall lifestyle that is not conductive to good health," Eckel said.
Pereira said the lack
of ill effect of fast food on young blacks was "very surprising." The reason may
be that "blacks have a much poorer diet than whites, with less fiber and greater
intake of soda," when they eat at home, "so blacks who don't eat much fast food
still have a much poorer diet."
On the other hand,
whites eating at home often appear to get reasonably healthy food, more like the
menus recommended by the heart association and other health organizations.
Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com.
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