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Eating-out often leads to excess weight gain

With the advent of eating-out culture, there is a steady increase in the excess weight gained with every fast food meal eaten at restaurants.

Eating-out often leads to excess weight gain

With the advent of eating-out culture, there is a steady increase in the excess weight gained by Americans, with every fast food meal eaten at restaurants. Researchers from the University of North Carolina in USA, found that every additional fast food meal consumed each week correlated with a substantial increase in body mass index (BMI), which would be enough to make a healthy person diabetic. Food eaten away from home now accounts for up to 42 percent of Americans' calorie intake. While the increase in restaurant and fast food consumption has occurred at the same time as the rise in obesity, it's not clear if it's a contributing factor. To separate out the effects of fast food meals and meals eaten in traditional restaurants, the researchers looked at 3,394 young adults participating in a heart disease study. The investigators compared the study participants' consumption of fast food and restaurant food during year 7 and year 10 of the study with their BMIs at both time points. BMI is a ratio of weight to height commonly used to determine if a person is underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese or morbidly obese. The more fast food the subjects ate, the higher was their BMI. For each additional fast food meal eaten per week during year 7, BMI increased by 0.13 points, while each additional fast food meal per week at year 10 was tied to a 0.24 rise in BMI. This translates to 0.9 pounds and 1.7 pounds, respectively, for a person 5 foot 10 inches tall. People whose fast food intake rose between year 7 and year 10 showed a 0.20 increase in BMI. However, the researchers found no association between meals eaten at traditional restaurants and increase in BMI; in fact, some analysis linked eating more often in restaurants to a slightly lower BMI. The study confirms, that Americans who eat more fast food pack on more weight.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
January 2007
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