Fast food joints may have been promising to add healthier\noptions over the last few years, but researchers have found that their menu\nofferings have actually gotten less healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a new study of 10 of the most popular fast food chains,\nresearchers looked at nutrition, variety and portion size and determined how\nmain meals, sides and desserts at the restaurants have changed over 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Wendy\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 McDonald\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Burger King<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Carl\u2019s Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Arby\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 KFC<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Long John Silver\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Jack in the Box<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Hardee\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Dairy Queen<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The restaurants were chosen because they are among those who provide nutritional information on things like portion size, sodium and energy for the time the data was being analyzed. The menus being evaluated were taken from 1986, 1991 and 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would seem like a positive change that the restaurants\nincreased their variety of foods by 226% per year. Unfortunately, the portion\nsize and calorie content also increased. The desserts had the highest increase\nin calories, followed by the main entrees. The sodium content also went up for\nall the food categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,\n36.6% of American adults ate fast food on any given day between the years 2013\nand 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGiven the popularity of fast food, our study highlights one\nof the changes in our food environment that is likely part of the reason for\nthe increase in obesity and related chronic conditions over the past several\ndecades, which are now among the main causes of death in the U.S.,\u201d says Megan\nMcCrory, the lead investigator from Boston University. \u201cDespite the vast number\nof choices offered at fast food restaurants, some of which are healthier than\nothers, the calories, portion sizes and sodium content overall have worsened\nover time and retain high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results were published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fast food joints may have been promising to add healthier options over the last few years, but researchers have found that their menu offerings have actually gotten less healthy. The decline of nutrition In a new study of 10 of the most popular fast food chains, researchers looked at nutrition, variety and portion size and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[453],"tags":[723,892,983,732],"class_list":["post-13396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition","tag-diet","tag-fast-food","tag-junk-food","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}