Risky Behavior - Dining Out May Be Hazardous To Your Health…

Are Americans the fattest people on earth? Some Europeans think so. Michael Fumento, author of The Fat of the Land, writes: "Any European who has recently arrived here will gladly regale you with stories about how stunningly fat he thinks we are. No European country even comes close to us in terms of obesity." Obesity, says the CDC, is "the most urgent challenge to nutritional health during the 21st century."

How did we get this way? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a major culprit in our bulging is foods prepared outside the home. About 57% of us eat away from home on any given day.

The graphic shows that the proportion of our meals consumed away from home rose from 16% in 1977-78 to 29% in 1995. This accounted for 34% of daily calorie intake and 38% of total fat consumption in 1995, up from 18% and 19% in 1977-78 respectively.

One of the biggest problems in the American diet today is trans fat, the kind found in fast foods — says Walter Willet of the Harvard School of Public Health Department of Nutrition. Trans fat is the artery-clogging variety. The USDA reports that between 1982 and 1997, the amount of money we spent on fast food grew at an annual rate of 6.8%, compared to 4.7% growth in table service restaurant expenditures. The proportion of expenditures on fast food increased from 29.3 to 34.2%, while the restaurant proportion decreased from 41 to 35.7%. At about $109.5 billion in 1997, fast food sales approached the amount spent at table service restaurants ($114.3 billion in 1997, including tips).

Kids love fast food. Right now, millions of children around the world are eating Happy Meals at one of 29,000 McDonald's restaurants.³ In terms of health, according to Robert A. Vogel, M.D., "A Happy Meal … is roughly the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes."⁴ By advertising to children while they are watching television and not exercising, the fast-food industry skillfully manipulates new generations of consumers. Some say that this is particularly egregious because companies advertise to low-income children.

Fumento's theory as to why we are so fat? "Our food portions look like something out of Jurassic Park." Geocities.com says two frequently expressed fast-food customer complaints are: "They don't give you enough meat," and "The hamburgers are too thin."

On the other hand comes this advice from Walter Willett: Eliminating all fat from our diets "can be really dangerous. Not all fats are bad." Another popular alternative — replacing fats with sugar or refined carbohydrates — is not a good solution either.

Must we stop dining out? Not necessarily. One can find something resembling healthy food in most restaurants. Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) suggests we make our preferences known: "The executives who run the fast food industry are not bad men. They are businessmen. They will sell free-range, organic, grass-fed hamburgers if you demand it. They will sell whatever sells at a profit."

Sources: Biing-Hwan Lin, Joanne Guthrie, Elizabeth Frazão, "Nutrient Contribution of Food Away From Home." ERS. NFCS 1977-78, 1987-88, CSFII 1989-91, 1994-95; www.ers.usda.gov/. "Unhappy Meals." Atlantic Monthly. December 14, 2000: http://www.theatlantic.com/. Eric Schlosser, "Fast-Food Nation: Meat and Potatoes." Rolling Stone, 3 September 2001: http://www.ericsecho.org. "Fast Food Facts." http://www.geocities.com/mcdonaldization/facts.html. "Nutrition Book Author Willett Rebuilds USDA Food Pyramid." Harvard Public Health Now: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/. Michael Fumento, "On the Thin Side of the World: Europeans Eat Less Than We Do, Exercise Informally.": http://www.fumento.com/plainfat.html. Mark D. Jekanowski, "Causes and Consequences of Fast Food Sales Growth.." www.ers.usda.gov/publications/.