Do you ever get home from work, look in your refrigerator, and realize that you just cannot be bothered to cook anything? Well, you’re not alone. Whether you simply want to dodge the stove or whether you want to celebrate a special event, leaving your house and having someone else cook a meal for you is something we all love to do. Because we have been bombarded with the notion that “fast food is unhealthy food” over the past few years, many people now choose to go to a restaurant rather than a fast-food chain. However, one new study states this could be the wrong way around…
Eating across the pond
It’s important to note that this study took place in the United Kingdom and only examined those restaurants and fast-food chains in the UK. However, many of the fast-food chains referenced within the study are worldwide favorites and may give those across the pond an insight into what food is like across the world. Is eating at a restaurant really less healthy than fast food?
The study
So, what is this study and what was it investigating? This study was undertaken at the University of Liverpool by researchers who wanted to end the debate around fast food once and for all. They decided to compare the number of calories of a whopping 13,500 meals that could be found within 21 restaurants and 6 fast-food chains around the UK. With the notion that healthy meals should not go over 600 calories, they wanted to see whether these eateries were sticking to these guidelines, or whether they went over. Amazingly, they discovered that only 1 in 10 meals within restaurants and fast-food chains were under this amount.
The difference between the two
Perhaps the most shocking discovery within this investigation was the fact that the difference between the two categories was extremely noticeable. On average, a meal in a restaurant came to around 1,033 calories, while a meal in a fast-food chain came to around 751 calories. Considering we know fast food to be extremely unhealthy and full of ingredients that are deemed to be bad for us, this is extremely surprising. As if that wasn’t enough, the researchers also found that sit down restaurants were a whopping five times more likely to offer their customers meals that exceeded 1,000 calories than these fast food chains. The difference between burgers was particularly extravagant with restaurants offering burgers that were much more unhealthy than the likes of McDonald’s and Burger King. During their investigations, the researchers also found that the most unhealthy fast food chain on their list was KFC, which offers customers meals that contain an average of 987 calories.
Because we live in a world where we are constantly told the dangers of eating fast food, this study has shocked families across the globe. While many would believe that it’s healthier to go to a restaurant and eat freshly cooked meals, this just isn’t the case.
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