Exactly How Bad is Fast Food for Your Health?

Fast food isn't necessarily junk food. It's not so different from the typical American diet - too much protein, fat, calories and sodium, and not enough complex carbohydrates and fiber. That's what you will discover if you take the time to really analyze the nutritional value of the "All-American" meal of cheeseburger, shake and fries from seven major fast-food chains. I recently did just this, and my results were exactly as I suspected.

Chicken dishes, fish and roast beef sandwiches were also analyzed from chains that specialize in those foods. A long look at the nutrition facts that are now legally required to be displayed (or readily available) at all locations, showed that the average meal of cheeseburger, shake and fries would supply about 70 percent to 80 percent of the daily protein requirement for most people, according to the FDA' recommended daily intake. That's a lot of protein from only one meal.

For a growing teenager, the extra protein might be OK. But for adults, it often just means extra calories. That typical fast-food meal would supply about 1,150 calories - virtually an entire day's allowance for someone on a low-calorie diet. The main reason for those calories is fat. About half of a cheeseburger's calories come from the fat in the beef, cheese and the fat in which they're fried. Shakes get most of their 350 or so calories from sugars. Chicken and fish normally have a lower fat content and relatively fewer calories - but not when they're breaded and fried. Fast-food chicken and fish dishes were found to be as fatty and as high in calories as the cheeseburgers.

Most fast-food meals don't contain enough complex carbohydrates and fiber. However, many chains now offer salads to fill that gap. A salad with very little dressing, together with a diet soda and a plain hamburger without cheese or oily sauce should provide a meal that's nutritious, yet still fairly low in calories.

Many of the items researched contained more than 500 milligrams of sodium - and some had more than 1,000 milligrams. If you're on a sodium-restricted diet, salads are about the only foods to choose from a fast-food menu. Although the fast-foods sampled by sensory consultants (me and my friends) generally tasted quite bland, the food from some chains was found to be better tasting than the rest.

In our opinion, the best tasting food came from Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King and Wendy's. Wendy's single burger with cheese was judged better than a Big Mac or a Whopper with cheese. Wendy's chicken sandwich received very high marks from everyone, as did Kentucky Fried Chicken's two piece chicken dinner and fillet sandwich, Popeye's two pieces of chicken and Jack in the Box's Chicken sandwich.

Wendy's Frosty was one of the best-tasting shakes. Arby's had the best roast beef sandwich. In fact, everything but the shake at Arby's tasted better than average. McDonald's served the best-tasting fries and had the best chocolate shake. The best fish sandwich came from Long John Silver's.