What is about fast food that increases waist lines? Is it just the fact that its cheap so people consume more? At the end of the day its just calories right? So do people tend to over eat when it comes to fast food?
No humans are not perfect calorie burning machines, we are aerobic organisms you can start by learning about the krebs cycle.
Fast food is generally high calories and low in nutrients. Research the links between fast food and inflammation and then inflammation and obesity. Also important are the Links between fast food/high carb food, insulin and obesity.
Just look at the diets we know are linked to health and longevity (Mediterranean and historical Okinawan/Japanese diets). You will find low calorie/nutrient and vitamin rich foods; anti-inflammatory foods; anti-oxidant foods; anti-toxin foods (and before people come out of the woodwork to claim anti-toxin foods are a myth, think about foods that promote healthy functioning of the liver/kidneys). You will also find a general lack of fried foods, refined flour/gluten, refined white sugar, preservatives/additives, BPA like toxins, grain fed meat (of course these are all found in fast food and are inflammatory).
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/mcdonalds-big-mac-...
Combine it with average daily average intake:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_food_en...
Let's take India for example. So 2380 calories a day. The big Mac will constitute nearly 50% of calories in a meal.
Then people do have other meals too - breakfast, lunch and snacks. That means the calorie count is near to 3k calories. So a 700 calories or 30% in excess to average calories consumed.
If this happens for say only for weekends ie 8 days in a month. That is 5600 calories in excess. Without any exercise this is going to hit hard on the waist line and weight.
I think they chose food that is cheap to buy, easy to consume and that everybody will like (for some measure of ‘everybody’ and ‘like’)
That food happens to have a high ratio between number of calories and how full it makes you feel.
That, in turn, allowed them to make servings larger. If a Big Mac or a soda would give you the same ‘I have eaten’ feedback as, say, raw vegetables, Macdonald’s would never have considered making servings that large (customers not finishing their meal makes the meal look bad in US culture)
The big mac in India is chicken, and a lot smaller. Edit: Also, it's called The Maharaja.
Mcdonalds India fact sheet: https://www.mcdonaldsindia.com/images/Nutrition-Information....
A meal = Maharaja Mac + Regular Fries + Regular Coke = 998 calories. So close enough.
Yes, at the end of the day it's just calories, but they're addictive, empty calories. Quality and type of food matters. 1,000 calories of Big Mac is not 1,000 calories of fruits and vegetables.