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Lesson PlansPapers
- Fast Food and Nutrition (Think Quest)
Provides information and quizzes related to the nutritional value of fast foods. 3-00
Projects
- -Editorial: How About Restricting French Fries? (CNN News)
"Obesity is the result of an extremely complex interplay of factors, including dietary habits, environment, genes, etc. One of the best studies available, appearing last year in The New England Journal of Medicine, tells a more complicated picture."
"The study shows that if you increase drinking sugary beverages by one serving per day, it will lead you to gain an additional pound of body weight over four years. A similar amount of weight would be gained from eating an additional serving of red or processed meat daily for four years. But when it comes to potato chips, there seems to be a stronger relationship with weight gain (1.65 pounds). And French fries blew away the numbers (3.65 pounds)." 06-12
- -Editorial: Restricting the Size of Sugary Drinks Is a Worthy Experiment (CNN News)
"Some object that the [New York] mayor's proposal to restrict serving sizes will restrict liberty. But the liberty restricted is not the liberty of the soda-drinker. If they wish, soda drinkers can buy a 2-liter bottle of soda at the grocery for about $1.70 and pour as much of it down their throats as they wish. The liberty that is being restricted is the liberty of the soda seller to manipulate known human weaknesses to the seller's advantage and the buyer's detriment."
"There is little doubt about the serious health effects of sugary soda. Just one soda a day doubles a woman's risk of diabetes, according to the Harvard Journals of Public Health. Two sodas raises her risk of heart disease by 40%." 06-12
- -McDonald's Chef (Time.com)
"On some level, the very idea of a McDonald's chef sounds preposterous. Burgers, fries, the McRib — is this really the work of a chef? The food at McDonald's tastes partly of nostalgia and partly of marketing; the rest is surely salt."
"And yet — have you eaten at a McDonald's lately? In the past five years, the company has started to serve genuinely edible salads, unlike those dry iceberg-and-carrot things it used to offer." 02-10
- Disturbing Fast Food Truths (Huffington Post)
"With a Gallup poll revealing that 8 in 10 Americans eat fast food at least monthly and half saying they eat it weekly, these companies know they have a good thing going. And with all the savvy marketing they do, it's no wonder you're itching for that Big Mac. But before you scarf one down, you might want to truly evaluate what's going on with your fast food. Here are some truths that may make you wonder if you still want to go to there for lunch."
- Foods Surprisingly High in Added Sugar (U.S. News)
"Added sugars, which are sprinkled on and processed into packaged foods and beverages, have become all too common in the American diet, says the American Heart Association. The group argues that sugar bingeing is helping drive the uptick in metabolic changes in the American population, including the exploding obesity rate, and has now recommended an upper limit on daily consumption." 10-09
- Foods Surprisingly High in Added Sugar (U.S. News)
"Women should consume no more than 100 calories per day of added sugars, and men should not top 150 calories per day. There goes the soda habit: One 12-ounce can contains about 8 teaspoons or about 33 grams of added sugar, which equals approximately 130 calories, notes the AHA. (One gram of sugar serves up 4 calories, according to the American Dietetic Association.)" 04-10
- KFC Sued for Fattening Foods (ABC News)
"The fast food chain KFC is being sued for the fat content in its fried chicken, which Center for Science in the Public Interest says contains "staggering amounts" of trans fat."
"One three-piece Extra Crispy combo meal has 15 grams of trans fat, which is more trans fat than a person should have in one week, says the CSPI." 06-06
- Seven Worst Foods to Eat (WallStCheatsheet.comm)
"The outrage of non-chicken chicken McNuggets is as ubiquitous as the dangers of soda, but if you think avoiding McDonald’s has you off the hook, think again. A study conducted by the National Journal of Medicine concluded that randomly sampled chicken from two national chains was mostly composed of chicken fat, along with 'epithelium, bone, nerve, and connective tissue.' "
- Study: Over 90% of Chain Restaurant Entrees Fail on Nutrition (USA Today)
"If you plan to chow down tonight at a big chain restaurant, there's a better than nine-in-10 chance that your entree will fail to meet federal nutrition recommendations for both adults and kids, according to a provocative new study."
"A whopping 96% of main entrees sold at top U.S. chain eateries exceed daily limits for calories, sodium, fat and saturated fat recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reports the 18-month study conducted by the Rand Corp. and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.” 05-12
- The 19 Worst Drive-Thru Foods in America (MSNBC News)
"Drive-thru foods may be convenient and easy on the wallet, but they’re loaded with unhealthy fats, added sugars, carbohydrates, and sodium. Translation: They’re no bargain when it comes to your health." 04-09
Research
- Fast Food Facts Search
Provides information on nutritients by food and fast food restaurant. 09-09
- Fast Food and Health (MSNBC News)
Describes the decline in health of film producer, Morgan Spurlock. "He decided to make a documentary—his first feature-length film—in which he would, in an attempt to explore why Americans are so fat, eat at McDonald’s three times a day for 30 solid days."
"With regular visits to the doctor, interviews with experts on fast food and chats with regular folk on the road, the viewer gets a front-row seat as the formerly fit filmmaker eats everything on the menu, packing on the pounds, and looking—and feeling—worse in each successive frame. McDonald’s’ response? The home of the Happy Meal declined to comment in the film but has released statements saying that its menu offers an array of choices, some healthier than others."
"My body just basically falls apart over the course of this diet. I start to get tired; I start to get headaches; my liver basically starts to fill up with fat because there’s so much fat and sugar in this food. My blood sugar skyrockets, my cholesterol goes up off the charts, my blood pressure becomes completely unmanageable. The doctors were like 'You have to stop.' ”1-04
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