As long as portion your FF intake, and eat well-balanced most of the time, its not going to hurt you.

Just to go ack to a few points made earlier, fast food isn't intrinsically bad for you. There wasa fantastic program on channel 4 in the uk that exposed all manner of food myths. The one I really remember was when they got a list of breakfasts and asked people to put them in the order that they thought contained the most fat and calories.

The list was a mcdonalds breakfast muffin meal, a burger king breakfast, a Starbucks breakfast muffin, a caffe Nero oat yogurt and a home made 6 rasher bacon sandwich (plus a few others). No one got it right that the most healthy one was the bacon sandwich, but the scariest thing was te oat yogurt thing had more calories than the McDonald's and burger king breakfast combined, and that was second behind the Starbucks muffin!

So, fast foods not bad for you, it's how, when and how often you consume it.

I'm horrible with fast food. I'm one of those "I want to eat healthier" people, but when confronted with a choice of burger or salad? Thanks, the burger is cheaper, fills me up and "sticks" longer. Despite me knowing I should pick the salad, I very rarely do. I eat fast food probably once a day on average, which is not good, I know.

I've heard something similar. No data to back it up, but I have heard eating fruit before bed is bad because of the sugars.

Yeah, the key to healthy eating is variety and moderation.

There is so much money in exploiting the general public's body image problems that a huge amount of misinformation and disinformation is floating around. In reality, very little has changed in our fundamental understanding of nutrition in the past 40 or 50 years. Most of the stuff that we can eat is not inherently bad for you, the important thing is that you don't have too much of it and equally you don't have too little of certain elements. Still, that can be hard at times. Especially when ice cream and beer are so awesome.

Gotta say, I haven't heard or read too much claiming what Xythe is saying above regarding fruit containing huge amounts of calories and making you fat - do you have any research or articles which can elaborate on that?

I think we can all agree that even if fast food burgers are not any worse for you than a gourmet burger, or homemade burger of some sort the quality of a fast food burger is incredibly sub-par.

Also, I know a guy who ate nothing by fruit/vegetables and he got a weird skin disorder because he had no oils and fats going into his body.

[quote="Marvy"]Well, I still believe that certain fast foods are harmful for your health even when they are taken in moderation. Moreover, taking too much fruits would be much less harmful than taking too much fast food.[/quote]

Eating too much fruit can be harmful. Only 2 of your 5 a day should be fruit, the sugar content is massive. The main reason is that out taste for sweet things has lead us to breeding fruit with higher and higher sugar contents, all but abandoning cultivation of those strains which are not ram packed with sugar. While the sugars are natural and less likely to cause conditions such as diabetes than processed sugars (although are still a risk factor), they still contain a crap-ton of calories and will make you fat if you eat too much just like anything else. You also end up consuming lots of fibre which can cause digestive problems (namely diarrhea) unless you've been placed on a high fibre diet for a specific reason. Certain vegetarians who consume nothing but fruit are at much higher risk of suffering from conditions such as osteoporosis, again due to the high sugar content of their diets.

I return to my original point. A burger and chips is a burger and chips is a burger and chips (unless it's like one of those Epic Meal Time burgers made with pizzas instead of buns, that's just silly). Coming from a fast food joint does not somehow make it bad, and it can happily exist as part of a balanced diet as long as you're responsible enough to maintain that balance.

Well, I still believe that certain fast foods are harmful for your health even when they are taken in moderation. Moreover, taking too much fruits would be much less harmful than taking too much fast food.

[quote="Brendan"][quote="Xythe"]Most studies into fast food show it isn't actually as bad as is made out. The main issue with it is portion sizes and the drinks, which are basically just big cups of sugar and E numbers. A Big Mac is nothing but meat and bread, fries are just potato strips cooked in vegtable oil. [/quote]

I think it would depend on who conducts the studies. Studies sponsored by fast food manufacturers would most possibly reveal the "facts" in favor of the manufacturers' interests.[/quote]

I'm talking independent research, mostly done at Universities. All of them come out pretty much the same, eating burgers and chips all the time is bad for you, eating massive meals is bad for you, but it doesn't matter if they're from McDonalds or handmade in your own kitchen. Frequent consumption of certain foods is simply not healthy, period. Such companies make pretty good whipping boys though, far easier to say it's all Burger King's fault rather than, heaven forbid, ask people to take responsibility for what they put into their own mouths and the mouths of their children.

[quote="Xythe"]Most studies into fast food show it isn't actually as bad as is made out. The main issue with it is portion sizes and the drinks, which are basically just big cups of sugar and E numbers. A Big Mac is nothing but meat and bread, fries are just potato strips cooked in vegtable oil. [/quote]

I think it would depend on who conducts the studies. Studies sponsored by fast food manufacturers would most possibly reveal the "facts" in favor of the manufacturers' interests.