Full plates

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Too much, too fat, too salty - fast food has a really bad reputation. Now it turns out: Even at the Indian or in the inn around the corner, the meals are far too lavish

Wagon wheel-sized pizza, cola in a bucket: McDonalds & Co. have long been pilloried because they tempt you to eat in XXL format. But the location is not necessarily better in classic restaurants. This is what Canadian researchers found out when they analyzed the amount of calories that land on the plate in normal restaurants.

Ignored risk

"The connection between fast food consumption and the risk of illness has attracted a lot of attention," write the researchers working with Mary Scourboutakos from the University of Toronto. The list of health problems that an unhealthy diet can cause is long. It ranges from cardiovascular diseases to diabetes and cancer. "So far, little attention has been paid to how unhealthy meals are that are offered in classic restaurants."

The researcher and her team evaluated more than 3,500 main courses and around 150 desserts from the 19 most important restaurant operators in the country. The result is impressive: on average, the meals contained an energy value of 1128 kilocalories. Applied to an average requirement of 2000 kilocalories, that is 50 percent of the daily requirement. Those who then allowed themselves a dessert increased their energy intake by an average of 554 kilocalories. Add another glass of Coke and the day's calorie requirements are covered - with a single meal.

Greasy balance

The composition of the food was also alarmingly greasy: on average, 58 grams of fat was found in every meal. This means that the fat provides 45 percent of the calories it contains - only 20 to 35 percent are recommended. Particularly worrying: Saturated fatty acids, which are rather unhealthy, accounted for the largest share. The only bright spot: the researchers found relatively small amounts of industrially manufactured trans fats, which are considered particularly unhealthy.

The meals were also too salted: 80 percent of the meals contained more than the recommended maximum amount of 1500 milligrams of sodium per day, 50 percent even exceeded the daily requirement: they contained an average of 2270 milligrams of the blood pressure driver. "On average, a single meal contained more than a full daily ration of salt and almost all of the recommended fat ration for the day," warn the researchers.

How lavish the meals were also depended on the culinary background: With the Japanese, it was much easier to get away with an average of around 1000 kilocalories than with the lavish Italians. With them, more than the daily requirement of energy ended up on a single plate.

Smaller portions required

In Germany the situation is not fundamentally different.Almost exactly a year ago, the state called Federal Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner on the scene, who called for smaller portion sizes in restaurants and canteens. However, her appeal was less about health than about curbing the throwing of food "Smaller portions are good for figure and wallet - and the amount of waste is reduced," she told the Bild newspaper at the time.

In fact, however, the human mind strives again to leave something on the plate. Research shows that larger portions make you want to eat more. And more than is good for some.

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