Fast Food Facts

How much fat do your favorite fast foods contain? This activity will help you to find out. Click on the pizza to travel to a fast food calorie and fat counter.

1. Find the foods that comprise your favorite meal at a fast food restaurant. 2. Record the foods, their fat content and their calories in a spreadsheet.  Click on the arrow to access the spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet has been formatted to calculate the calories, fat grams and teaspoons of fat in each meal.

3. Repeat the steps above choosing foods that you would like to have if money and fat content were not an issue.

4. Repeat the steps a third time, selecting foods that you would order if you were on a low fat diet.

5. Enter your weight into the appropriately labeled area on the spreadsheet.The amount of daily calories you need to consume to maintain your weight will be calculated for you. The recommended allowance of calories from fat and grams of fat per day are also calculated. 

6. Compare the recommendations in #5 with your calculations in the three fast food meals. Did you exceed your caloric or fat requirements in any of the meals? Were the foods you chose in meal #3 as low fat/low calorie as you had assumed? Record your answers below.

Write a paragraph summarizing your thoughts about your food selections, caloric intake and fat intake. Have you given much thought to your fat intake? How often do you eat fast food? What have you learned from this exercise? How will this knowledge impact your dietary habits? What medical conditions/diseases would you be at risk for if the fast foods that you chose in meal #1 were a regular part of your diet for a period of years?

You may wish to explore some of the following web sites before answering this last question. Please answer in the space following the web sites. 

http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/dietetics/research/lifestyle/trmt.html

http://sln.fi.edu/biosci/healthy/art-dis.html

http://www.aha.org

Click submit button when you have completed the exercise.

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