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What do I mean by “penny smart, pound foolish,” and how does it relate to fast food? All of us want to receive high value for our hard-earned dollars. The concept of “more for your money” is most apparent in the food industry.

For an extra few cents you can double the serving size of your French fries and soda. At first glance, this looks like a great bargain. The truth is these larger serving sizes provide you with a lot more than you bargained for.

What’s a Serving?

How much food really constitutes one serving? According to the Canada Food Guide, the term “serving” has completely lost its meaning over the last 30 years. Portion sizes have grown out of control, and so has our idea of a normal-sized meal.

We are so confused over what constitutes a “regular” serving size that it is also affecting the meals we cook ourselves. Studies show that homemade hamburgers have grown nearly 50 percent in size from 5.7 ounces (162 grams) in 1977 to 8.4 ounces (238 grams) in 1996.

Serving Sizes Up–Activity Levels Down

Logic would suggest that with portion sizes growing enormously, there must be a lot of leftovers around. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As portion sizes have grown out of control, so have our appetites, and therefore our waist sizes. According to a 2001 survey by the American Institute for Cancer Research, 67 percent of Americans usually eat everything or almost everything on their plates.

What many North Americans have failed to observe is that to compensate for the increasing calories we consume, we must increase our activity levels. In fact, we have not seen a commensurate increase in activity levels, and because of this, we are seeing changes in weight and health that no other generation has witnessed.

Serving Up Poor Health

Eating very large portions of fast food has certainly begun to take a toll on our health. A recent long-term study documents the effects of eating fast food on the chronic diseases of Western civilization: obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

Three thousand young people were followed for 15 years in order to study the effects of fast food on their health. The results were alarming.

Those people who said they visited fast-food outlets twice a week or more gained 10 pounds more over the course of the study than those who ate fast food less than once a week.

The same people also had more than double the chance of developing insulin resistance, considered a predictor of type 2 diabetes–the form of the disease linked to obesity. Fast food is not only high in calories, it is also high in sodium, saturated fats, and trans fats, setting the stage for high blood pressure and heart disease.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, a large number of fast-food options have little or no nutritional value.

Serve It Up Smart

Fast food is here to stay. Experts warn that unless we begin to modify our choices when “grabbing something fast to eat,” we are going to create a generation of very unhealthy people who create an enormous burden on the health care system.

There are ways of making healthier choices when eating fast food; the key is to take the time to educate ourselves about our options.

Do you want to know the real secret to being “penny safe and pound smart”? The next time you go to a fast-food restaurant with a few friends, split that large meal three ways.

Choose Fast, but Choose Wisely

We are all so busy these days that at some point we all find ourselves taking the fast-food option. The good news is that not all fast-food meals are created equal. An increasing number of fast-food restaurants are offering more nutritious alternatives and providing patrons with nutrition information. Here are some general guidelines to follow in order to make more nutritionally sound choices.

Laina Shulman, DC, co-founder of Pure-Health, is a chiropractor, consultant, writer, and professional speaker residing in London, Ontario. www.pure-health.com

Source: alive #292, February 2007