How much nutrition isn’t in fast food?
A new study published in BMJ found that adults’ fast food orders at Mcdonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Wendy’s, KFC and Dunkin’ Donuts averaged 836 calories, but they thought they dished up around 660. And teens were even more in the dark. While their orders averaged 756 calories, they thought they only contained around 500 calories.
A whopping 45 percent of 20- to 39-year-olds and almost 38 percent of folks 40 to 59 eat fast food on any given day. If that’s you, it’s time to get hip to what’s packing fat on your hips and belly, plaque in your arteries and inflammation in your joints.
The Food and Drug Administration requires large restaurants chains to post calorie counts on their menus and make info about total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrates, sugars, fiber and protein available.
So slow down enough to look into what you’re about to put in your mouth — and ask yourself if you want to take the fast-food track to obesity, heart disease, dementia and other chronic conditions. Then drive on through without stopping.
Breakthrough study looks at cigarettes, e-cigarettes and hookahs
That’s no way to dodge the dangers of smoking.
For the first time, a study has evaluated the relative risks of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer from smoking tobacco cigarettes, e-cigarettes and hookahs. The findings took our breath away!
The research, published in the European Heart Journal, found that compared with nonsmokers, tobacco cigarettes increased the risk of COPD by 704 percent, waterpipes by 218 percent and e-cigarettes by 194 percent. When it came to lung cancer, tobacco cigarettes blew up the risk by an astounding 1,210 percent and waterpipes increased the risk of lung cancer by
122 percent. Then there’s the finding, published recently in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, that if you get COVID-19 and are a smoker it nearly doubles your risk of progression to serious complications. Clearly, there’s no way to get around the dangers of smoking tobacco (or, we say, anything else).
But you can quit! There are a multitude of resources at www.cdc.gov/quit?; www. myclevelandclinic.org and clevelandclinicwellness. com/programs; and www. samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline. And check out the Monday Campaigns Quit & Stay Quit Monday at www.mondaycampaigns. org/quit-stay-quit.
Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare. com.