Fast Food Meals Are Not as Bad as Sit-Down Restaurant Meals

Before you make that New Year’s resolution to avoid fast food places, take heed of news about an alternative – a sit-down restaurant, such as a diner. According to a report in the Review of Agricultural Economics, fast food meals are smaller, with fewer calories, than table service meals.

The researchers used the Continuing Survey of Individual Food Intake to compare fast food and table-service meals. They found that both types were larger, with more calories, than meals prepared at home. And table-service meals exceeded fast food meals in these respects.

Balancing things out a bit, however, was the finding that people who consumed sit-down meals were more likely to reduce their food consumption during the rest of the day, compared with those who ate at fast food restaurants. The conclusion: all food away from home is probably a less healthy alternative to food prepared and eaten at home. So get cooking, if you possibly can.