The Cost of Supersizing

That study was actually done at the university that I was going to attend grad school at. I talked to the professor that headed up the study. It's basically a lot of statistics all incorporated together and it's not a very accurate picture at all. I pointed out to him that not everyone who eats a supersize meal will necessarily gain weight. What about active people that eat a supersize meal and go for a run later to burn most of the excess calories off? Increasing your calorie intake doesn't necessarily increase your weight (unless you don't work out at all or have a very rapid metabolism). Still though, I think 67 cents buys about 1/2 lb of apples, which would be about 2 or 3...maybe 180 calories? Definitely not the "bargain" of a supersize meal :P

People supersize for value.
I can eat more when I exersize as when I don't but like to space my calories.

And we wonder why 60 million Americans qualify as obese. Nearly a 1/3 of adult men and women qualify as obese and it doesn't look like the trend will reverse itself anytime soon.

Thanks for the inside info Spectra. The conclusions of the study do seem to be assumptions. But that 67 cents for 400 calories is incredible.

Well, I quit being fat about a year ago, am back to normal weight, exercising, and eating nuts, fish, fruits and vegtables, and a variety of lean meats now. However, I still have grain addictions.

McDonald's can do some simple things to help make the menus healthier. At least make the buns whole grains. But they need to start buying grass-fed beef instead of garbage-fed meat, serve fruits and vegtables instead of fries, and serve grainless, soyless, low-sugar, trans-fat free smoothies sweetened with xylithol or stevia. They can still serve hearty meals while still making profits.

If you want to lose the fat and get rid of diabetes, lay off on deep fried foods, stay away from synthetic margarines and shortenings, stay away from chips and doughnuts, sugar, grains, and soy products, and eat more berries, potassium fruits, above-ground vegtables, and grass-fed meat. There are new studies that people who ate lean red meat actually had lower cholesterol and tryglycerides than people who were eating tofu. But it's not the cholesterol you should be concerned with, it's your Lipoprotein A, homocystine, and tryglicerides that you should be worried about. Saturated fats may raise LDL cholesterol, but it lowers your tryglicerides and your Lp(a) levels and it also raises HDL cholesterol.

That excess LDL cholesterol can be taken with monounsaturated fats.

It's the trans fats and your carbohydreates that you should worry about. Trans fats raises your tryglicerides, Lp(a), and lowers your HDL cholesterol. It also inhibits the usage of omega 3 fatty acids. Trans fats also causes insulin resistance, because of the omeaga 3 inhibiter ability. Excessive carbohydreates also does exactly the same thing as trans fats do. That's why doughnuts are one of the worst food to eat.

The problem here is that logical arguments are very slow to change eating behaviors. The fast food problem is more at the level of the hypothalamus than the cerebral cortex.

People eat this ‘food’ because it alters their mood, not because they made a logical choice to eat it after reviewing the nutritional facts panel or calculated the cost per calorie.

It is, as with all addictions, only when the behavior becomes painful enough to the individual (health problems, social problems, financial problems, etc.) that it can be modified and often not even then.

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Dr. Smith I couldn't agree more. There are many components to losing weight and most suffer from emotional eating roller coaster issues. Your on the road someone pisses you off you need to cool down so you go to the nearest fast food joint and get a shake and fries and maybe a big burger to maybe make you calm down, you have a stressfull day so you go to the nearest ice creal haunt and get you a super size shake, malt or other lg treat. It is a vicious cycle and we need to address this issue. We can blame the fast food joints all we want to but no one is physically forcing us to over eat except ourselves.

Ok - I'm a little tired and bitchy tonight, so I'm a bit snippy. BUT!

McDonald's doesn't need to do anything to make the menus healthier. If you want whole grain buns, go buy them somewhere else. If you want grass-fed beef, go buy it where they sell it. You want fruits, veggies and stevia-sweetened smoothies? Go buy them where they sell them. If you want something different than what McDonald's serves, GO BUY IT WHERE THEY SELL IT!!!

Just found this site and love it.

I just started reading Fast Food Nation today, and this post makes me think of the book. We pay so many costs we are unaware of when we "supersize"? What can we do to make the public more aware? You have started here :)

LOL, Christi, I agree...the day McDonald's starts selling bison burgers and stevia sweetened milkshakes is the day pigs sprout wings and fly. James, if you want that sort of fast food, open a chain and I'm sure you'll find people to buy it. But McDonald's? I seriously doubt it.

Well I agree with all of you on this one which means two things:

Fast Food restaurants are not about fitness and health they are about selling something that everyone needs...food.

Secondly, we all decide with every motion to our mouth what is important to us. Is if important to have that nice yummy greasy food or on the other hand do we eat food that nurtures, heals and keeps us healthy. I am not sure that I will ever know why I like crappy food but if I rewire myself maybe I can change that attitude and only want to eat the fruits and veggies and whole grains that make me FEEL good.

That was an excellent post as I always hear of super-sizing is so cheap and it's a great point to add cost with calories. I always believe and know for a fact that the more you weight, the more calories you need but fat doesn't burn calories so it's more your lean body mass. Awesome post and I can't wait to read more.

I defintely agree. The cost compared to calories does not add up at all. Whether you are going to spend 67 cents more for a Super Size meal or whether you are going to spend $4 for a bag of salad and fat free dressing is your choice, but in the long run, if you pick the first option, it will catch up to you.
I am hoping that you are not telling yourself that you can eat fast food everyday, as long as you work out 3-4 times per week because this figure is not exactly accurate. You could workout everyday of you life and eat fast food 3-4 times a week and you could still be very unhealthy.

67 cents (75 yen) in the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan, will buy you one sanma (Pacific saury) on sale. A Pacific saury, a very common dinner fish, weighs 150 grams, and at 240 calories per 100 grams, is about 360 calories, nearly the same as the fast food. I'm sure there are similar bargains in other developed countries. The claim that you have to eat junk if you're poor is bogus.

America knows that eating fast foods is a huge contributor to our obesity problem. We invited it, why can’t we seem to prevent it? With all these diet programs/pills we should be the skinniest country, right? I think it our compulsion of authority that demands us to Super size foods because we can get more for our money. An estimated 67 cents more worth of food, but its it really worth it, with the uncontrollable urge to demand more for your money, low cost meals, and fast orders, its hard to beat. Those few cents add up to hundreds of calories, many of which are fat. I bet America is the number one leading country for consuming fast foods.