Bray GA et. al. Hormonal Responses to a Fast-Food Meal Compared with Nutritionally Comparable Meals of Different Composition. Ann Nutr Metab. 2007 May 29;51(2):163-171 [Epub ahead of print]
Background: Fast food is consumed in large quantities each day. Whether there are differences in the acute metabolic response to these meals as compared to ‘healthy’ meals with similar composition is unknown. Design: Three-way crossover. Methods: Six overweight men were given a standard breakfast at 8:00 a.m. on each of 3 occasions, followed by 1 of 3 lunches at noon. The 3 lunches included: (1) a fast-food meal consisting of a burger, French fries and root beer sweetened with high fructose corn syrup; (2) an organic beef meal prepared with organic foods and a root beer containing sucrose, and (3) a turkey meal consisting of a turkey sandwich and granola made with organic foods and an organic orange juice. Glucose, insulin, free fatty acids, ghrelin, leptin, triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol were measured at 30-min intervals over 6 h. Salivary cortisol was measured after lunch. Results: Total fat, protein and energy content were similar in the 3 meals, but the fatty acid content differed. The fast-food meal had more myristic (C14:0), palmitic (C16:0), stearic (C18:0) and trans fatty acids (C18:1) than the other 2 meals. The pattern of nutrient and hormonal response was similar for a given subject to each of the 3 meals.
The only statistically significant acute difference observed was a decrease in the AUC of LDL cholesterol after the organic beef meal relative to that for the other two meals. Other metabolic responses were not different. Conclusion: LDL-cholesterol decreased more with the organic beef meal which had lesser amounts of saturated and trans fatty acids than in the fast-food beef meal.
This study basically backs up what I’ve been saying for years: a single fast food meal, within the context of a calorie controlled diet, is not death on a plate. It won’t destroy your diet and it won’t make you immediately turn into a big fat pile of blubber. And, frankly, this can be predicted on basic physiology (in terms of nutrient digestion) alone. It’s just nice to see it verified in a controlled setting.
It’s not uncommon for the physique obsessed to literally become social pariahs, afraid to eat out because eating out is somehow defined as ‘unclean’ (never mind that a
grilled chicken breast eaten out is fundamentally no different than a grilled chicken breast cooked at home) and fast food is, of course, the death of any diet. This is in addition to the fact that apparently eating fast food makes you morally inferior as well. Well, that’s what bodybuilders and other orthorexics will tell you anyhow.
Except that it’s clearly not. Given caloric control, the body’s response to a given set of nutrients, with the exception of blood lipids would appear to be more determined by the total caloric and macro content of that meal more than the source of the food.
I
n terms of the hormonal response, clean vs. unclean just doesn’t matter, it’s all about calories and macros.
Which is what I’ve been saying all along.
אני יודע שהרוב יודעים וחושבים ככה, פשוט לכל אלה שלא יודעים ומפחדים לעשות "צ'יט", או ה"מקצצים בפחמימות" למיניהם ,המחקר הזה (למרות שנעשה על ארוחות בודדת) מראה שבגדול, אם פעם ב אוכלים לא אוכל "איכותי" אלה גאנק, גם אם יש שם שומן טראנס לא יקרה כלום, כל עוד כמות החלבון זהה והערך הקלורי זהה...
כמובן זה לא מעודד אכילת גאנק בקבוע כן?פשוט ההבדל "המשמעותי " היחיד שניראה מבחינת הרכב הגוף זה רמות הLDL, כמובן זה בוצע על אנשים לא מתאמנים, מתאמנים זה סיפור שונה.
ומה שלייל אומר, וגם אני תכלס חושב ככה שכל עוד החלבון גבוהה, המרכיבים פחות חשובים...בח להיכנס עכשיו לדיאטות דלות פחמימה ,אלה לאנשים בכללי
ככה שתדעו שבהחלט אפשרי להתחטב יופי גם עם קורסונים והאמבורגרים
ונקי ולא נקי לא כלכך קיים פה (חוץ מפרוקטוז שאני מתנגד לו ,אבל זה גם רק במאזן חיובי)