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Fast Food May Have Fewer Calories Than Traditional Restaurant Meals

New study claims fast food portions are smaller and more "energy dense"

December 19, 2008

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If you're watching your calories, you're probably more likely to pull into a full service restaurant than stop for a fast food burger. But the conventional wisdom that fast food restaurant food is more fattening and lots more calories might just be wrong.

A new study in the Review of Agricultural Economics compares fast food and table service meals at restaurants, showing both have larger serving sizes and more calories than food you prepare at home.

However, when researchers compared food from the two types of eating establishments, they found the typical fast food meal was smaller and had fewer calories than the average meal from a table service restaurant.

James K. Binkley of Purdue University used data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals, which is the most recently available large sample of information regarding nutritional intake, to analyze fast food, table service restaurant meals, and meals prepared at home.

Fast food was found to be more energy dense than food from a table service restaurant. However, Binkley found that fast food meals tend to be smaller. Consequently, the typical fast food meal had fewer calories than the average meal from a table service restaurant, whether the diner is an adult, teenager, or child.

But, the study found that table service diners are more likely to reduce their food consumption during the rest of the day than are those eating at fast food restaurants, most likely because of the difference in energy density. As a result, fast food may ultimately result in more calories.

Perhaps the most surprising result of the study was the finding that fast food had the largest effects for adults, and that children's caloric intakes were greatest when they ate at table service restaurants.

"It is misleading to focus concerns about the nutritional effects of increased food away from home primarily on fast food. All food away from home should be considered," Binkley said.

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