Fast Food Was Healthier In The 1980s.

Byline: Niall McCarthy

Across the United States, 93.3 million people were obese in 2015-2016 while 36.6 percent of the country's adults consumed fast food on a given day according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A new study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has now found that the size of calorie account of fast food has been increasing steadily since the mid-1980s.

The researchers studied 1,787 mains, sides and desserts at 10 popular fast food chains from 1986 to 2016.

The restaurants involved were Arby's, Burger King, Carl's Jr., Dairy Queen, Hardee's, Jack in the Box, KFC, Long John Silver's, McDonald's and Wendy's. Although many fast food establishments are trying to tempt more customers with lighter and healthier items like salad, the average main increased in weight by 39 grams across those ten chains between 1986 and 2016. During the same period, the calorie count also went up...