This Popular Chain Tops The List For America’s Unhealthiest Burgers & Fries

Fast food has become an essential part of many people’s meals in this age of ease. From burgers to fries to drinks, fast food chains have meals you can get quickly and feel good about when you’re hungry or don’t have much time.

Even though everyone knows that fast food isn’t the healthiest choice, some things on the menu are much worse for you than others. A new study from Plushcare, a website for virtual health care, shows some of the worst abusers.

Five popular fast food items were looked at: burgers, chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches, French fries, and vanilla shakes. The study looked at 24 of the best fast-food chains in the United States. The results showed that some food items that don’t seem too bad are very high in calories, saturated fat, salt, and sugar.

The Five Guys Cheeseburger Is The Most Unhealthy Burger In The United States

If you like burgers, Five Guys may already be one of your best places because of its extensive, personalized burgers. But Plushcare’s study says that their hamburger is the least healthy fast food burger in the United States. Why is this burger so bad for you? Saturated fat is the main cause.

The Five Guys cheeseburger has 73% more saturated fat than any other cheeseburger that was looked at. A lot of saturated fat can make you gain weight and raise your risk of heart disease. Many say saturated fat shouldn’t exceed 5 to 6 percent of your daily calories. This is about 13 grams of saturated fat per day for someone who eats 2,000 calories. With a Five Guys burger, you eat more than that in just one meal.

The hamburger contains a lot of calories, salt, and saturated fat. Over time, eating a lot of calories can make you fat, and too much salt can raise your blood pressure and make you more likely to have a stroke or heart attack.

Five Guys French Fries: A Huge Food Bomb

Not only does Five Guys have the worst burger, but they also have the worst French fries. Their fries are very famous and known for giving you a lot of them. But each helping of those tasty, crispy fries has an unbelievable 953 calories. Based on calories alone, this makes them about half as bad for you as fries from other fast food chains.

Five Guys fries have more problems than just a lot of calories. They also have a lot of fat and salt, which makes them three times as bad for your health. Even though potatoes can be a good source of fiber and vitamins on their own, frying them in oil and adding a lot of salt makes them unhealthy and turns them into a high-calorie, high-fat treat.

Why It’s Bad To Have Too Much Saturated Fat And Salt

Saturated fat and salt are two main parts of Five Guys menu items that you need to look at more closely to understand why these foods are so bad for you.

Saturated fat has been linked to health problems for a long time, especially heart disease. Lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol, can rise in your blood when you eat heavy fats. Plaque buildup in your arteries is more likely to happen if you have a lot of LDL cholesterol.

This can cause heart attacks and strokes. You can find unsaturated fats in nuts, seeds, avocados, and fish are the best fats for your body. Your cells and body need fat to work.

Another worry is sodium. You need some salt to keep the balance of fluids in your body, but too much of it can be bad. If you eat a lot of salt, you might get high blood pressure, which raises your risk of heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke.

According to the American Heart Association, people should not eat more than 1,500 milligrams of salt per day. However, many fast food items contain much more sodium than that, so eating too much salt in one meal is easy.

Popeyes Has The Worst Chicken Nuggets And Chicken Sandwiches

When people think of fast food, burgers, and fries are often the first things that come to mind. But chicken nuggets and sandwiches are also very popular. It’s too bad that not all chickens are the same. Another study by Plushcare found that Popeyes has the worst chicken nuggets.

This time, saturated fat is what’s wrong with Popeyes burgers. There is at least twice as much saturated fat in their bites as in those at other chains. When you eat a helping of these nuggets, your saturated fat intake can go through the roof, leaving you with little room for other healthy meals during the day.

The chicken burger at Popeyes is also the least healthy. Even though fried chicken burgers are known for being unhealthy, Popeyes’ version stands out because it has a lot of salt. The amount of sodium in their chicken sandwich is so high that it exceeds the daily limit suggested by the American Heart Association.

If you eat too much salt, you may be more likely to get high blood pressure, which is one of the main risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

The Fatburger Vanilla Shake Is High In Sugar And Calories

Milkshakes are a tasty fast-food treat for people who like sweets. On the other hand, the Fatburger vanilla shake has the bad title of being the least healthy drink in America. This shake is not a healthy treat at all. It has 890 calories, 30 grams of saturated fat, and 86 grams of sugar.

That number needs to be broken down. The shake has almost twice as much saturated fat as you should eat in a day and more calories than some big meals.

The American Heart Association says men should not eat more than 36 grams of sugar daily, and women should not eat more than 25 grams. There are more than three times as many sugar grams in one Fatburger vanilla shake as in a year for women and more than twice as many for men.

Regularly eating a lot of sugar can make you gain weight, make insulin less effective, and raise your risk of getting type 2 diabetes. Also, drinks and foods that are high in sugar can make cavities and other tooth problems worse.

How Hard It Is To Eat Healthy When You Eat Fast Food

Many people know that fast food is bad for you, but millions of Americans still eat it for quick meals because it’s easy, cheap, and tastes good. The World Economic Forum says that around half of Americans are trying to eat better. However, 46% of those polled said it’s harder for them to eat well because healthy foods are more expensive.

Fast food is often less expensive than better options, which can be hard for people trying to stick to a healthy diet while watching their spending. This is especially true for people living in “food deserts,” where it’s hard to find fresh, healthy food. In these places, fast food might be one of the few options that is both cheap and easy to get.

How To Make Better Decisions At Fast Food Chains

Even though fast food is often bad for you, there are better options when you eat. Now, a lot of fast food chains serve healthy food like grilled chicken, veggies, and fruit sides. You can also often change the parts of your meal to make it a little healthy. You can ask for less salt, skip the cheese or mayonnaise, or a smaller serving.

The more you know about the nutrition facts of fast food, the better choices you can make. If you know which things on the menu are the least healthy, you can avoid them and choose lower in sugar, calories, saturated fat, and salt.

Conclusion

Even though fast food is easy to get, many of the most popular things are high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat, which are all bad for you. Five Guys, Popeyes, and Fatburger are known for having some of the worst food choices. Eating burgers, fries, chicken nuggets, and drinks can harm your health.

Making better choices at a fast-food restaurant might be hard, but it’s not impossible. You can eat fast food occasionally without hurting your health if you know what to avoid and look for lower-calorie and lower-fat options.