Eating out can have both positive and negative impact ...( San Diego January 8 2008 ?Eating out...),Health

San Diego, January 8, 2008 ?Eating out instead of cooking at home continues to increase as a factor impacting the American diet. Americans face a large variety of food options and food establishments when choosing to eat out. Do the choices of available restaurants matter to Americas rising obesity" In a study published in the February 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers found that the availability of more fast food?restaurants compared to full service?restaurants can contribute to higher levels of obesity.

Drawing on data from 5 years of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), an annual telephone health survey of the adult population of the US and the 2002 U.S. Economic Census, the researchers examined the relationship between restaurant availability and weight status in 544 US counties. This resulted in over 700,000 BRFSS respondents, representative of approximately 75% of the 2002 US population.

The researchers found that a higher total restaurant density is significantly associated with lower weight status. However, once the restaurants are split into components: fast food and full service, a higher full-service restaurant density is significantly associated with lower weight status while, in contrast, a higher fast-food density is associated with higher weight status.

Writing in the article, Neil Mehta, MSc, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania and Virginia W. Chang, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, state that, The results reported here demonstrate that the restaurant environment is associated with weight status net of individual- and county-level factors. The relationship is complex, suggesting that the restaurant environments influence goes well beyond a simple positive association between restaurant density and weight status. Rather, different components of the restaurant environment exhibit differential associations with weight status.
'/>"/>