NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In study findings that may not
surprise many people, kids and teens ate more calories -
including more fat and more sugar - on days when they had a meal
from a fast-food or sit-down restaurant. "Parents (should)
realize that restaurant consumption is not a straight-off
substitute for eating at home. Restaurant consumption and fast-
food consumption should not be the norm," said lead researcher
Lisa Powell from the University of Illinois at Chicago. "The
additional calories and the additional sugar and saturated fat
and sodium that are taken in and then consistently taken in will
have some longer-term consequences," she told Reuters Health -
such as an increased risk of obesity and diabetes. For their new
study, Powell and her co-author Binh Nguyen used data from
nationally-representative health surveys conducted in the United
States between 2003 and 2008. On two different occasions, more
than 9,000 teens were asked to recall everything they'd had to
eat or drink in the past 24 hours