Fast food of poor nutritional quality such as that produced by most chains of fast food can encourage weight gain not only due to its addictive and not very satiating nature, but a recent study shows us one more reason junk food is fattening: they can have endocrine disruptors.
Phthalates in fast food preparations
The phthalates are one of the recognized endocrine disruptors, that is, substances that can alter hormone levels in the body and thus cause from fertility and reproductive problems to asthma in children and increased levels of obesity.
Previous studies found that phthalate levels were higher in people who eat more fast food, and therefore a recent study evaluated preparations of fast food as well as three glove samples of plastic used in the same establishments, to know the presence of phthalates and other plasticizers that have begun to replace them.
Burgers, French fries, chicken nuggets, chicken burritos, and cheese pizza were part of 64 samples collected from restaurants in the United States.
The results were that most of the preparations contained replacement plasticizers and phthalates, being higher concentrations in burritos and hamburgers while cheese pizza was the preparation with the lowest levels of most chemicals.
The results indicate that the fast food It can not only gain weight because it is concentrated in calories, not very satiating and with active components, but also due to contain endocrine disruptors that lead to obesity and harm the health of the body in other ways.
For all this, the presence of chemicals in food preparations such as those of fast food, given that inadvertently they can lead to weight gain, although we moderate the amount and frequency of its consumption.
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