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Hormonal Responses to a Fast-Food Meal

For a couple of decades, there has been an ongoing argument regarding the issue of “is a calorie a calorie” in terms of changes on body composition and other parameters.     In that vein is the idea that the body will respond drastically differently to the intake of “fast food” compared to similar meal from organic foods.

To examine this, I want to look at a recent paper titled:

Bray GA et. al. Hormonal Responses to a Fast-Food Meal Compared with Nutritionally Comparable Meals of Different Composition. Ann Nutr Metab. (2007) 51(2):163-71

Which actually made the comparison.  Let’s see what happened.

Yeah, a Calorie is Pretty Much a Calorie

Fundamentally, my belief is that, given identical macro-nutrient intakes (in terms of protein, carbs, and fats) that there is going to be little difference in terms of bodily response to a given meal.  There may be small differences mind you (and of course research supports that) but, overall, they are not large.… Keep Reading