Restaurant food adds 200 additional calories, finds study

Eating at restaurants is not good to for health as it increases calorie consumption and also takes in more saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium than those who prepare and eat their meals at home.

"People who ate at full-service restaurants consumed significantly more cholesterol per day than people who ate at home," said researcher professor Ruopeng An from University of Illinois. "This extra intake of cholesterol, about 58 milligrams per day, accounts for 20 percent of the recommended upper bound of total cholesterol intake of 300 milligrams per day," he added.

Fast-food and restaurant diners consumed about 10 grams more total fat, and 3.49 grams and 2.46 grams, respectively, more saturated fat than those who dined at home.

"The American Heart Association recommends limiting the amount of saturated fats one eats to less than 5 to 6 percent of one's total daily calories. That means that if one needs about 2,000 calories a day, less than 120 calories, or 13 grams, should come from saturated fats," the researcher said.

The study, reported in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, analysed eight years of nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, collected from 18,098 adults living in the US.

By Lizitha