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Eating on the run doesn't have to be terrible to your health and totally devastate your diet efforts. Though most fast foods are higher in fat, calories and sugar than home-prepared foods, there are many healthier fast food choices. Some of those healthier choices include selecting a grilled chicken salad over a crispy or fried chicken salad.

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▪ Each day, 1 in 4 Americans visit a fast food restaurant

▪ In 1972, Americans spent a total of $3 billion a year on fast food - today we spend more than $110 billion a year.

▪ McDonald's feeds more than 46 million people a day.

▪ French fries are the most eaten vegetable in America

▪ You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac

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▪ 60 percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese.

One in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime.

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Another source of hidden calories is adding cheese. Many times we don’t even consider the amount of calories and fat that are contained in that one small square. Take for example the difference between a hamburger and cheeseburger. Adding cheese can add 50 calories to your meal. Most of the time, cheese doesn’t make or break the flavoring for our favorite foods. It would be something easy to eliminate to help get rid of those extra unwanted calories and fat grams.

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Healthy condiments like yellow mustard have far fewer calories than other popular condiments like ketchup. It's easy for extra calories in condiments to sabotage your dieting efforts. Pay attention to the sauces, dressings, and relishes that you add to your food. A healthy dish can quickly become fattening if an unhealthy topping is added. The mustards and hot sauces have less sugar and fat than ketchup and mayo. Tomato ketchup has also been found to contain high amounts of high fructose corn syrup.

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A 10-inch turkey sandwich has 820 calories. Be careful when piling on all the extras. The sauces, cheeses, and oils can bring on extra calories.

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Harrison, J. (2008). Making Healthy Fast Food Choices. Retrieved November 4, 2011 from http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/Information/item/Healthy+Fast+Food+Choices

Healthy Fast Food. (2008). Tips for Making Healthier Fast Food Choices. Retrieved November 4, 2011 from http://www.helpguide.org/life/fast_food_nutrition.htm

Healthy Fast Food for Kids. (2010). Retrieved November 4, 2011 from http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/healthy_fast_food.html

Minkin, T. (2010). America's Top 10 Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants. Retrieved November 4, 2011 from http://living.health.com/2009/02/19/americas-healthiest-fast-food-restaurants/

Wyatt, T. (2010). Eating Healthy at Fast Food Franchises. Retrieved November 4, 2011 from http://cookingresources.suite101.com/article.cfm/healthy-fast-food-meals

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A typical meal at a fast food burger restaurant consists of a sandwich, some fries and a drink. This can quickly come in at over 1700 calories for something like Burger King's Triple Whopper with a large fries and a 16 oz. soda. A better option would be a regular single patty burger, small fries, and water, which is about 500 calories. This of course is without cheese. One single patty hamburger can drastically lower your calorie intake. Many menu items pile on hamburger patties to unsuspecting customers.

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If you walk for 1 hour and 10 minutes

you will burn approximately 400 calories. This is a good way to burn off unwanted calories and is something that we all do on a daily basis.

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If you houseclean for 2 hours and 35 minutes,

you will burn approximately 525 calories. This is something non aerobic that can count as exercise to burn calories.