Can Fast Food Eating Patterns Be Healthy? An Optimization-Based Analysis of Popular US Fast-Food Chains

This paper applies linear programming modeling to determine whether USDA dietary guidelines can be satisfied by an optimal selection of items from the current menus of popular fast-food chains. More specifically, optimization models aiming to determine diets that minimize one of the three objectives (calories from sugars, calories from fat, or sodium consumption), while satisfying the key USDA dietary guidelines are proposed. The models are applied to the menu data of 44 popular fast food restaurants available via Fast Food Nutrition database. A detailed study is performed for 13 age-sex groups specified in USDA guidelines. It is found that only one of the 44 restaurants was found acceptable for each of the 13 age-sex groups, and 10 restaurants were found acceptable for at least one group. Moreover, removing only a small fraction of foods from the combined fast-food menu including all the items from the 44 restaurants eliminates the possibility of designing an acceptable diet based on the remaining menu items. Therefore, it is concluded that the available fast-food options provide very limited opportunities for supporting healthy eating patterns that would satisfy the USDA dietary guidelines. Optimization methods are not only useful for determining the acceptability of a menu with respect to given guidelines, but can also be utilized towards developing better dietary guidelines and healthier menus. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.