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

Hrayer Aprahamian (), Sergiy Butenko (), Zachary Hunt (), Mykyta Makovenko (), Celine Martin (), Miltiades Pardalos () and Stephen Talcott ()
Additional contact information
Hrayer Aprahamian: Texas A&M University
Sergiy Butenko: Texas A&M University
Zachary Hunt: Texas A&M University
Mykyta Makovenko: Texas A&M University
Celine Martin: Texas A&M University
Miltiades Pardalos: Texas A&M University
Stephen Talcott: Texas A&M University

SN Operations Research Forum, 2023, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-57

Abstract: Abstract 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.

Keywords: Linear programming; The diet model; Fast food; Dietary guidelines; Healthy diet; Nutrition informatics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43069-022-00185-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:snopef:v:4:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s43069-022-00185-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/43069

DOI: 10.1007/s43069-022-00185-1

Access Statistics for this article

SN Operations Research Forum is currently edited by Marco Lübbecke

More articles in SN Operations Research Forum from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().