This week I was on a business trip to Munich and my family tell me I should have watched the programme on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's burger boot camp. The Daily Mail is not my favourite newspaper but my wife pointed out an article about that programme in today's Mail weekend magazine.

There was an interesting sidebox entitled "Fast food nation" with interesting facts on our national diet. I give a selection of them below:

- Fast food accounts for 27% of the UK eating out market
- More than 1,000 of the world's 26,500 McDonalds outlets are in the UK
- If you bake 100 g of cod it contains just 1.2 g fat, while McDonald's fish fingers contain 14 g fat
- A Big Mac contains 2 g of salt which is one third of the recommended maximum 6 g (http://www.salt.gov.uk/index.shtml)
- In 2001 2 billion fast food meals were eaten in the UK
I love this one!
- Some brands of dog and cat food contain less fat and salt than fast food. A can of Gourmet Gold cat food contained 2.5 g of fat per 100 g compared with 24.8 g of fat per 100 g in a McDonald's Big Mac and medium fries.
- Most fast food contains transfats, which raise cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease.
- A chicken breast grilled without skin contains approximately 2.2 g of fat per 100 g. McDonalds Chicken McNuggets have 13 g per 100 g.
- An Innocent smoothie contains 57 calories per 100 ml and 0.1 g of fat. A McDonald's milkshake contains 119 calories per 100 ml and 3 g of fat.

This fat and salt must be killing the fast food addicts in this country. Much as I deplore the quality of much of the cheap "fresh" food sold in our supermarkets people are better off cooking with any sort of fresh ingredients than eating high fat, high salt, high E-number junk food.