July 15, 2015 When Americans go out to eat, either at a fast-food outlet or a full-service restaurant, they consume, on average, about 200 more calories a day than when they stay home for meals, a new study reports. They also take in more fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium than those who prepare and eat their meals at home. Where You Eat Matters Restaurant and fast-food meals increase people’s daily intake of calories, fats, cholesterol and sodium. | Graphic by Diana Yates These are the findings of University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Ruopeng An, who analyzed eight years of nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. An looked at 2003-10 data collected from 18,098 adults living in the U.S. His analysis, reported in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, revealed that eating at a restaurant is comparable to – or in some cases less healthy than – eating at a fast-food outlet. Read more