Karen Inge: Quarter of Aussie teen boys eating a burger-a-day

One in four Australian teenage boys are having a burger-a-day, despite information displayed for all fast food products.

And 20 per cent of them are ordering fries as well, according to research by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Leading Australian dietitian Karen Inge told Denis Walter she’s concerned those numbers are so high even though this information is readily available.

“(It was) thought that if people knew how many kilojoules or how many grams of saturated fat or how many milligrams of salt were in the product it would put them off eating it,” Karen said.

But she says,  it doesn’t seem to have made ‘the slightest bit of difference’.

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And even if a burger may appear healthy,  low-carb options can actually have more saturated fat than a Big Mac.

Karen suggested a tip to cut back saturated fat is to remove bacon and mayonnaise.

She explained consuming burgers for a full meal isn’t as damaging as eating them “in between meals”, as some contain half an adult’s total daily energy requirements.