Fast food and Heart Disease

WORLD WIDE the United States is number one in fast food, but it is a far cry from being #1 in Heart Disease. Instead death from heart disease rages in eastern Europe and Russia, as well as a few other countries who's fast food consumption per capita is only a tiny fraction of the USA.

Back home in the USA, if we look at the number of fast food joints per 1000 population, we find the higher density of restaurants where heart disease is less.

For example: In Mississippi there is fewer fast food joints per 1000 people, yet mississippi is #1 in death from heart disease in the united states. Meanwhile Montana has double the fast food joints per 1000 population of Mississippi, and very low death rates from heart disease.

However restaurant density per 1000 people may not be the best measure. How many calories of fast food individuals are downing would be a more accurate measure, and that is achieved by looking at expenditure per capita.

US EXPENDITURE PER CAPITA FAST FOOD: So does spending per person on fast food equate with the US heart disease Map? The answer is YES and NO. Some states match, but others don't.

Remember Mississippi is the State with the worst death rates from heart disease, but they spend much less per person on fast food than many states.

Meanwhile, Colorado which is the thinnest state and has lower death rates from heart disease has one of the highest spending on fast food per person.

Trying to tie Fast Food consumption with death from heart disease using a geographic comparison is like pounding your head against a wall.

Whats even more challenging is looking at the timeline in the USA from 1970 to today. As Americans consumed more and more fast food, heart disease declined.

So does eating a greasy cheeseburger directly contribute to the mechanism which causes heart attacks and strokes? It may just be perception.

CDC US Heart Disease Map:
http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/maps/national_map s/hd_all.htm

Business Insider map Fast food restaurants per capita:
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-0 1-28/strategy/30669674_1_fast-food-food-ch ains-food-restaurants

Fast Food Expenditure map:
http://www.ediblegeography.com/united-stat es-of-food/fast-food-expenditure-per-capit a/

Cardiovascular Disease World Map:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cardiova scular_diseases_world_map_-_DALY_-_WHO2004 .svg

Top Fast Food Countries:
http://suite101.com/article/top-fast-food- countries-a29881