Infographic Shows What A Big Mac Does To Our Body After One Hour

We’ve long been told the horrors fast food wreaks on the body, but a recent infographic of what happens to the body after eating a McDonald’s Big Mac has gotten the attention of both health professionals and even McDonald’s headquarters. On Thursday, website Fast Food Menu Price released the above graphic of the body’s reaction to a Big Mac in the first hour after it is eaten.

Essentially, in the first ten minutes after swallowing a Big Mac, our bodies react by releasing feel good chemicals such as dopamine, making the sensation of eating the burger akin to drugs like cocaine. This promotes overeating. The 540 calorie burger’s high levels of fructose corn syrup and sodium also cause the body to crave more of the same after 20 minutes. In about 30 minutes, the Big Mac’s 970 milligrams of sodium dehydrate the body, which can cause heart disease and strokes in the long run. After 40 minutes your body is craving more salty, fatty foods. Finally the body can take up to 3 days to digest the Big Mac.

Health professionals have reacted to Fast Food Menu Price’s infographic, saying it is a bit of an exaggeration. Lisa Moskovitz, CEO of the New York Nutrition Group, told Yahoo Health that many of these factors, such as dehydration and addictive feelings vary a lot from person to person. Factors such as daily exercise, nutrition and current hydration state affect these reactions. A dietitian and spokeswoman, Priya Tew of the British Dietetic Association, noted the study that lead to the infographic was flawed, as it was very small scale and tested on rats not humans. Tew did agree though that a Big Mac is very unhealthy and should be enjoyed no more than once a month if at all.

A statement from McDonald’s UK said: “We do not recognize the ingredients or nutritional information within this graphic. The so-called facts in this image are misleading and bear no resemblance to the Big Mac available to customers in the UK. We have been displaying nutritional information for all of our menu items for over 30 years so it is a shame to see such inaccurate figures and information being circulated.”

It seems that all of this information leads us to the conclusion we were aware of since Supersize Me: fast food is pretty bad for you, and one should only splurge rarely, if ever.