Burgers pollute environment worse than trucks do

Fast food harms not only your health and figure, but also the environment. Just one burger, scientists believe, pollutes atmosphere worse than a truck does.

It's all about the grills for cooking meat that McDonald's and other similar fast food restaurants use, Medikforum.ru reports. Experts from the University of California found that the grills emit enormous amounts of harmful substances in the form of solid particles. The amounts of such particles are much larger than those emitted by trucks or factories with smoking chimneys.

"For comparison, an 18-wheeler diesel-engine truck would have to drive 143 miles on the freeway to put out the same mass of particles as a single charbroiled hamburger patty," said Bill Welch, the principal engineer for the study.

In addition, red roasted meat may increase the risk of prostate cancer. Scientists at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California analyzed the data collected from nearly 2,000 men, says RBC. The volunteers answered questions about the amount of meat that they consume daily. The information about cooking methods (grilling, roasting, stewing) was obtained with the help of color photographs that demonstrated the extent of readiness of meat. More than one thousand men participating in the survey were diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.

"Men who ate more than 1.5 servings of pan-fried red meat per week increased their risk of advanced prostate cancer by 30%," said lead investigator Mariana Stern, PhD, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.