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Food

Burgers and Fries Might Actually Be Healthy for Your Muscles

According to an upcoming study, the frozen-and-fried crap you get from your average food court is just as effective in helping your muscles recover from a workout as energy bars and sports drinks.

There are those for whom working out is easy—an adrenaline-juicing breeze punctuated by protein shakes, top-40 cardio jams, and motivational poster credos like "complaining doesn't burn calories."

Then there are those for whom the gym is a necessary torture and a daily bout of public embarrassment, punctuated by kale smoothies, nausea, and third slices of cake that have been justified by a 15-minute walking jog on a treadmill.

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Unless you are happily living in the I Don't Give a Fuck camp, you probably fall somewhere between these extremes. Regardless, you probably know that burgers and fries aren't going to give you the kind of hot body extolled in Britney Spears' seminal single, "Work Bitch."

But guess what, gluttons? Turns out that fast food does your muscles good.

According to an upcoming study in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, the frozen-and-fried crap you get from your average food court is effective in replenishing glycogen, a form of carbohydrate energy used by your muscles that gets depleted during a workout. (It's also the reason why bodybuilders carbo-load.) Not only that, but fast food may be just as good at replenishing glycogen as a meal of energy bars and sports drinks.

The study authors asked 11 healthy, athletic male participants to complete a 90-minute workout, followed by a four-hour rest. They were then immediately fed a meal of hot cakes, hash browns, and orange juice; two hours after that, they were treated to a hamburger, Coke, and fries. Seven days later, they did the same thing, but with different food. During the first rest period they were fed Gatorade, Kit's Organic energy bars, and Clif Shot Bloks; during the second, they had Cytomax shakes, Power Bar Recovery bars, and Power Bar Energy Chews.

After both trials, the researchers collected blood and tissue samples. Lo and behold, both the fast-food diet and the sports supplement diet showed the same rates of glycogen recovery. Additionally, the study authors note, there were no differences in blood glucose and insulin responses.

Perhaps the most shocking thing is that the meals of hotcakes, hashbrowns, soda, and burgers were roughly equivalent in nutritional value to meals of Gatorade and energy bars. Vitamin and other micronutrient content weren't calculated in the study, but calories, fat, cholesterol, and protein were roughly the same for the two groups; only sodium was markedly higher in the fast food group—nearly double that of the sport-supplement group.

While the study was small and certainly not conclusive, it does bode well for people who don't have access to fancy and pricey foods marketed to the athletic set. The study authors note that while fast-food consumption has been linked to a range of negative health effects, there has been little research on short-term consumption in active, healthy individuals.

So the next time you come home sweat-drenched and cursing the name of the person who invented the kettlebell, take solace in the fact that eating a burger might be no worse for you than a pea protein shake.