Making Fast Food Healthy

Age Category - Junior
Division - Biological Science
Students - Dana Madill
Mentor Information - No mentors

Science Fair Report
Dana Madill


Introduction

After going to a fast food restaurant for a burger and a drink, which side dish would make the healthiest meal? That was tested in this experiment. Information from this experiment would be appealing to nutritionists and people who are curious about which foods are healthiest or are dieting. To complete this experiment, sugar, starch, lipids, and protein were tested for in five different side dishes: french fries, baked potato, chicken caesar salad, garden salad, and chili. The question to be answered is which side dish is the healthiest choice to order from fast food restaurant.

Hypothesis

It is guessed that the french fries are full of fat and oil, making it the unhealthiest, while the salads are made from natural vegetables, which would make it the healthiest side dish.

Materials

The materials used were: Test tubes Benedict.s Solution Biuret Reagent Iodine Distilled water Food samples Medicine dropper

Method

½ of each food serving was put into a blender with 200 mL of water to begin to test the samples.
Starch: 1 mL of each food was put into test tubes with a drop of iodine. The darker the colour of the food, the more starch it contained.
Sugar: 1 mL of each food was put into test tubes with 1 mL of Benedict.s solution then placed into a hot water bath for 3 minutes. The amount of sugar was determined by the table below, which illustrated the different colours and the amount of sugar included.
Amount of Sugar in Food
none- blue
trace- blue/green
little sugar- green
some sugar- yellow
much sugar- orange/red
Lipids: 1 mL of food was put onto a paper towel and left to dry for a day, and then the diameter of the oil ring left behind by the food was measured.
Protein: 1 mL of each food was put into test tubes with 1 mL of Biuret reagent. The darker the colour of the contents, the more proteins it contained.
The results were tabulated with the rankings each side dish performed in each test. The rankings were used to find the average of each side dish.
Results can be found on science fair day in chart form

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the chicken caesar salad was the healthiest while the fries are the unhealthiest. Chili,potato, and garden salad were unhealthier and fries were unhealthiest when tested for protein, lipids, starch, and sugar.