'Give out statins with junk food'

A way to have some fatsos pay as they go, so the rest don't have to and kiddie doses, too.

Fast food outlets should consider handing out cholesterol-lowering drugs to combat the effects of fatty food, say UK researchers.

Taking a statin pill every day would offset the harm caused by a daily cheeseburger and milkshake, the Imperial College London team said.

It would only cost 5p a customer - similar to a sachet of ketchup.

But the British Heart Foundation warned an unhealthy diet does more harm than just raising cholesterol.

Writing in the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr Darrel Francis and colleagues said it was about reducing harm in the same way that people who smoke are encouraged to use filters and those who drive are told to wear seatbelts.

They took data from trials of almost 43,000 people to calculate whether the statins could override the effects of eating a junk food diet.

A statin a day can neutralise the risk of cardiovascular disease linked to a daily intake of a 7-oz cheeseburger and a small milkshake, they calculated.

The researchers said there could be no substitute for leading a healthy lifestyle, including eating a good diet, but that a complimentary statin would be at least one positive choice among a sea of negative ones.

For those only eating junk food once a year, an annual one-off statin dose would have little effect, but for those who partake more regularly it would have a greater opportunity to neutralise that risk, they added.

Gotta admire the ingenuity.

Can only fly in the USA if we stop paying for fat person medications, which we should.