by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: June 04, 2009   Last Updated: July 27, 2011

Can living close to a fast food restaurant impact your health? Does the mere presence of those infamous golden arches on your street consign you to the obesity dustbin? Or is all this a question phrased by someone with little willpower, desperately grasping for whatever scant excuses they can find for their blossoming waistline?

Obviously, living near to a fast food restaurant is only going to impact your health if you visit it. It's an obvious point, but it bears mentioning. If you're absolutely determined to live an active life full of healthy foods and wheatgerm extract drinks and things, you could live in a concrete jungle of plastic burgers and never be any the worse for it.

But being all too human, cooking a nutritious and healthy meal every evening after a long day at work involves a significant amount of effort, and deep down many of us know we would probably eat at a burger bar serving human flesh if it was between the bus stop and our home. And yes, it would probably end up having an impact on our health.

The popularity of fast food is a symptom of the busy lives we all lead. It is quick, convenient and cheap, perfect for the times when we are busy and might otherwise have to skip a meal. As many generally believe it's better to eat badly than to miss a meal entirely, this is one area where living near a fast food restaurant could have a positive effect.

There is almost certainly nothing wrong with eating fast food from time to time. All things in moderation, after all, and the reason for the immense popularity of fast food is that it can taste incredibly good. An overwhelming proportion of all illness is stress-related, so if chowing down some KFC from time to time makes you feel good and relax then it might actually help to keep you healthy.

If you're anything like this author though, you're probably a creature of habit. And the thing about saving time cooking one night by stopping into a kebab shop on the way home is that you suddenly realise what a great idea it is, and each subsequent trip becomes easier and easier. Run out of ingredients? Let's go to the kebab place again. Five minutes later home? Kebab. Have a bit of a headache and can't be bothered cooking? Kebab. If a fast food outlet is very near your home, it can quickly become an ultimately destructive part of your daily routine.

Also, and this is where the inevitable anecdote comes in, the temptations caused by our sense of smell can play a part. I once worked in an office

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