You might think a meal at an expensive restaurant was better for you than a greasy burger, but a new study has found that restaurant meals can be just as unhealthy as fast food. Professor Ruopeng An, at the University of Illinois, studied eight years of health data on about 18000 adults in the US.She found that although people who ate at restaurants did consume more healthy nutrients - including vitamins, potassium and omega-3 fatty acids - than those who visited fast-food outlets, they took in more sodium.Eating fast food increased the amount of sodium people consumed per day by an average of 300mg, whereas restaurant dining added 412mg.The American Heart Association recommends that less than 1500mg of sodium be ingested in a day.Dining in restaurants meant people took in, on average, 58mg of extra cholesterol a day, compared to people who ate home-cooked meals, and those who ate fast food got an extra 10mg.Visitors to restaurants consumed a little less saturated fat than diners at fast-food joints - 2.46mg as opposed to 3.49mg - but, on average, visitors to both consumed 10g more total fat than people eating dinner at home.Overall, the study found that people who ate out ended up consuming about 200 extra calories."People who ate at full-service restaurants consumed significantly more cholesterol per day than people who ate at home," said An."This extra intake of cholesterol, about 58mg a day, accounts for 20% of the recommended upper bound of total cholesterol intake of 300mg per day."The study was published recently in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. ..