A total of 2,027 American adults, aged 18 and older, took part in the poll.
According to the poll, three percent of Americans say they eat fast food every day, while 16 percent and 28 percent of Americans respectively report eating at fast-food restaurants "several times a week" and "once a week." Another 33 percent of Americans say they eat fast food once or twice a month. Only 4 percent of Americans say they never eat at fast-food restaurants.
Young adults, aged 18 to 29, eat fast food most often, with 57 percent of them reportedly doing so at least weekly.
Additionally, men are more likely to eat fast food than women. Across ethnic groups, blacks and Hispanics tend to eat it most often.
Interestingly, Americans earning 75,000 U.S. dollars a year or more are more likely to eat fast food once a week than people in lower-income groups.
Moreover, the poll showed now slightly fewer Americans eat fast food weekly than in 2006, when Gallup last did a poll about it.
Although fast food remains to be a long-time staple of many Americans' diets, widespread concerns over nutritional value of the fast food linger.
The latest poll found 76 percent altogether in the country now think fast food is "not too good" or "not good at all for you" while 22 percent of Americans say fast food is good.
Among those who eat fast food weekly or more frequently, more than 7 in 10 of them believe the food is not good.
The poll concluded that although a large number of Americans believe fast food is unhealthy, most of them still visit fast food establishments frequently, which may suggest that "the appeal of the product -- be it relatively low cost, the taste, or the convenience -- outweighs the health concerns."
Xinhuanet
