Have a statin pill with your burger and fries

A statin pill could offset the increased risk to the heart caused by the fat in a 7oz hamburger with cheese and a small milkshake, they said.

The cost would be less than 5p per customer – the same as a sachet of ketchup.

The team from Imperial College London suggested it would be equivalent to smokers using tipped cigarettes or drivers wearing seatbelts to minimise the risk of potentially dangerous behaviour.

They said: "Routine accessibility of statins in establishments providing unhealthy food might be a rational modern means to offset the cardiovascular risk.

"Fast food outlets already offer free condiments to supplement meals. A free statin-containing accompaniment would offer cardiovascular benefits, opposite to the effects of equally available salt, sugar, and high-fat condiments."

The researchers said there could be no substitute for leading a healthy lifestyle, including a good diet, regular exercise, losing excess weight and stopping smoking.

But they said a statin would be at least one positive choice in a sea of negative ones.

Statins are taken by millions of Britons to reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke, and work by lowering levels of bad cholesterol in the blood.

They are thought to be safe for the vast majority of people although some experts have raised concerns about side-effects, including problems with the liver and kidneys.

In the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr Darrel Francis from Imperial College and colleagues calculated the risk reduction from a statin compared to the increased risk from fatty food.

They found that most statins had the strength to counteract the increased risk caused by an unhealthy diet or eating an extra 36g of total fat or 2.8g of trans fats per day – the "equivalent to a Quarter Pounder with cheese and a small milkshake".

Those people only eating an unhealthy meal once a year and therefore taking a statin only once a year would see "minimal" benefit, they continued.

But they added: "Individuals who have a more frequent habit of fast food consumption will have greater risk and greater opportunity to neutralise that risk.

"Importantly, even partial adherence to statin therapy conveys a mortality benefit, suggesting that statins do not need to be taken daily to have some protective effect."

Dr Francis said: "Statins don't cut out all of the unhealthy effects of burgers and fries - it's better to avoid fatty food altogether.

"But we've worked out that in terms of your likelihood of having a heart attack, taking a statin can reduce your risk to more or less the same degree as a fast food meal increases it."

One generic statin, simvastatin, is available in low doses (10mg) over the counter at pharmacies without a prescription.

Other statins are only available on prescription.

Dr Francis said: "It's ironic that people are free to take as many unhealthy condiments in fast food outlets as they like, but statins, which are beneficial to heart health, have to be prescribed.

"Everybody knows that fast food is bad for you, but people continue to eat it because it tastes good. We're genetically programmed to prefer high-calorie foods and, sadly, fast food chains will continue to sell unhealthy foods because it earns them a living."

But Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "The suggestion that the harmful effects of a junk food meal might be erased by taking a cholesterol-lowering statin tablet should not be taken literally.

"A junk food diet has a wealth of unhealthy consequences beyond raising cholesterol."