A survey by market research firm Synovate said that Bulgarians were this year's number one fast food nation in the world.

"Last year's number one fast food nation was the UK, with 45 per cent agreeing that they like the taste of fast food too much to give it up, barely surpassing the US (where 44 per cent agreed). But this year both nations have been resoundingly trounced in terms of fast food addiction..." Synovate said on its website.

Things changed this year when Bulgaria was included in the Synovate's global survey on healthy living.

Surprisingly, about 68 per cent of Bulgarians said they cannot give up their fast food, Stoyan Mihaylov, managing director of Synovate in Bulgaria, said.

"Compared to mature fast food markets like the US and the UK, Bulgarians still find fast food chains a novelty and, to some degree, quite trendy. There are also limited convenient lunchtime choices in the cities, so this is a normal lunch for grab-and-go office workers. What's more, there's no sign of this consumption slowing down," he said.

The 2009 results saw the UK and the US draw even, each with 44 per cent agreeing they cannot give up fast food. Greg Chu, senior vice president of Synovate Healthcare in North America was quoted on Synovate website that Americans have a love-hate relationship with tasty and convenient fast food.

"Even while eating fast food, Americans have it in the back of their minds that it's not the healthiest choice - but that's not what they are focused on at that moment. The draw is convenience and taste, which is all that really matters when you are hungry and on the go.

"When they notice the weight gain, the easiest strategy to fight it is to stop eating fast food for awhile. Eventually the convenience factor pops up again and away we go on the whole cycle again."

Least susceptible to the taste of fast food were the Swedes and the Malaysians, each with only one in five people agreeing that they 'like the taste of fast food too much to give it up'.

This Synovate survey on healthy living was conducted online, via telephone and face-to-face in February 2009 across 10 300 respondents in twelve markets - Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US. A version of the study was also conducted in Australia.