Fast Food Nation

Despite the continuous warnings about the repercussions to your waistline and general health, American’s fast food appetite remains strong.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted surveys between 2013 and 2016, and you know what?  Well over one third of adults (37%) said they’d eaten fast food at least once in the past 24 hours.

What may come as a surprise is that saving money wasn’t the biggest reason behind the decision to hit the drive-thru – saving time was.  Americans with higher incomes were more likely to want their food fast for their on-the-go lifestyles, than lower income adults.  To be fair, Starbucks counts as a fast food eatery.  Ahhh.  Still, it’s clear that fast-food-style restaurants keep finding skillful ways to worm their ways into our busy lifestyles, filling us up so we don’t, or won’t, cook at home.

Maybe instead of telling people to stop eating fast food – the finger wagging method isn’t working out so well – it would be better to encourage these chains to add a greater variety of healthy choices (lower calories, lower saturated fat and sodium, to name a few) to offer their customers, as well as educating the public on these options.  After all, knowledge is power.

For example, Burger King’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich has 470 calories, 37 grams of protein, and 6 grams of fiber, and the Six-inch Turkey Breast Sandwich from Subway has just 280 calories, 18 grams of protein, only 3.5 grams of fat and 760 mg’s of sodium.  Instead of filling up on a bucket of fried chicken next time you hit the KFC, try their Kentucky Grilled Chicken Breast  and House Salad with Light Italian Dressing, which has just 240 calories, 39 grams of protein, and only 5 carbs.  And you’d be much better off with a Chicken and Quinoa Protein Bowl (420 calories, 27 grams of protein, and 9 grams of fiber) from Starbucks than that Double Mocha Frappuccino with extra whip.

In fact, many of these fast food chains have nutritional information available.  McDonald’s has a “Nutrition Calculator” where you can easily click and find out what you’re really getting when you order that Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Large Fries (hint: you’re better off with the Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad, and no, you don’t want fries with that).   Or you can seek out any of a number of websites that offer nutritional information on all your favorite fast food haunts.  One to try: fastfoodnutrition.org.  Know the facts before you “thank you, drive thru.”

—
Photo Credit: Matthew Ennis / Shutterstock.com