Healthy Fast Foods?

Recently, the general public has become much more knowledgeable about the health consequences of fast foods and processed foods.  As the demand for healthier options has grown (or to deflect blame for their role in the obesity epidemic), fast food restaurants have revised their menus to include lower calorie, lower fat options.  Some view this as a positive change, but I disagree.  

Studies have shown people are more likely to order high calorie extras or make an unhealthy choice later on, when they make a “healthy” choice for their main.   Unfortunately, the vast majority of these so-called healthy menu items aren’t quite good for you as their marketing implies, so it’s easy to go overboard.  Even worse, many people regularly rely on these foods as healthy, convenient options.  

The worst offenders?

Subway sandwiches

Subway has made a name for themselves as the healthy fast food place after their hugely successful (and incredibly annoying) Jared Fogle weight loss campaign.  Funny story, I actually met one of the Subway spokespersons on spring break in college.  He pulled out his gym membership card and said, “Now, this was my real Subway.”  Subway does have a good variety of low calorie, low fat option, hence Jared’s significant weight loss.  But low calorie, low fat does not equal healthy.  If you’re thinking the honey oat or nine grain bread is anything more than refined, white flour, think again.  Whole wheat flour is the fourth ingredient, after water and yeast.  Ingredients are listed by weight, so I can’t imagine there’s more than a tablespoon of whole grain flour in your 6-inch.  Those lean meats they offer?  I don’t know about you, but I’ll pass on the chicken-type flavor, soy protein concentrate, dimethylpolysiloxane and TBHQ.  

McDonalds oatmeal

Okay, so this one actually is a whole grain, unlike some posers (ahem, Subway), but if you order it fully loaded, you’ve ingested 32 grams of sugar!  Some of it is healthy, natural sugar from fruit.  The rest is added sugar from 3 ½ teaspoons of brown sugar, and the sweetened dried fruit.  To put that in perspective, one “healthy” breakfast bowl contains more than half the recommended upper limit of sugar consumption for a woman.  Thinking of sticking to the light cream for a topping?  Well, besides wasting your money on something you could have made at home for the time it took to go through the drive through, you’ll be ingesting a mixture of milk  and cream with sodium phosphate, DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium citrate and carrageenan.  Even the plain oatmeal contains innocuously named, but controversial ingredient caramel coloring.  Seriously Mickey D’s?  Why use a possibly harmful ingredient for purely cosmetic reasons?  

Arby’s market fresh sandwich

A couple years ago I was driving to Atlanta for the weekend and I got stuck in a 2 hour traffic jam caused by construction, something that’s totally rare in Atlanta.  My plan was to eat dinner at my mom’s house, but with my stomach growling and no end in sight to traffic, I knew desperate times were calling for desperate measures.  The next exit had an Arby’s, so I picked up a Market Fresh sandwich.  As hungry as I was, I couldn't swallow more than three bites.  It tasted like a turkey flavored candy bar.  This is not a good thing.  So when Scott sent me an article about hidden sugar in fast food items, I wasn’t all that shocked to learn that the sandwich I had previously gagged on contained a whopping 16 grams of sugar (4 teaspoons!!). Thank goodness I didn’t order the chicken salad with a spectacular 33 grams of sugar.  It does contain apples and grapes, but you would have to eat almost 2 cups of fruit to reach 33 grams!  I can pretty much guarantee that sandwich does not contain 2 cups of fruit, probably closer to ¼ cup.  Don’t count on fiber from the honey wheat bread to slow that spike in your blood glucose.  Honey wheat is a synonym for white bread sweetened with honey…and apparently 31 other ingredients!

Chick fil a Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich

A reasonable number of calories (310), but still not healthy.  This sandwich contains 830 mg of sodium, half a days worth for most Americans.  Once again, they fooled you with those flecks of grain scattered atop your roll.  There’s actually more sugar in Chick fil a's roll than there is whole grain, hence the 10 grams of sugar in each sandwich.  Do top yours with fat free honey mustard like I used to do in college?  Then add another 20 (!!!) grams of sugar to the count.  You might as well have scooped 5 teaspoons of sugar on your sandwich!  Can you imagine consuming more than a days worth of sugar without a bite of dessert?  

Zaxby’s Salads

Most people realize dumping fried chicken and ranch on their salad isn’t going to help their waistline, but even seemingly healthy grilled chicken salads can pack in more calories than you would think.  Zaxby’s is the perfect example.  It’s lowest calorie salad, the house salad with grilled chicken still manages to pack over 600 calories before adding dressing.  Pour on a packet of dressing and there's another 90-200 calories of fat and sugar. 

Am I sharing this with you so you'll throw up your arms in defeat and order a bacon cheeseburger and fries?  Most certainly not.  These foods are the lesser of two evils.  I share this information because it is so incredibly important to do your research and know what's in your food.  So often we rely on what the food industry and marketing tells us about food rather than doing the research ourself.  It's easier, sure, but their standards of health are waaaay lower than mine!

I know you've heard it a million and one times, but avoid fast food as much as possible.  Pack lunch.  Bring a cooler when you travel and fill it with healthy food.  Keep extra leftovers in the freezer so you have a quick meal on busy days.  Plan ahead.  Just please don't eat fast food.