How Healthy are Fast Food Restaurants?
Research Your Choices at Subway, McDonalds
Let’s face it, it’s a hassle to pack food and for those of us who can’t make much more than sandwiches, it’s definitely not appetizing. Plus those who work in an office know that lunch time is a time to go out to eat and relax a bit with your work buddies. But how healthy are you eating?
It’s a simple question with a very difficult answer.
Sure there has been more “healthy” choices in the recent past with even the most unhealthy restaurants and fast food joints coming out with nourishing meals and healthy alternatives, but are they really that healthy? Most of the time, the answer is a big fat no (pun intended).
Subway - Eat Fat?
Here’s a simple example. Subway has been known as one of the healthiest fast food restaurants there is, indicating that there subs have less than six grams of fat. That is impressive, but have you actually seen which subs are included in that list? It’s important that you do. The nutrition facts are on the internet and the restaurants website for the simple fact that at the time of ordering, most do not take health into consideration since their stomachs are growling so loud. Many have thought that the tuna sub was a healthy choice. However, if they had went on Subway’s website afterwards and to fill their curiosity, they would see that a six-inch tuna sub contained 30 grams of fat! A 12-inch sub was 60 grams of fat!
Not so healthy now is it?
McDonalds and Salads?
Restaurants such as McDonalds and donut joints have salads now. Sure the low quality lettuce may be healthier than the other items on the menu, but the question of how healthy the salad is relies on the question if you are adding dressing? If you are, there’s definitely a problem.
If I take the example of the 1000 island dressing that McDonalds serves, there is 13 grams of fat in that small packet alone, along with a lot of sodium and a lot of sugar. Now those McDonalds enthusiasts who are reading this will defend Mickey D’s and say, “Wait, they do have low-fat salad dressing options”. True, but have you checked the nutritional stats for those packets? Sure they only have 3-4 grams of fat, but they have over 700 milligrams of sodium, which is still on average approximately 25% over your daily needs.
All in one packet.
The infamous Big Mac has 21.5 grams of fat, 9.5 of which are saturated. This combines to 485 calories. The rule of thumb is that a max of 30% of calories from your food should be comprised of fat. There are nine calories for each gram of fat that you have. That means the 21.5 grams of fat is 193.5 calories, which is about 40% of the calories that you are having.
Some Suggestions
Subway does in fact have some healthier subs. However, the key is to find out which ones. Take a note of which subs provide less than six grams of fat. A good tip is to avoid buffets, including the salad bar ones, which may also have fattening in the salad dressing.
If you are low on funds like many people in this day and age and prefer to stick with the traditional take out food, just remember that nutritional stats are there for a reason. There are actually quite a few healthy restaurants and eateries now.
Freshly squeezed juice places as well as fresh stir fries are around many cities and definitely tasty as well as much healthier. But if you insist on sticking with your traditional take out restaurants check the nutritional stats. If they are not there on location, they are bound to be online.
Take a few minutes out of your day to check it out, your health and waistline will be glad you did.
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