Terrific new fast food nutritional calculator
I would rather take a beating than eat fast food. I do know, however, that others enjoy it. I used to enjoy the taste of it myself even though I knew it was terrible for me, but now I’ve read so many bad things about it that I just about can’t bring myself to eat it.
While roaming through the web looking for other data I stumbled upon a blog that contains what I think is an incredibly useful load of info for anyone trying to stay on a diet of any kind and still indulge in fast food. The writer of this blog – a Calorie Counter – has undertaken a prodigious task, at least by my reckoning. He (I’m pretty sure it’s a he) has gone to the time and trouble to wade through all the nutritional information provided by the various purveyors of fast food and tabulated them all for comparison. The hamburgers compared to other hamburgers; the fries to other fries; the chicken sandwiches to other chicken sandwiches. (Click here for the charts)
Says the author:
I’ve compared the nutrition facts of the most popular foods from over 20 popular fast food restaurants to see how each restaurant’s version of the same food stacks up against the others. If this isn’t enough to convince you to eat less (or none) of this stuff, it will at least give you the information you need to make the better choice and avoid making the worst one. Enjoy…
Here is a sample showing the plain ol’ hamburgers from multiple fast food joints compared.
Now as if this mega load of work wasn’t enough, the author also made the comparison charts so that they could be ranked by nutrient. So, for example, if you want to see which of the hamburgers contains the most calories, you find the hamburger comparison chart and click ‘Calories’ and Voila! they will be ranked from least to most. If you want to find which of the chicken nuggets or pieces or, as the old ad says, parts (parts is parts) has the fewest carbs so you can see if it’s worth indulging, you click ‘Carbs’ and you have the chart below, arranged from fewest to most. Who would of thought Wendy’s 5 pc Chicken Nuggets contains the fewest grams of carbs? And who knew that the Arby’s 5 pc Chicken Tenders contains four times the carb of the Wendy’s? Not I.
I roamed through a couple of the fast food company nutritional information pages to do my due diligence before recommending these fast food comparison tables. I didn’t check with every one, but the ones I did check were on the money, so I’m pretty sure the author did a good job in listing the nutrients accurately.
Have fun playing with the charts and discovering just how nasty all that fast food you’ve eaten really is. There are a few other posts on this blog that are worthwhile, but, sadly, the author has bought into the idea that fat is bad, carbs are good (or at least aren’t responsible for weight gain) and that the only thing that matters is calories. Where have we heard that before?
Despite his being misguided in terms of what causes weight gain, the author has done us all a great service by making this material available. And even though I don’t eat fast foods, I appreciate his efforts. I have learned one thing, however. Whenever I take the notion to indulge in a little restaurant junk food, it seems that I always succumb to the onion rings. I always figured that they probably had a few grams of trans fats, but that the carbs weren’t all that bad. Not that bad?!?!? The lowest one of the bunch contains 45 grams of carbs, which is the equivalent of almost a quarter of a cup of sugar, not to mention 4.5 grams of trans fat. I hope this new knowledge tempers my enthusiasm the next time the onion ring demon begins to prey on my soul.
If you’re willing to eat with a fork, my Sister says that Quiznos has a “Black and Blue Salad” that’s pretty good. It’s Black Angus steak, Blue Cheese, tomatoes, red onion, and greens with a Balsamic Vinaigrette. Toss the bread. I’ll be skipping the vinaigrette (served on the side) until I find out what’s in it.
They also have a Classic Cobb: Chicken breast, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, bleu cheese crumbles, tomatoes, red onion, Ranch Dressing.
I don’t do fast food unless absolutely necessary (I cave to my kids once a month or so), but those Quiznos salads sound pretty good.
I agree that Burger King at least understands the plight of the low carb fast food eater. Every time I’ve gotten bunless burgers from them, they’ve come with lots of lettuce and even a fork. Not so with McD’s
Plus, Burger King grilled chicken salad with Ken’s ranch dressing is the lowest carb fast food salad available amongst the “giants”. Still needs a fork, though.
I’ve been known to peel off the breading on McNuggets. All so my kids can have a death burger.
???
I’ve never had the Quiznos salads either. But they do sound good. Next time MD and I are on a road trip (which is about the only time we ever even consider fast food) we may give them a try. Thanks for the tip.
Cheers–
MRE
Clair: It’s harder with a family than it is for a single person like me, for sure, but I cook nearly all my meals even though I frequently work late (usually no later than 10pm, but occasionally past midnight). I do make my breakfast fresh every day, but otherwise I only cook 2-3 nights a week. I usually cook 2 recipes at once on Sunday night, portion it all out for work lunches, and then cook again Wednesday or Thursday. If I run out of food before I have time to cook again, I’ll usually get some deli chicken or turkey and salad greens from the grocery store near work and just throw that together. I also keep cans of tuna and a package of walnuts in my desk, and sometimes some cheese in the fridge. At home I keep some individually frozen burgers and chicken breasts and some bags of frozen veggies so if for some reason I’m home from work before dinner time I can get a pretty basic meal together in about 15 minutes.
Incidentally I’m not one of those people who was taught good home ec skills growing up: I’ve only been doing this for about 2 months and only after fumbling through a painful baked-chicken-breast-every-day phase (monotony!), but it’s been a very easy routine to establish. If you find a good cookbook to work from it’s surprisingly low effort.
Dr Mike: To be honest, I don’t think most consumers know what they want with respect to nutrition, or even what they’re getting. I’ve certainly had a variety of friends, men in particular, say some variation on “I’d like to eat better but I don’t know how”, and who have really no concept of what they get out of their food.
I agree with you. I doubt that most people give their nutrition a second thought. Most people reading this blog do, but I figure the population at large couldn’t care less.
It’s a sad state of affairs.
Best–
MRE