Fast Food: To Eat It Or Not?

In a perfect world we would either never darken the doorway of a fast food establishment OR they would provide "healthier" food to their customers. There are a couple of problems with the perfect world, though. First off, many of us enjoy an occasional indulgance in fast food, and as long as we keep these indulgances down to a reasonable level, like once a month, and are eating responsibly otherwise we probably aren't going to cause ourselves any long-term damage. When it comes to "healthy", though, there is no one group that can define exactly what that means for everyone. For example, I need a very low-sugar (sugar is what every carbohydrate we ingest turns into in our bodies) diet with the bulk of my calories coming from protein and fat, and what few carbohydrates I do eat need to come from low-starch vegetables and low-glycemic fruits instead of grains. Others, however, can tolerate more carbohydrates than I can and as such eat smaller amounts of protein and fat to balance their caloric intake.

No matter which side of the food equation we stand on, I think we can all agree there are certain things marketed as food that are just plain bad for us (and don't be thinking "everything's bad for us" because there are many things that are way worse than others). These pseudo foods are highly processed sugars and trans-fats and the sugar part of the equation is also extremely addictive to the human body. No matter what a company that is serving french fries says, their fries do contain trans-fats. Even if the oil they use for the frying doesn't start out that way, it a plasticization process due to the high heat ends up turning into something very dangerous for our bodies. The longer the fryer goes between oil changes, more of the oil turns into trans-fat. This stuff is just plain bad. It is no coincidence that heart disease in the United States was practically unheard of before wide-spread use of products like margarine and shortening. For years now, doctors have been blaming plaque build-up and hardening of arteries on saturated fat only to find out within the past few years saturated fat has been accused and convicted of a crime it didn't commit. Trans-fat has been the culprit all along. Further research is now making a correlation between consumption of grain and heart disease. Is that perhaps why much of mankind was completely healthy until they moved from the hunter-gatherer phase to the agriculture age? Anthropological and archaeological studies of various areas are finding that's exactly what happened. Previous to eating grains, the people of many cultures were extremely healthy where those who didn't die as the result of an accident lived to be very old. Aside from major health disasters like a plague, the archaeological remains of the young show that their causes of death were usually accidental.

To add insult to injury, as people tried moving farther and farther away from saturated fats they moved closer and closer to trans-fats and sugar. Instead of cream in their coffee they switched to non-dairy creamer. Instead of lard in pie crust with whipped cream on top, they opted for shortening and non-dairy whipped topping. High-fructose corn syrup replaced oils as thickeners in salad dressings. The end result was akin to trading off a decent source of calories for poison.

As if the poison aspect of the sugar and trans-fats in our wannabe food isn't enough, the industry standard is set to upsell everything they possibly can and make portions where one fast food meal contains enough calories to feed a small family. When I was young we would occasionally go to a drive-in and order a burger, fries, and a drink. The portion sizes were what is now a kid's meal. If my dad was along he might order a double-patty burger. These were 6:1 patties, by the way, which means each uncooked patty was roughly 2.6 ounces. Since my dad worked a physically hard job all day five ounces of meat for supper wasn't out of line at all. Now the patties are usually 4:1, or one-quarter pound, with many restaurants going even bigger with one-third pound patties! The buns are nearly twice the size they were. A small drink holds at least half again the size that a small drink did when I was a youngster. A small order of fries is also nearly twice as large as they were back in the day. A typical fast food meal today, with only the smallest servings of fries and a drink, run in excess of 1,000 calories.

The sugar and trans-fat issues don't take sodium into account. A typical restaurant meal has at least half of the recommended daily allowance of sodium. I'm not saying there are never times when extra sodium intake isn't warranted. If a person spends long hours of physical labor, the body goes through many different trace minerals, including sodium, in a hurry. For the average person, though, that kind of salt intake on a regular basis could cause serious problems.

To put it in a nut shell, we want to be able to reduce the amount of calories we consume and limit our exposure to trans-fats, sugar, and sodium. Here's how we manage to do not only that, but greatly cut the cost of the meal as well. And before you start thinking there's no way you can get full on less than a full-sized meal at one of these places, it might also help to understand a few things about fluffy "foods." When we consume substances made of white flour and/or sugar, they play a little game with our bodies. Instead of satiating our appetite, they often make us want to eat more. I was stuck in that trap years back. I could walk into a fast food place and eat a burger and an order of fries and have to stop myself from getting more food. Once I cut out the fluffy foods, that problem almost instantly. My family experienced the same thing. As a result we now eat less than we did before and stay full longer.

• Do yourself a favor and become at least a little bit familiar with the nutrient contents in the foods served at your favorite eateries. I've provided links to some of the most popular at the bottom of this page.
• Order water to drink. Many fast food restaurants will charge a small price for the cup or provide special water cups. In the blink of an eye, your caloric intake can drop by several hundred from that very simple choice. A twenty-ounce serving of one particular soda contains 240 calories, 64 grams of which are from sugar. That means there is over a quarter-cup of sugar in 20 ounces of pop. If you're feeding a group, the cost of your meal may have just dropped by anywhere from $3.00 to $10.00, maybe more. Also, you just saved your body from having to tax itself dealing with huge amounts of pure sugar or artificial sweetener.
• If you really want fries or another starchy side order, divide one among two or more. Instead of ordering two small orders of fries, order a medium and split it between at least two people. Even if two people share a large order of fries instead of each having their own small order, each person has just cut 70 or more calories from the meal. Sharing a medium sized order results in roughly a 90-calorie decrease. Moreover, their trans-fat intake has been substantially reduced.
• Side salads can be a good option as well. Just keep in mind they are often made from iceberg lettuce which has close to nil in the way of food value. Even so, iceberg lettuce is better than sugar. Also, keep an eye on the salad dressings. I've been in quite a few places where the only options for salad dressing had enough sugar to give a humming bird diabetes.
• Chicken can be a better caloric option than a burger but make sure to avoid the breaded meats. I don't understand why people think eating bread is a good idea, never mind bread within bread. A chicken sandwich can have 200 calories less than a similar burger.
• Throw away the fluffy stuff and eat the "sandwich" in lettuce! One of my favorite fast-food places makes the list because they actually do let me have my order my way (unlike one famous restaurant which makes the claim then doesn't). At Carl's Jr., I order all of my "sandwiches" in a lettuce wrap. This cuts down the caloric intake by nearly 200 calories. Also, there what I have left is much more flavorful since there is no bread to mix with it while I'm chewing.
• If you are in a situation where your only option involves bread, don't be afraid to stand up for your needs. I don't patronize fast food places that don't have at the very least whole wheat as an option for bread. I don't usually eat the bread, or in the case of Sonic drive-in, if the bread is extremely good may eat half of the bun on my sandwich. I am not only vocal about my dislikes, but also lavish praise on the restaurants that are trying to offer better choices. The only way any of these restaurants are ever going to change their ways is by us telling them that what they currently offer is unacceptable. The fast food industry doesn't need laws controlling it. Instead, it needs savvy customers who will refuse to spend a dime until these companies bring their menus in compliance with our needs.