Striving4Zen

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Labels: Calories, deceit, fast food, Fat, Lies

With a few exceptions, few restaurants go out of their way to publish the nutritional information about their food, at least not in any obvious way offline. Much the way D+caf Test Strips have blown the proverbial lid open on caffeine content, however, Fatburgr is a new site that puts together in one place the nutritional facts about a variety of fast-food restaurants and chains.

Some 20 restaurants are currently listed on Fatburgr—including McDonald's, Subway and Chili's, for example—and more are being added every day, the company says. For each of them the site lists the calories, fat, carbs and fiber content for each menu item, and users can sort the list by any of those criteria. Listings can also be searched by food type, and all data is available by iPhone for those needing to make ordering decisions on the go. Fatburgr is free to use.

Besides equipping consumers with information that can help them stay healthier, of course, Fatburgr is also a nice example of what our sister site trendwatching would call transparency tyranny, leaving companies with nowhere to hide the facts they might prefer not be known. On that note, Fatburgr has even set up a "wall of shame"—though it's still empty—for restaurants that won't fork over their nutritional information. Restaurants around the world: Be prepared to open up the truth about your food, or this could happen to you! ;-)

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Labels: Calories, fast food, Fat, innovative, junk food, nutritional information, restaurants

Dollar “value meals” at fast food restaurants may not be such a bargain when you look at the potential health costs.

Many of these low-cost menu items are packed with fat, salt, cholesterol and processed meat, notes The Cancer Project, a nonprofit cancer prevention organization. The group has produced a list of what it says are the five unhealthiest items sold at the nation’s largest fast food chains.

The organization’s dieticians reviewed so-called value menus at five of the largest fast food chains in the nation, awarding points for such unhealthy characteristics as sodium, fat and low-fiber content. Jack in the Box’s junior bacon cheeseburger topped the list as the worst offender. The burger costs just one dollar but is packed with 23 grams of fat, including 8 grams of saturated fat, 55 milligrams of cholesterol and 860 milligrams of sodium and just one gram of fiber.

The Cancer Project is affiliated with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which aggressively promotes a low-fat, vegetarian diet. The organization’s list was spurred in part by a concern that during tough economic times, more people will resort to eating inexpensive fast foods, said Krista Haynes, a dietitian with the project.

A spokeswoman for Jack in the Box said that the junior bacon cheeseburger is a “great value” but that diners may also choose from healthier options, like salads and a fruit cup. They’re more expensive, however: an entrée salad with grilled chicken strips is $4.99, and a fruit cup is $2.29.

The other four menu items on the cancer group’s list were:

* In second-worst place, the 89-cent Taco Bell cheesy double beef burrito, with 460 calories, 20 grams of fat and a whopping 1,620 milligrams of sodium.

* In third-worst place was the one-dollar Burger King breakfast sausage biscuit, with 27 grams of fat, including 15 grams of saturated fat and over 1,000 milligrams of sodium.

* Fourth worst went to the one-dollar McDonald’s McDouble, which contains 19 grams of fat and 65 milligrams of cholesterol.

* Last, and least-worst, was the Wendy’s junior bacon cheeseburger, for $1.53, with 310 calories and 16 grams of fat.

Being overweight can increase the risk for diabetes and heart disease, and the American Cancer Society recommends limiting high-fat foods, which are associated with an increased risk of certain cancers, and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables.

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Labels: fast food, PCRM, study, The Cancer Project, unhealthy

The city Board of Health yesterday approved a new version of a law requiring fast-food outlets to display calorie counts.
The law passed last year, which was challenged in court applied, to restaurants that were already providing nutritional information to customers. The new policy will apply to any chain that operates at least 15 separate outlets.
"It's going to get a lot easier to make informed choices at New York City's chain restaurants this spring," said Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
"We expect that many more cities, counties and states will require menu labeling once they see how easy it is for these chains to list calories on menus."
The regulation takes effect March 31 and the restaurants will be required to display calorie counts "in close proximity" to items on their menus or menu boards in letters and numbers at least as big as the name of the item or the price.

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Labels: Calories, diet, fast food, Health