We all know fast food is not terribly good for us, but we all (at least, most of us) have to resort to it every once in a while. Some of us rely on it for a quick meal during a busy week, others may eat it more than once a day.
Some places seem to be healthier than others, some places aren’t known for being healthy overall, but may offer some “healthier” options.
For this discussion, I want you to pick your two “favorite” fast food meals. Yes, yes, I know some of us don’t eat it much, and maybe a blessed few of us manage to live such a lovely existence that we *never* eat it”¦but we’ve all eaten it at one time or another. I want you to pick two fast food meals and tell us what they are. Then go to the nutrition information for that restaurant and find this information:
Meal/Items (with sizes):
For each item:
Calories:
Fat:
Saturated Fat:
Trans Fat:
Sugar:
Sodium:
Then total these up for the full meal.
There are actually a couple of ways you can do this”¦really choose your two “favorite” meals, and see how they measure up. You can also choose your “favorite” meal, and then one that you don’t “love” but get it when you want to eat something a little healthier. This is really an interesting and enlightening exercise for most folks. I am still sometimes surprised when I compare items (The Fresco soft taco is really only marginally healthier than the regular soft taco).
The RDA* (recommended daily allowance) for these materials is:
Calories: 2000
Fat: 45 – 77 g (mostly unsaturated)
Sodium: no more than 2300 mg
Sugars: Men 37.5 g, Women 25 g
*Of course the RDA is going to fluctuate slightly for each person based on many factors. These numbers are averages based on a healthy adult on a 2000 calorie diet.
Think about these questions”¦Are you surprised about your meal? Was it far less healthy than you thought? Healthier? Did you knock out any of those RDA values for an entire day with just this meal? Perhaps you’ll want to think about how you could shift habits. Which changes would really make an impact? What do you save when you skip the fries? Just how healthy IS that salad? What if I went a day without drinking any sugary sodas or sweet tea? How many calories would I save? Does this make you want to make some changes?
In order to get full credit you must:
Provide all required nutrition information (DO NOT copy and paste the entire chart posted by the restaurant. That is cumbersome, takes up too much space, and gives FAR more information than we need to discuss).
Give the links to the information sites that you used to get the nutrition information (this information is available on the restaurants’ own sites, as well as many other nutritional information sites”¦you may want to check a couple of these to see if they agree”¦).
Actually participate in the discussion. If you just post “I am a fully vegan fruititarian and therefore never eat fast food” well, congratulations. You still have to come up with something! send me an email and we can come up with a compromise on some food you can comment on.
This assignment is due Sunday night, 11:59 PM.
