|
Health Options
Alan Titchenal |
Research your
fast-food choices onlineMany people have a love-hate relationship with fast foods. Their hectic lifestyles demand convenience, familiarity and low cost. Fast foods deliver all that with widespread availability, rapid service and no unwanted surprises -- quantity and quality are extremely consistent.
The hate side of the equation often comes from guilt that the convenience and consistency come at a heavy price: too many calories, too much fat and too few vitamins, minerals or fiber. But depending on which foods you choose, these assumptions may or may not be true.
Question: How does a person know which foods are the best choices for good health or weight control?
Answer: A wise consumer needs to do a little Web surfing before the munchies strike. Nearly every major fast-food franchise or restaurant chain has an official Web site that provides nutrition information. There are no more excuses that you didn't know how many calories were in your favorite breakfast, lunch, dinner or beverage. By looking at nutrient information, you might find some surprisingly better choices than your current ones.
Q: What information is generally on the Web?
A: At minimum, most sites offer printable tables that list basic nutrients and components found on food labels. Some only contain calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, fiber, sugar and protein. Others add vitamin A, vitamin C, iron and calcium.
Many sites also contain information on potential food allergens, diabetic exchanges, lower-fat choices and even tips on exercise and weight control.
A few sites are sophisticated enough that you can enter the items you typically order and then modify them, for example, to hold the mayo, and see the effect on calories and fat.
Q: What is a good way to locate this information?
A: Checking a restaurant's corporate Web site is generally the best way to get the latest nutrient information. Finding these sites, however, might be the most challenging part of the task because thousands of sites use popular fast-food names to attract Web surfers. We found that searching for the restaurant name and adding the term "corporate" usually brings up the right site. Then, follow the "tabs" leading to nutrition. These are usually on the home page, but not always.
Many other Web sites offer tables of nutrient data from multiple food establishments. For example, check out www.bddiabetes.com/us and www.3fatchicks.com, which provide data from a number of sources under the heading of "fast food guide." Diabetic exchange values are included at the bddiabetes site, and Weight Watcher points at 3fatchicks. If you don't see what you want on one site, you can probably find it on the other.
Next week, "Health Options" will provide some "best picks" from the fast-food arena, with examples of small changes that can make a big difference.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Alan Titchenal, Ph.D., C.N.S. and Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S. are nutritionists in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, UH-Manoa. Dr. Dobbs also works with the University Health Services and prepares the nutritional analyses marked with an asterisk in this section.