Not So Fast “Fast”
Food:
Lets face it in the world we live in there is not a lot of
extra time to do anything extra let alone sit down for a home made meal with
friends or family. The busy hustle of work mixed with training and piecing
together a social life makes for very little time to play Chef Boyardee with
your Easy Bake Oven. Believe me I am as guilty as the next guy for just “grabbing”
something quick. I realize that in the context of the audience reading this we
are all some sort of athlete we might run the occasional 5k or 10k and some of
us are multiple ironman finishers and I may be preaching to the choir but
hopefully this message will be forwarded on to a person in need of some help.
Someone who just does not know or care enough to make a difference in they way
they eat. Doesn’t understand that better eating habits can and will change
their outlook on life and appearance. Simply having better eating habits can be
the solution to many problems we may be facing at home or in life.
Something Useful:
I wanted to compare some fast food restaurants’ typical
meals to the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) I chose 4 fast food
establishments, McDonalds,
Burger
King, Wendy’s,
Taco Bell, KFC and 1 Popular
Coffee chain Starbucks.
I chose meals based off of a consensus
from my colleagues around me that were sensible and not off the charts, I did
not want to skew the data to far to the extreme. The Meals are as follows
MD- Big Mac, Large Fries and 32oz
coke
BK- Double Whopper, Large Fries and 32oz coke
BK- Double Whopper, Large Fries and 32oz coke
WD- Baja Chicken Salad, Baked Potato
w/sc and 32oz coke
Taco Bell- Beefy
5 Layer Burrito, Cinnamon Twists and 32oz coke
KFC- Chicken
Pot Pie, Mashed Potatoes and 32oz coke
Starbucks- Venti
Carmel Macchiato
The next thing I wanted to compare was how each 1 of these
meals stacks up against the RDA for Calories, Protein, Fat, Saturated Fat,
Fiber and Sodium. Here are the results
RDA
|
%MD
|
%BK
|
%WD
|
%TB
|
%KFC
|
%SB
|
||
Calories
|
2500
|
kcal
|
53%
|
68%
|
47%
|
41%
|
71%
|
13%
|
Protein
|
65
|
g
|
48%
|
80%
|
62%
|
31%
|
85%
|
20%
|
FAT
|
70
|
g
|
77%
|
113%
|
51%
|
41%
|
109%
|
19%
|
SATF
|
23
|
g
|
59%
|
98%
|
70%
|
43%
|
196%
|
33%
|
Fiber
|
25
|
g
|
36%
|
32%
|
76%
|
40%
|
36%
|
0%
|
Sodium
|
1700
|
mg
|
83%
|
105%
|
98%
|
20%
|
242%
|
9%
|
I also wanted to compare after eating each meal how much
Calories, Protein, Fat, Saturated Fat, Fiber and Sodium you were able to
consume (Subtracting from the RDA) after eating 1 of these meals. Here are the
results.
What’s Left after 1 meal
|
MD
|
BK
|
WD
|
TB
|
KFC
|
SB
|
|
Calories
|
kcal
|
1180
|
790
|
1330
|
1480
|
720
|
2164
|
Protein
|
g
|
34
|
13
|
25
|
45
|
10
|
52.1
|
FAT
|
g
|
16
|
-9
|
34.5
|
41
|
-6
|
56.9
|
SATF
|
g
|
9.5
|
0.5
|
7
|
13
|
-22
|
15.5
|
Fiber
|
g
|
16
|
17
|
6
|
15
|
16
|
25
|
Sodium
|
mg
|
290
|
-80
|
30
|
1360
|
-2420
|
1539
|
Finally I wanted to compare how each of these meals stacks
up against a balanced diet of 5 equally portioned out meals per day. (Just
divide out the RDA by 5 meals). Here are the results.
5 meals/day
|
%MD
|
%BK
|
%WD
|
%TB
|
%KFC
|
%SB
|
||
Calories
|
500
|
kcal
|
264%
|
342%
|
234%
|
204%
|
356%
|
67%
|
Protein
|
13
|
g
|
238%
|
400%
|
308%
|
154%
|
423%
|
99%
|
FAT
|
14
|
g
|
386%
|
564%
|
254%
|
207%
|
543%
|
94%
|
SATF
|
4.6
|
g
|
293%
|
489%
|
348%
|
217%
|
978%
|
163%
|
Fiber
|
5
|
g
|
180%
|
160%
|
380%
|
200%
|
180%
|
0%
|
Sodium
|
340
|
mg
|
415%
|
524%
|
491%
|
100%
|
1212%
|
47%
|
Conclusion:
I think that everyone knows that eating fast food is bad for
you, but how are they so popular. If everyone knows they are bad then why do
they continue to operate and stay in business. The answer to this question is
pretty complicated and debatable but it is likely some combination of laziness,
poverty and ignorance. It’s easy to see that each of these above meals provides
way too many Calories, Protein, Fat, SATF, and Sodium and not nearly enough quality
Fiber. Excessive intake of Calories, Saturated Fat, and Sodium has been proven
in multiple studies to have adverse health consequences. Furthermore the quality of “Fast” Food lacks
nourishment needed for any performance, almost no bio available vitamins and low
in quality fiber. If you think that I am attacking the fast food industry you
are correct, there is little to no initiative to provide nourishing meals for
people who need it the most. If you would like to learn a little more about
healthy eating click
here.
At the end of the day you are probably asking your self how
can I make better choices, start by making small goals and realize the every
moment in every day is an opportunity to make a change. So its time to slow down, cook at home, and make
smart choices.
