Not So Fast “Fast” Food

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

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.

Live by it

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

The Vegetarian Experiment-Part 1

This past June a good friend of mine came to me for nutrition advice. He is also a fellow triathlete and we train together often, I was more than happy to help. His request was to put him on a diet to improve his athletic performance and to help him get through an Ironman distance triathlon 20 weeks away. This task was large and there was a lot on the line. If you read the title above you probably guessed it but I decided an all vegetarian diet was the way to go. Wait.. what??  There were lots of questions however the main concern of my friend was that “Athletes need protein” you read it every day, in every health magazine, in every grocery store. This is very true in fact endurance athletes need more protein than almost all other types of athletes but there are plenty of alternative sources of protein out there. I told my friend that I can promise that not only will your protein requirements be met but all other nutrient requirements will be met as well. There were lots of protest and many meat cravings along the way but after a few weeks we were in the zone and well on our way.

Test 1

My buddies previous PR in a half ironman distance was 5hr35min not too shabby however I was sure that with a little dietary help I could get his time down.  6 weeks of vegetarian diet later and race day was upon us, 70.3 in Boulder CO. My buddy raced hard and he crossed the line with a 5hr12min PR. So basically 6 weeks of veggies resulted in a 23min PR. Coincidence maybe. I congratulated my friend and told him works not done yet.

Test 2

SOMA Triathlon Half Ironman was the next mile stone in the vegetarian experiment. At this point in the project my friend has been vegetarian for 4 months. 4 months of fighting the craving for Bacon Cheese Burgers and brats (it was football season).  My friend raced hard, holding himself honest on the bike and testing himself on the run. When he crossed the line the clock read 4hr55min. This is respectable taking another 18min off his former new PR just a few months back.  Coincidence ok maybe. But is this thing working?

Test 3

Ironman Arizona was the next little test in the vegetarian experiment. I don’t care who you are but Ironman distance races are as hard as they get let alone doing it purely on a vegetarian diet. It was a long day for my friend but he managed to cross the line in 11hr31min. Not too bad. Surely this is no coincidence something must be working.

Off season came around but I requested that my buddy stay on the vegetarian diet for just a little longer, expecting much protest I was surprised by his response “Gladly”. Fast forward a few weeks of cross training and relaxing watching football hanging with friends.  I asked my friend if he wanted to run a 10k with me on a whim. 

Test 4

The Pima Sun Run 10k is exactly 7 months since the last piece of meat my friend has eaten. It was a great day for a 10k and the results were equally as great 39min46sec for my friend. This was another 1min15sec PR for my Vegetarian Experiment friend. This may not sound that impressive but the average mile time went from a 6min36sec/mile to 6min24sec/mile 12 seconds per mile average. Over the course of a marathon that is 5min12sec. Impressive.

7 Month Conclusion

You have probably already guessed it but the friend I have been referring to was me. I am the Vegetarian Experiment Human guinea pig. Granted these results didn’t come without some sweat under the Arizona Sun and support from my awesome friends and family but I am convinced without a doubt that a vegetarian diet played a major role in helping me make progress towards my goals. After hard workouts I recovered quick. 2 workouts a day, no problem. Time Trial lost through the desert, shitty but i survived.  Not only have I made performance gains over the last 7 months but my physical build has changed considerably. No more gut. People ask me stupid questions; No, being a vegetarian I am not starving all the time, I don’t just eat salads all the time, food is not plain and bland, I’m not frail and weak.  If you thing being vegetarian is something that is just a trend or something that only extremists and weirdo’s do or maybe you think its gay and not American, I challenge you to give it a try you may just be surprised what you get.   

  

The experiment continues....