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What’s New at the Fast Food Restaurants? The obvious answer is, “Low Carbs”. This diet
craze is influencing the fast food industry in a big way. Buns and pasta are being replaced with lettuce leaves and bowls. You would assume that
these changes mean a drop in calories, too. We have both good news and bad.
Good News
Taco Bell has instituted a new program which allows you to order anything on the menu “Fresco Style”. Salsa will be substituted for the
cheese and sauce on whatever you order. This lowers the fat and calories as you can see by these examples:
| |
Original
|
 |
Fresco Style
|
| |
Calories |
Fat |
|
Calories |
Fat |
| Grilled Steak Taco |
280 |
17g |
|
170 |
5g |
| Baja Beef Gordita |
350 |
19g |
|
250 |
9g |
Mc Donald’s introduced meal-size salads with some light dressings several months ago. They are also test marketing a plan called “Real
Life Choices”. You can customize your burger by choosing either low fat, low calories, or low carb.
In April, Ruby Tuesday will begin to feature nutritional information about it’s meals directly on the menu. In November, they banned
trans fats from their cooking.
Bad News
One local restaurant put two of their cheese coney’s in a bowl instead of on buns. Here is the difference:
| |
Calories |
Fat |
Sodium |
| 2 cheese Coney’s |
700 |
48g |
1820mg |
| Lo Carb Coney Bowl |
780 |
62g |
1780mg |
While the carbs dropped from 46 grams to 8 grams, the calories and fat went up!
Arby’s has all of their Market Fresh Sandwiches available as Arby’s Low Carbys. At first glance it looks like omitting the bread not
only lowered the carbs, but dramatically lowered fat and calories, too. However, in addition to the bread, Arby’s left the sauces off.
Don’t be lured into the “low carb” hype on the assumption it’s healthier. Look at all of the nutritional information available and decide
if the fat and calories are reasonable. For the most part, the changes in the industry are a move toward healthier eating, but the bottom line is
that it’s still healthier to eat at home (see this month’s recipes and FYI)!
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