Fast Food Calories

Unfortunately, early indications aren't good...

Dunkin' Donuts recently announced a new menu containing "better-for you" food and drink. They've called it DDSMART. Food must meet the following criteria:

Is that enough to make you want to eat there?

A Baskin-Robbins Heath Shake.

It contains 266 grams of sugar. If you doubt me you can check the source here.

A quick glance might make you think it said "Health shake" - but no:

There is considerable confusion over the caloric content of coffee. Not all coffee drinks are high in calories. Coffee - without additives - is almost a zero-calorie drink.

Here is a complete guide to understanding coffee calories.

The January issue of Men's Health has an interesting article about 16 secrets of the restaurant industry.

The article begins with a report about a recent legislative proposal that would have forced all California restaurants to disclose their nutritional content to all consumers. Unfortunately, Governor Schwarzenegger never signed the bill, so California restaurant goers will have to use their best judgment.

Eat This Not That is one of the most useful diet-related books to appear in recent years.

Rather than supplying vague guidelines or impossible-to-follow meal plans - it simply delves into the foods most of us eat today. The book then provides some better choices as well as delving into the confusing world of fast food calories.

Fast food outlet Quiznos has finally listed their nutrition information.

A brief look through the data shows some outrageously high Calorie amounts in their food.

Another testament to gluttony:

Hardee's presents the Country Breakfast Burrito.

The other day I ordered a salad at a restaurant. The meal that came back made me realize that "salad" means everything and nothing.

In a salad you can find beef, chicken, vegetables, fruit. You can find eggs, cheese, and an innumerable number of dressings, fats, and oils.

On the positive side most salads tend to contain mostly whole unprocessed food - and those who eat salads do have a higher nutrient intake. On the negative side is the energy density of some the brand-name salads.

AOL has detailed some of the more calorie-dense salads.

From 1959 comes this classic ad: "Choose the chocolates that can help keep you slim."

Maltesers (balls of honeycomb surrounded by chocolate) were popular in the UK (in the US, Hershey's Whoppers are similar).

As seen in the print advertisement below - some marketers are masters of twisting words.

Researchers Brian Wansink and Pierre Chandon have shown that people routinely underestimate the amount of calories consumed when eating at Subway.

They call it the "Biasing Health Halos of Fast Food Restaurant Health Claims".

It seems we believe the low-calorie hype, and end up adjusting our eating habits because of it.

McDonald's have long been touting "healthy options". I've always wondered if it was nothing more than elaborate window dressing. The real money is in the burgers, fries, and sodas.

McDonald's have been trialling a super-sized soda called "Hugo". 42 ounces (1.24 liters) and 410 Calories.

But didn't they drop Super-size items years ago?

Restaurants often market foods as “vegetarian” and consumers normally assume that food labeled vegetarian must be a healthier alternative to other menu choices.

This week, I had a patient who was on a business trip and received quite a surprise when he ordered a Vegi Muffaletta for lunch from a COSI restaurant.

Fast food is popular because... it's fast.

Could you get something healthier - for the same price - and get it just as quickly?

If calorie counting is important to you, then you need to think carefully and realistically about restaurant or fast food.

Two reasons:

Subway have taken aim at McDonald's with their new "Fresh Fit" meals. The combo meals are compared side-by-side against a Big Mac meal. Subway's meal comes out at 265 calories, while the Big Mac meal hits a gluttonous 1230 calories.

But there's more to it than that...

In response to a new regulation in New York City, which will require major-chain restaurants to start listing calorie information on menu boards, three fast-food chains deleted the calorie information they had made available on their websites.

Many chain restaurants are serving meals (and even entrees) with ridiculous calorie counts. Unfortunately nutrition information is nowhere to be seen.

Ruby Tuesday's colossal burger weighs in at 1,940 calories including 141 grams of fat.

Domino's pizza is apparently a "Good Choice for a Healthy Diet".

That's according to a press release claiming that Glamour magazine and Men's Health both recommended Domino's Pizza.

Common Sense Media has carried out a nutritional analysis of each food product promoted during the Superbowl. The totals are: 3325 calories; 178 grams of fat (that's about 270 percent of the FDA's recommended daily intake; 1665 calories from fat; and 6910 mg of sodium (288 percent of the FDA's recommended daily intake).