Fast Food Restaurants Hide the Calories

I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised, yet the action taken by these three fast food chains does bother me.

This illustrates why we need to educate ourselves to the basics of good, healthy nutrition. If we do this, we'd know what to eat and what to avoid at these restaurants any way.

Brian

I actually love Wendy's but I don't eat burgers and fries there, just the mandarin chicken salad. And sometimes a Frosty!
I liked the Wendy's website because you could customize the calorie count in things: for example, I don't like nuts or salad dressing, so I could look up the nutrition information for my salad without the nuts and dressing.
It's a shame that they did this.

Yeah, most health-conscious people avoid fast food places in general, but if fast food companies are smart, they'll provide the nutritional data. It will mean more business for them because a lot of people (myself included) are more likely to eat at a fast food joint if they know which choices are the best for their health. If a salad is higher in calories than say, a grilled chicken sandwich, I'd like to know that.

Maybe they have taken it down, to reformulate some of their items so they can be healthier...and thus comply with NYC's ruling. This also came days after CSPI's "X-treme Eating"
http://cspinet.org/new/200702262.html

Or maybe not.

That's a shame. It would be better to have the information available. They should rewrite the law to make everyone comply, instead of penalizing the restaurants that already made the information available.

Myself... I quit being a Wendy's advocate when they discontinued chicken strips. Last year that was a significant part of my "diet"... primarily because I had very brief lunches, since I was teaching at the time, and had a very long commute so didn't have time in the mornings to prepare anything. For lunch I would have Wendy's chicken strips & a caesar salad without dressing or krutons. I lost weight like mad on that diet - then they discontinued chicken strips. When I asked about that, the goon at the counter simply said "Why can't you just order chicken nuggets?"... as if they were the same thing.

I guess *my* issue with fast food is that so rarely are there any alternatives. If you don't have time to prepare a meal, your hand is pretty much forced. If I need lunch out - then I need lunch or I will have a sugar drop. I can try to buy the best that's on the menu, but it also must be filling. I have seen in the past when this or that chain offers something that *is* healthy (Taco Bell tried this back in the 90s), though, the employees seem to TRY not to sell it. At Taco Bell, the lite alternatives, when introduced, were very good. Yet employees would not inform customers they were availabe, or would frequently allow the ingredients to get stale and/or cold. And then the corporate honchos would decide "See - nobody wants this" and discontinue said lines before most customers knew they were available.

Consider this. It is 11:40pm currently, and I live in a medium-sized town of about 113,000 people. If I were to need to grab a "quick bite" right now - where would I go? I honestly don't have that many choices. McDonald's, Jack In The Box, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Whataburger... Subway (only marginally better) is already closed, as are any restuarants in the area. For a while, I would've chosen Wendy's, but that's already been discussed.. they basically discontinued the one entree that was both appetizing and NOT overly unhealthy (compared to the rest of their menu).

Is there anything at those few places I have a choice from at this hour that *is* healthy? Well - how would I know? They don't make that information available. If one of them DID make that information available - along with making sure SOMETHING on their menu was both appetizing and healthy - I'd be there in a second.

So why on earth was a law put on the books with a loophole big enough to drive a delivery truck through??? Does the fast food industry have that big a lobby? Oh... stupid question.

That really ticks me off. I have a chronic health condition that requires I limit my fat intake, but my boyfriend loves to eat out a lot. I rely on website nutritional info to make my choices when we eat at places that don't have many good menu items. For them to take that away... grr!

And it's not just fast food places that have something to hide. Check out the info for Ruby Tuesday's. They have like, 2 menu options below 50 grams of fat (plain salad, or a lean steak). Some of their menu items are over 100 grams of fat, and one of them is a SALAD! O_o;

Rubenesque Tuesdays is more like it... :-)

I don't blame these companies for taking down their info. Think about how long a menu board is already- then add in all the nutritional info, with all the customizations (with cheese, without cheese, etc, etc). It would be OVERWHELMING to have that much info on a menu board.

I really am angry they passed this law because now the rest of the country is without nutritional info. I read that there was a proposal to have it available by the registers on a sheet, which is more than reasonable. These places had no choice really but to take down their info because if they hadn't, they would have had to have a 2 story, 8-font print menu just to fit all the information.

reminds me of that movie, i think it is called "supersize me" where a guy got really poor health from eating McDonalds for 30 days or something like that...

How do you cram 100 grams fat on a salad? I'm already impressed with my ability to make salads that have 25g fat, but they are also bigger than my head. Are the vegetables in it deep-fried? How does that work?

Alvin, to answer your question, if there is a 24-h or open to midnight grocery store out there, I'd go eat at the grocery store. Even if the little deli counter is long closed, you can just buy some bread, buy some cold cuts, some vegetables or a pre-bagged salad, a yogurt or some sugar-free juice, and save money and eat healthier. Usually even eating at the gas station is healthier. One pack of trail mix + some juice + a small container of cottage cheese = a much better meal than what you'd have at a fast-food place.

It looks like Wendy's has their online nutrition info available once again. But White Castle's and Quizno's info is still unavailable. Hopefully they are reformulating to make some things healthier, rather than acting out of spite. Being spiteful wouldn't hurt the lawmakers, only the consumers.

Jan said:
How do you cram 100 grams fat on a salad? [...]

A whole lot of croutons?? :-)

http://www.qualitycroutons.com/ Ask these guys!

OK...50 croutons=100 fat calories and 350 calories total. Who would have thought? And yes, you can make your own or get a fat free variety.

Dr.J said:
OK...50 croutons=100 fat calories and 350 calories total. Who would have thought? And yes, you can make your own or get a fat free variety.[...]

I like pita chips on my salad... stale toasted pita bread, fat free and delicious.

But I'm thinking those salads consist of a lot of onion rings, cheese, and mayonnaise. Then it is easy to have 100 fat grams.

We are big fans of Pita bread! There is a local business here, Falafal King, that bakes it's own in white and whole wheat varieties. Fresh Pita Bread is wonderful! If any last til stale, we'll try your idea. :-)

I always buy or make 12 at a time, so I usually manage about 9 before they go stale, the other 3 turn into pita chips. I then put them in a can and use them in place of croutons and in place of tortilla chips.

Laura said:
I don't blame these companies for taking down their info. Think about how long a menu board is already- then add in all the nutritional info, with all the customizations (with cheese, without cheese, etc, etc). It would be OVERWHELMING to have that much info on a menu board.

In Australia McDonalds have a stack of Nutritional Information pamphlets at the front of the shop - of course this means most people won't look at it, but if you want to, it's there.

I agree with Laura. If the law was just to make the nutritional info available in the store in some way, I'd think differently of the restaurants' actions. But to say it has to be on the menu board?? And then say you're only required to do this if you already are making it available in some way?? Why not pass a law that just requires nutritional information from EVERYONE, in-store and online (for those who have a website)in a convenient and cost-friendly way for the stores? If people don't care to look, that's their right.
On a side note, I'm boycotting McAlister's Deli until they make their info available (something they promised to do as far back as 2003).

Wendy's actually has a GREAT nutritional menu that even lets you personalize your meal. Check it out:www.wendys.com

I don't understand how such an idiotic law was passed. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to only require those food establishments who are already providing us with nutritional information in some capacity to comply with this, while stating that a place can avoid implications of the law by simply not making the information available in any manner. Am I missing something- was the goal behind this legislation consumer-driven in the sense of providing us w/ the info so that we could be better equipped to make healthier decisions, should we so choose? It's shocking how absolutely backwards this law is and that this could pass without someone in the legislature realizing that it makes us all worse off. Whereas we could once find the information fairly easily if we wanted to, we'll now suffer in that many places will simply remove the information from their websites or in store pamphlets bc the message board requirement is too onerous a burden. I understand it's not the hugest issue in the world, but it's very frustrating and mind boggling to me that such a law would pass. I want to be able to get nutritional information for the places I eat!!!! Now, the legislature, in an effort to further health efforts, has hindered that ability!!! I don't get it!

I used to work at Mcdonalds and I remember having the worst digestion problems I ever had in my life. Oh, and it really is true that you get addicted :)

Thanks,

George