Fast Food vs Full-Service Restaurants: Which is Better?

Fast food restaraunts are the epitome of modern day culture and technology. Never before has food been so plentiful and cheap that we simply want to get whatever junk down our throats.

I feel ashamed to even have to be talking about whether fast food restaraunts are better than full service. We all know which is best.

when eating at a dine-in restaurant, i notice that i eat a little slower, talk a little more, sip my water a little more- however when i was a fast food junkie i didn't even think about the food in my mouth, whether it tasted good or just greasy- but i ate it because the person with me ate it, or for whatever reason. you eat so quickly you dont even have time to talk between bites- i suppose if you wanted to be healthy, you would probably want to take the time to notice what is going in your mouth and if you like it or not- and is it going to fill you up- even if it is at a fast food restaurant, couldn't one make a better choice than double fried chicken and still not have to go to a sit down restaurant?

Not to mention you get full from the food in full service restaurants a lot easier... at least, I do.

Mmm, fiber.

Did they control for economic status?

In most cases, full service restaurants are nutritionally worse and have much larger portions. The difference is that massive Ruby Tuesday burger costs 5 times as much as the McDonald's burger, so most people can't afford to eat there as frequently.

Home cooking. I like to know what goes into my food.

McDonalds are spread into all over the world, so one branch is located in my local area in Japan too. Many parents are taking their kids to there and feeding them on their junk. It is really sad that our regular diets have been westernized and polluted by the America commercialized junk food restaurants...

Also, don't forget that there is typically a difference between the food served at a local-original restaurant versus that at one corporate-owned or franchised.

More often than not, the chain restaurants are serving you processed and frozen food, cooked somewhere else. Just like fast food.

It's quite obvious, when you're served something that looks like a tv dinner! (Olive Garden, TGI Friday's, among others)

The local-original restaurant is more likely to prepare the food right there, as much as if you would make it at home. At least you know the food was cooked, rather than "rethermalized", like airplane and hospital food.

I think it depends on what you mean by "Which is better?" As far as freshness & taste, full-service definitely wins. But if we're talking about obesity--I agree with the previous poster who said that most people simply can't afford to eat at full service restaurants as often as they do fast food. If they could--and did--eat at full-service restaurants several times a week, I think the "obesity epidemic" would be even worse. I personally would rather indulge in a full service restaurant once in a while, but I do it knowing that if I order a burger or a pasta dish, etc., the calorie count is probably very high, even if I do only eat half of it. The highest calorie item on the McDonalds menu is the Double Quarter Pounder with cheese, at 730 (I believe). Walk into a Ruby Tuesday and you are pretty much guaranteed to get one that has at least 1000 calories. The Colossal Burger has 1660, and that doesn't include fries. So I agree that full service restaurants probably have fresher and--all things being equal--healthier food, I don't eat there to control my weight.

Kailash said:
Also, don't forget that there is typically a difference between the food served at a local-original restaurant versus that at one corporate-owned or franchised.

More often than not, the chain restaurants are serving you processed and frozen food, cooked somewhere else. Just like fast food.

I work in one of the latter you've described, and it is little better than fast food. Pretty much everything we serve is pre-breaded, pre-cooked, pre-mixed, etc. We just throw it in the fryer or on the grill. To contrast that, though, I remember reading on a locally-owned restaurant's website about the chef buying a bag of a plain grain from another local restaurant that had just closed--and how that had inspired him.

I think if I'm going out, I'd prefer the local restaurant. This one even makes its own ketchup.

Katie - is that how Olive Garden does it? Why pay $14.95 for a a pre-packaged dish?

I don't know if that's how Olive Garden does it since that's not the chain I work out, but I suspect it's similar. Where I work, say you order a steak with rice and vegetables. The steak is frozen and vacuum sealed, your rice is cooked/rehydrated/reheated with chicken broth in the microwave, and your vegetables are cooked from frozen with a giant glop of margarine in the microwave.

I just take the stance that I don't like complicated food--so why pay good money above and beyond the cost of the food to someone if all I want are steamed vegetables and a salad? People need to realize the cost of the convenience of eating out.

Meant to write "work at," not "work out." Though it can be a workout walking around serving bad food for eight hours without a break.

Makes sense to me. With fast food restaurants people tend to eat everything they order; where as, in an eat-in restaurant they have no problem stopping when you are full and taking the rest home in a doggy bag for the next day.

The restaurant I work at is a smaller chain, and everything is made in-house. Nothing is frozen, except, I believe, the mozzarella sticks. We make our own salad dressings, potato chips, tortilla chips, sauces, and croutons as well.

I think most restaurant food is unhealthy, period. Even the really nice restaurants around here have high calorie salads with lots of cheese and gigantic homemade croutons. The "steamed" veggies have butter on them. The bread basket is never ending.

However, I imagine that people tend to be more likely to take leftovers home from a sit-down restaurant but eat everything at a fast food place.

James said:
Fast food restaraunts are the epitome of modern day culture and technology.

I disagree. No one is forced to eat there.

yataiblue said:
McDonalds are spread into all over the world, so one branch is located in my local area in Japan too. Many parents are taking their kids to there and feeding them on their junk. It is really sad that our regular diets have been westernized and polluted by the America commercialized junk food restaurants...[...]

Now there's a good one. Blame America.

Most people order fast food and take it home to eat. Check out the dining areas. Fewer people sit in a Burger King than they did 20 years ago.

Buffets can be the healthiest places to eat. You have a large variety of fruits and veggies than anywhere else.

Paul Young said:
Now there's a good one. Blame America. [...]

Sure, when all else fails, blame someone else. Last I recalled, the Asian diet it a pretty healthy one based on fish, rice, veggies and a little meat. Who's forcing people to go to a McDonald's?

Paul Young said:
James said: Fast food restaraunts are the epitome of modern day culture and technology.

I disagree. No one is forced to eat there.

Er, just because no one is forced to eat there does not negate the fact that fast food can be considered an epitome (--representative or perfect example of a class or type--) of our modern, fast-paced, technological western culture. I believe that the prevalence and popularity of fast food in the U.S. is very certainly indicative of a larger paradigm and value shift making its way through society.

Hi there,

Great post!! I can understand all the fuss between the battle of Fast Food vs Full Service Restaurants and being overweight. But, I also think that Fast Food has come a long way in the last 10+ years. Yes, I think it is easier to find low calorie and healthy food at full service restaurants, but I have no trouble getting a low calorie healthy dish at the fast food chains now-a-days either. But, of course I am more limited in my choices. As long as you go into a fast food joint knowing what you are going to eat..... you will have no trouble sticking to something healthy. If you go in their with the thought, "well, there isn't going to be any reason to eat healthy... I'm just going to eat whatever I want..." then you can guarantee that you your choices will not be healthy. :-)

Again, great article.

Shana Lee

Full-service restaurants are just as unhealthy as fast-food, calorie-wise. The portions are usually gigantic, plus most people get appetizers, drinks, dessert, etc. I think the main difference is the cost...most people don't eat out at full-service places all that often. Of course, there is the exception to the rule. My aunt and uncle eat out at LEAST 4 nights a week, plus they always go out for breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays. My aunt has a weight problem because of it...she just eats a LOT of restaurant food and consumes probably hundreds of hidden calories per day. Just like people who eat fast food 5 or more times a week probably have weight problems...the food is just very calorie-dense and easy to overeat on.

About buffets...one of my favorite places to eat is Old Country Buffet or Golden Corral because I can eat healthy stuff there. I can get a salad with lowfat dressing and tons of veggies, a cup of soup, maybe some fresh fruit...it's pretty healthy! Of course, if you load up with 4 plates of ribs and mac and cheese, that's a different story!

Never teh Bride said:
Er, just because no one is forced to eat there does not negate the fact that fast food can be considered an epitome (--representative or perfect example of a class or type--) of our modern, fast-paced, technological western culture. I believe that the prevalence and popularity of fast food in the U.S. is very certainly indicative of a larger paradi[...]

Oncea gain, no one is forcing anyone to use them. Everyone here cooks at home, prepares lunches for work. What's everyone else's excuse?

Not a lot of sit-down restaurants in poor neighborhoods. Fat tracks with poverty.

Spectra said:
Full-service restaurants are just as unhealthy as fast-food, calorie-wise. The portions are usually gigantic, plus most people get appetizers, drinks, dessert, etc. I think the main difference is the cost...most people don't eat out at full-service places all that often. Of course, there is the exception to the rule. My aunt and uncle eat out a[...]

Spectra, do you really buy into the low-fat mantra? I've been reading a lot on it and it seems that the American people have been snookered into low-fat, when high-fat foods are perfectly fine in moderation.

Fitness_Fanatic said:
do you really buy into the low-fat mantra[...]

There seemed to be more people that ate at home in the 1940s, very few women worked outside the home and so it was their "job" to stay home, take care of the kids, keep the house clean and have dinner on the table ready for when their husband came home from work. I would like to see the # difference from more recent times. Say 1990 to 2005 instead of 1940.

I don't agree with "eat anything that's low fat regardless of calories" because a lot of reduced fat foods actually have the same amount of calories as regular foods (remember Snackwells? My mom used to eat those by the box because they were "healthy cookies"). I basically go by calories...I have a set amount of calories that I try to eat per day and I do eat fat in moderation. It IS high in calories, so I try to moderate it. I get most of my fat from nuts and olive oil and I prefer to not get it from butter or cream because heart disease runs in my family so I try to cut back on the saturated fat.

Oh, and a quick question for Katie--if a diner asks for their vegetables to be made without butter, does the kitchen staff actually listen or do they put butter in anyway just for spite? I always worry about stuff like that, lol.

Spectra said:
if a diner asks for their vegetables to be made without butter, does the kitchen staff actually listen or do they put butter in anyway just for spite? I always worry about stuff like that, lol.

Supposedly they'll pull the huge chunk of margarine off--and it is huge--though I'm not sure what they'd do to cook it then. Maybe put a little bit of water on it and just steam it rather than steeping it in fake fat. I've never had anyone ask me to do that, though.

Linds said:
Home cooking. I like to know what goes into my food.[...]

I do really prefer Restaurants ;-)

At least you know what the heck you're getting with fast food and can make a intelligent decision, but with sit down restaurants you NEVER really know what you're getting. Personally that's information I'd like to know.

How do they know people who live closer to fast food restaurants are heavier, I always wonder about stuff like that. But I bet (if it's really true) it's because people go to fast places more often than sit down joints.

sheddingpounds said:
But with sit down restaurants you NEVER really know what you're getting. Personally that's information I'd like to know.

You can always ask.

There is a problem with study. Any student who ever took research methods learns that correlation does not equal causation. Full-service restaurants are found in the same places where thinner people live, but that doesn't mean that people are thinner because they eat at those restaurants. In fact, both things (thinner people and full-service restaurants) are probably due to a third factor: income. Currently in this country BMI is inversely with income (the more you make the less likely you are to be overweight). This may be due to a variety of factors: more flexible hours that make it easier to work out, money for trainers and gym memberships, etc. Also, since full-service restaurants are more expensive restaurants, they tend to locate in more afluent neighborhoods, hence a correlation between thinner people and full-service restaurants. In truth, it is hard to eat well (e.g. low-salt) in most restaurants at any price.

-sjc

Fast food is the key issue in the obesity problem for Americans. It is extremely addicting and if it is nearby houses or a neighborhood, there is a better chance for people to constantly go there. Due to the fact the fast food restaurants such as McDonalds inject their beef patties with sugar and sodium, their Big Mac's can be addicting. But fast food is not the only reason why people usually eat out. People can get the same amount of calories from eating a full course meal at a restaurant. Appetizers, main course, and then deserts will pack tons of calories into your diet.

Despite the fact that most of this post is about the fact that real restaurants have a higher calorie count, dont forget about the fact that real resturants have high calorie counts, but not as much fat, which is really the bad stuff to be eating unless your life is really healthy. And like other things, real resturants are more expensive, and more made around people dining out together, where as fast food is RUSH RUN STUFF IT IN YOUR FACE!! And the fact that they are more expencive makes it so it would be alot harder to make yourself fat off of eating it.

I really don't care if there are as many calories in a restaurant meal as in fast food - aside from the taste being better, when I go to the one pasta restaurant where I eat regularly and they bring what looks like a bucket of pasta rather than a plate (and I know what is in it - open kitchen...), I eat half of it and pack the rest for the next day. If that giant plate of pasta has the same amount calories of a burger and fries, I saved half of them - cause you bet I'd have finished the burger and fries.

i dont understand why people would just go and buy junk food just for the sake of eating it because tastes good. if you aint hungry dont just eat it. that is how so many people get fat. i mean it isnt that hard just to cook something at home. also a sit in restaurant may be to expensive for some people but once in a while is good. it can also be more social.

for comment above. it's called, "craving." one musn'tdoesn't have to necessarily be hungry to crave a snicker, chips, or even a piece of candy...who actually eats a now and later because of hunger?? you could but...what good is that really. i eat junk in moderation and i'm nowhere near being overweight. of course i workout as well.

And as far as restaurants vs. fast food goes. i have a dissenting opinion (in general) true most are packed in calories and/or fat but on many menus you will find low cal/fat section (although very limited) you can also request no added oils/butter etc. i often times do that. and most importantly, don't eat it all in one sitting. (depending on portion size) thats my take on that..