Fitness Fast Food
Another excerpt from my soon to be released. . .
Fitness Fast Food
Sometimes you just want to sit down and have a nice healthy lunch.
For these occasions the typical fast food options probably aren’t your first choice.
With the rise of "fast casual" style restaurants like panerra bread, corner bakery, au bon pain, and more - many people feel that they're eating healthier options than the typical McDonalds, BK, or KFC meal.
But Appearances Can Be Deceiving
What "sounds" like a good thing for your body in many cases is not.
Many times interesting and healthy sounding meal names trick people into thinking they're eating something that has lard-loss benefits when in fact they are often worse for you than the other dreaded "Mc-Choices".
For instance, most people think that "a salad" is something the will help in the process of losing lard.
When that simple salad is loaded up with cheese, bacon, egg, dressing, and more it becomes the equivalent - or worse - than a double big mac with cheese.
Poor Choices From Fast Casual Restaurants
■Turkey Artichoke Panini Sandwich. "Panini's are sandwiches with fresh ingredients held between hearty bread and pressed on a hot grill", says one "fast casual" menu. But paninis have too much saturated fat (mostly from their cheese).
The healthy-sounding Turkey Artichoke Panini, for example, has as much saturated fat as a McDonald’s Big Mac (11 grams), but far more calories (850 vs 590) and sodium (2,550 mg vs 1,090 mg). And that’s not Counting the potato chips that are served on the side.
■Roast Beef Sandwich. The Roast Beef has 960 calories, 52 grams of fat (24 of them saturated), and 2,140 mg of sodium, not including the pickle spear and chips. That’s a Burger King Double Whopper, except the Roast Beef has twice as much sodium.
■Smoked Turkey Club Sandwich. Guess how many burgers at McDonald’s have as many calories (760) as this sandwich?
Answer: zero.
The Big Mac and Big N’ Tasty with Cheese comes closest, with 590. True, few customers order a burger without fries (another 210 to 610 calories, depend- ing on size). And Burger King has four sandwiches (the Whopper and the Double Whopper with or without Cheese) that range from 760 to 1,150 calories.
Still, you don’t expect 760 calories in a turkey sandwich. Nor do you expect 12 grams of sat fat. And none of the burger chains has a sandwich with the 2,450 mg of sodium you’d get in a Smoked Turkey Club.
■Mozzarella Sandwich or Tomato Mozzarella Salad. Fresh mozzarella looks so innocent. You’d never guess that each Mozzarella Sandwich packs 820 calories and 43 grams of fat (21 of them saturated). That’s two 12-ounce sirloin steaks...a bit heavy for lunch, don’t you think?
The Tomato Mozzarella Salad (with Lite Olive Oil Vinaigrette) has only about half as many calories (430), but it’s still got three-quarters of a day’s sat fat (14 grams).
■Broccoli Cheddar Soup. This is the worst soup available.
An 8 oz. (one-cup) serving of Broccoli Cheddar has half a day’s sat fat (10 grams). That’s as much as a 12-ounce sirloin steak. Add the chunk of French or sourdough baguette that comes with all soups and salads and you’ve got half a day’s sodium (1,340 mg).
And if you were to order a large bowl of Broccoli Cheddar, for instance, you would get 460 calories and 18 grams of saturated fat — more than you’d get in a Mrs. Fields Double Fudge Brownie — plus nearly a day’s worth of sodium (1,920 mg).
Even a "regular" serving of Corn Chowder or Boston Clam Chowder is bad news: Each has half a day’s sat fat. And if you eat your soup out of a Bread Bowl and you can kiss goodbye another 1,830 mg of sodium and 640 calories.
Other Soups to Snub
Cream of Chicken & Wild Rice
Smoked Salmon & Asparagus
Baked Potato
and French Onion
Why?
They’re all made using cream or cheese.
[Interestingly, the words "cream" and "cheese" are synonomous (in my book) with "artery clogging", "energy sapping", and "day-old-grease"]
Some Good Choices From Fast Casual Restaurants
When you eat at any restaurant, if you. . .
focus on eating veggies and a lean protein
that is'nt drenched in gunk, hold the cheese, cream, and butter - you'll, in most cases, be eating a meal that will help body composition.
Soup and salad make a meal when it’s a hearty bean soup. With Bean & Vegetable soup plus half a Classic salad and a chunk of baguette, you get 470 calories, a mere three grams of sat fat, protein, fiber, and a satisfied belly of vitamins and minerals.
More Good Soups
■Vegetable Soup
Southern Black Eyed Pee
Tomato Lentil
Pasta Fagioli
■Salmon Filet Salad
■Wraps. At many restaurants, the “vegetarian sandwiches” are little more than cheese sandwiches with a fancy name.
However, you can create your own by special request. Just tell the chef to prepare your wrap without all of the "garbage". Try a combination of mixed greens, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and a sun-dried-tomato spread - throw in some grilled chicken breast and you'll have delicious, perfectly supportive, fat burning meal!
The Best Soup and Sandwich Combination
Vegetable Soup is light-years ahead of the pack.
Add a Veggie Wrap and you have one of the best sandwich and soup combo's you'll find - just be sure to add some lean protein to the wrap.
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