Losing Weight and Feeling Great

Oh my, I seem to be covering a lot of fast food information these days.  Here’s something interesting I came across.  I’m not sure it will help, but maybe it’s a baby step in the right direction?  Read on and decide for yourself.

South Los Angeles has decided to ban any new fast food restaurants from opening for at least one year, to give the restaurants with healthier foods a chance to gain a foothold and following.

As reported by the Associated Press, City Councilman Bernard Parks said that ”Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods”.

No surprise there, especially after my previous post on what restaurants, fast-food or traditional, feed us. 

Fast Food’s Reply:  No, Don’t Ban Us!

How about this:  72% of the places to eat in South and SE LA are fast food restaurants.  Ouch!  No wonder why the restaurants are trying to challenge the ban.  And no wonder why healthier alternatives are having a hard time.

And another statistic:  30% of children in south Los Angeles are obese.

Now here’s a quote I loved from Don Bailey, who has owned/operated a McDonalds for 22 years.  He told the LA Times that “McDonald’s believes in healthy choices”.

Sure.  Right.  And the Easter Bunny delivers colored eggs.  OK, maybe I am being too hard on the franchise; here’s some information so you can decide.

McDonald’s and Nutrition

I went to the official McDonald’s website and they do make it hard to locate the nutritional information!  I did find it, and so here it is for you to peruse:  McDonald’s Nutritional Charts

Now at first glance, the hamburger doesn’t look too bad — just 250 calories and 9 grams of fat.  Ah, but look farther, at the trans-fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium.  Hmm, healthy isn’t what I’d call it.

So, let’s move to one of the “healthier” alternatives, the grilled honey mustard snack wrap.  At 260 calories, that doesn’t seem too bad.  And no trans-fat.  Still, read on and get a load of the sodium!  And the saturated fat isn’t anything to write home about either.  And just 1 gram of dietary fiber?

Raise your hand if you don’t usually order fries with your McDonald’s meal?  If you’re like most people and do get the fries, you don’t want to look.  Or, maybe you should so you know how much fat — of all kinds — you are feeding your body.

Mr. Bailey, I challenge you on your statement.  Or maybe I shouldn’t, because just because the franchise believes in healthier foods obviously doesn’t mean they offer them.

And in case you think I’m leaving out all their salad offerings, I’m not.  After looking over the chart, the salads aren’t anything to write home about.  And if you are counting calories, bring your own salad dressing because their low-fat dressings are not low calorie.

It seems like I’m picking on McDonald’s, but I’m just using them as an example.  Burger King, Jack in the Box, Wendy’s — they are all purveyors of fat, er, fast food. 

Ok, here’s the original article I plucked the information from, and you already have the McDonald’s nutritional chart from earlier in this post.  

Is the ban on new fast food restaurants justified?  Or should it be all restaurant franchises, seeing as some of the regular places (Applebee’s, Red Robin, Outback, etc.) aren’t where they should be nutrition-wise either?

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I did a post about how fast food equals fat food a few weeks ago (read it here).  Now here’s part 2 of why eating out in a restaurant can be killing your diet…even if you think you’re ordering a healthy meal.

There was a book that came out in December 2007 called Eat This, Not That by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding.  It was a surprising look into what the restaurant industry doesn’t really want you to know, as far as the health of their meals.  Fast food isn’t the only kind of “fat food” out there!

 Low Fat?  Check the Calories!

Well, looks like a restaurant popular in my neck of the woods has gotten burned by their “low fat” dinners.  Applebee’s was promoting its low fat meals on its menu.  Sure, there wasn’t much in the way of fat, but calories?  That’s a whole ‘nother subject!   Diners who were thinking they were getting a healthy meal got served up quite a few calories and carbs in those dinners.  (And apparently the restaurant has removed them from their menus.)

What About High Fat and High Calories?

Then there’s a place like IHOP (of breakfast fame) that sells omlettes that provide more than enough calories, fat, etc. in one meal than you need in a day!  OK, let’s be fair; the Omlette Feast was discontinued (at a hefty 1,300+ calories), but there are still others hanging in there at 1,000 calories.  Do you really want to have eaten your whole day’s worth of food by 9 AM?

What’s in Your Smoothie?

Ah, fruit smoothies!  And when made with yogurt, a healthy meal, right?

Well, not if you’re slurping down that smoothie at Dunkin’ Donuts.   The fruit puree used in the fruit and yogurt smoothie is full of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) — really bad for your blood sugar!  How do you feel about dumping 60 grams of sugary carbs into your body?  (And that’s just the medium size.)

Is There Any Hope?

Well….not much, at any rate.  Salad bars are great if you steer towards the fresh veggies and away from the goodies like cole slaw, ambrosia, potato salad and the like.  Don’t forget to bring your own salad dressing; no guarantee what’s actually in that “low calorie” offering — not to mention the size of those ladles!

I encourage you to read the article where I got this info.  Think about it.  Now I’m not saying to never go out to eat — a meal out every now and then is so nice!  But you do need to be aware of what’s on the menu.  Low fat doesn’t mean low calories, and a “healthy” meal may send your blood sugar skyrocketing.

And just because you aren’t aware of the calories dosn’t mean that they aren’t there!

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I saw an interesting article on the obese American the other day.  The article makes the prediction that if we continue as we are, 86% of all adult Americans will be overweight or obese by the year 2030.

Before that, by 2022, 80% of Americans will be at the very least overweight (if not obese).

So, what is the definition of overweight and obese?  A body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more.  Overweight is considered at between 25 and 29.9 BMI.  Just as an example, a woman 5 foot 6 inches tall weighing 186 pounds has a BMI of 30.  (Naturally that can vary somewhat, depending on how muscular you are, but any way you look at it — at the very least you’re likely overweight at that weight and height.)

Want to calculate your BMI?

The Obese American — The Study

These figures come from a study published by the journal, Obesity, which was published online July 24 of this year.

The study was authored in part by Lan Liang, Ph.D., with the federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and was led by Youfa Wang, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of International Health and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

OK, credentials aside, are we doomed to be a nation of fat people?  What are some of the other numbers the study came up with?

In the Year 2048…

The possibility that 100% of Americans will be overweight or obese.  Now, researchers’ credentials aside, I find that extremely hard to believe.  There will always be people who are a normal weight, or underweight.  So the credibility of that number is far-fetched, to say the least.

But, could the 86% by 2030 be correct?  Hard to tell.  If we continue with our current habits, possibly so.  But that’s an awfully big “if”.  Anything can happen between now and then — we’re talking 22 years here.

Still, it’s a hard study to swallow (puns aside).  The fact is that unless we do decide to change our ways, more and more of us will either not lose or will gain weight in the coming years.  And what’s going to be doing to our health?  If we’re not doing great right now, what’s it going to be like once we reach 60?  70?  Do we really want to be confined to a wheelchair or bed because we didn’t take care of ourselves today?

At any rate, you can read more of the article here, and decide for yourself if you will be an obese American in 2030.  Me — I don’t intend to!

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