Skip to main content

Healthy Food, Fast


by Aging Backwards, on Thu Aug 21, 2008 7:40am PDT

New York City is number one again - this time they're the first city in the U.S. to require major fast food restaurants to post the calorie content of all their menu items. The chains have had nutrition facts available for a long time, but now the calories are actually posted - prominently.

Here's an example of calorie content for some popular choices: a Big Mac with medium fries and a medium soda contains 1130 calories, according to the McDonald's menu. A Whopper with medium fries and a medium coke has "only" 1040, according to Burger King's Web site.

Aging Backwards Fast Food Tips:

1) Look for salads on the menu. Most fast food restaurants offer a few healthy choices, including salads, but go easy on the amount of dressing you use and skip the cheese and croutons, or use only half.

2) Lose the bun. A hamburger actually provides decent protein - it's the bun that has little or no nutritional value. Eat the hamburger with some lettuce, tomato and mustard without the bun or include the top or bottom half of the bun if you must have bread.

3) Avoid "special" sauces. Most fast food sauces are mayonnaise-based, which can add lots of unnecessary fat and calories to your meal. Order your food without the sauce or with the sauce on the side and use only half.

4) Order water. Even diet sodas have been shown to contribute to metabolic syndrome, the precursor to type II diabetes, so stick with water, which is sometimes even free.

5) Don't shake. Fast food typically contains a fair amount of salt, so adding more salt is unnecessary and unhealthy. Studies show that people who consume high amounts of salt are at risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and even stomach cancer.

Making healthy choices at the fast food restaurant can start you on your way to Aging Backwards.

[photo credit: Getty Images]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FBI plans large hiring blitz of agents, experts

By James Vicini James Vicini – Mon Jan 5, 5:15 pm ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wanted by the FBI: agents, language specialists, computer experts, intelligence analysts and finance experts. The FBI said on Monday it had launched one of the largest hiring blitzes in its 100-year history involving 2,100 professional staff vacancies and 850 special agents aimed at filling its most critical vacancies. The agency, which seeks to protect the United States from terrorist attack, fight crime and catch spies, among other duties, said it currently has more than 12,800 agents and about 18,400 other employees. Since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI has been criticized for not having enough employees fluent in foreign languages and for not moving fast enough to upgrade its computer system. FBI Assistant Director John Raucci of the Human Resources division said the federal law enforcement agency is seeking to bring more people on board with skills in critical areas, especially language fluency and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anti-cancer foods

Posted by: Zap Mon, Sep 29, 2008, 1:44 pm PDT Source: Yahoo Health It turns out that a healthy diet can help to override any cancer-prone genes you might have at work in your body. "Nutrition has a bigger influence on cancer than inherited genes, which means you could significantly reduce your odds of the disease through diet alone," explains Joel Fuhrman, M.D., author of Eat for Health (Gift of Health Press). OK, OK. I know what you're thinking right about now: She's going to tell me I have to eat kale at every meal. Not so! I mean, for the record, you should always eat as many fruits and veggies as possible, because they will dramatically lower your odds of ever hearing the dreaded diagnosis. But there are many other, less rabbity ways to eat away at your cancer risk. Add whole grains to your diet. My two faves, aside from a thick piece of freshly baked whole-grain bread? Oatmeal with a pinch of cinnamon for breakfast, or brown rice with a chicken and veggie stir-f...
1 comment
Read more

Why Disasters Are Getting Worse?

By: AMANDA RIPLEY Thu Sep 4, 12:40 PM ET In the space of two weeks, Hurricane Gustav has caused an estimated $3 billion in losses in the U.S. and killed about 110 people in the U.S. and the Caribbean, catastrophic floods in northern India have left a million people homeless, and a 6.2-magnitude earthquake has rocked China's southwest, smashing over 400,000 homes. If it seems like disasters are getting more common, it's because they are. But some disasters do seem to be affecting us worse - and not for the reasons you may think. Floods and storms have led to most of the excess damage. The number of flood and storm disasters has gone up by 7.4% every year in recent decades, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. (Between 2000 and 2007, the growth was even faster - with an average annual rate of increase of 8.4%.) Of the total 197 million people affected by disasters in 2007, 164 million were affected by floods. It is tempting to look at the line-u...
Post a Comment
Read more