If you met the big bosses of the FAST FOOD chains, what would say?
Specifically, you must cover the following 3 points:
1. What I would like/want is… (whole grain bread offerings?)
2. Your worst sin is (trans fats, saturated fats, high fat /sugar?)
3. What would you tell them, if you had a chance meeting, face to face?
I’d give the Taco Bueno boss a big hug for creating the Mexi Dips and Chips + Muchaco combination. 1 millions carbs and 5 million fat grams of pure bliss, right there.
I dunno. I’m not really into healthy food at fast food places. Seems like an oxymoron to me. My mind and stomach don’t want to understand it. 
It’s great more of them are adding healthy options of course; just for me… I can’t resist the delicious smell of pure crap for my body. So if I go to a fast food place now, it’s to cheat away.
It almost depends on which FF place it is. Taco Bell has made some very nice choices in their Fresco Menu, no cheese, no
extra fat, more salsa, and very filling for a FF choice. I am truly grateful that any of the FF places have included salads and vegetables in their menus. Take a lunch salad at McD’s and a piece of grilled chicken and you have a meal. I do bring my own dressing though, Paul Newman, hasn’t perfected a dressing yet that I can eat.
I would like them to consider offering fruit, without sugar covering it. You have to admit those apples aren’t exactly healthy food…they don’t turn brown, so there must be something on them. No sugar in the yogurt at McD’s would be nice.
I guess I would want them to help the country more with childhood obesity. I know their business is to make a proft, but on the health of our children? They need to keep researching how to make food more appealing, yet lower in calories and sugars. That would be a success story.
I can dream can’t I?
i’m not sure how to answer you…
- I would like all restaurants to have their nutrition value menus in stock!! AND their “new” stuff should have the nutritional value automatically avaliable. I want this more for sit down restaurants though…
- for every unhealthy version, their should be just as many healthy versions, that would be nice.
- if i met them face to face i would ask for copuons lol
taco bell should offer a multigrain/wheat taco, and wendys should offer a splenda version of the frostie.
i thought there would be alot of angst and mal aligned opinions of this food industry just prior to putting up this post.
seems all that we all want is a bit more focus on health consciousness (not much to ask for !!??)
i remember when macca’s addressed this issue by the introduction of salads in australia, they had their PR person on tv making the announcement (he looked like he had something stuck in his rear, and that he just drank a cup of vinegar).
all that consumers want is help. choices, healthy choices, and less pushing of the unhealthy envelope
one day this industry will be held to account (like some other industries before them)
personally, i just want a wholegrain bread option !
- Food in the package, bowl, bag or tray is what you said it was.
- Trusting the Nutrition information provided at the restaurant.
- Be honest about the nutritional information provided with the food
Thanks to TB for not having the carbs you said in the cinnamon twist, they are a nice treat w/little GL.
subway has wheat bread… and i love panera bread… i worked in a mexican restaurant once, and always thought i should bring in my own wheat tortillas. But i do feel passionate that Wendys should have a splenda version of their frosties, especially after promoting this:
I honestly would want them to have pamphlets up at the register that details the carbohydrate/calorie count in the food like KFC does. When I go into a fast food restaurant I know that I am not making the best choice, but I do like to indulge every now and again. Usually I have to research ahead of time and figure out what I’m going to eat and how much I have to dose for it.
I would like more whole grains to be offered, but let’s be honest, a lot of the bad comes from the meat, toppings and the sides. I would also ask them to bring out salads that didn’t have just as many calories as their smallest burgers (hi, McDonald’s I’m talking to you!) and to stop advertising these things as ‘healthy alternatives’.
I also have a beef to pick with chain restaurants (as I live in central Florida, home of the chain) and Panera. With the former, I would ask them to please provide nutritional information for their dishes. I can’t go to these places anymore because the old “I guess it would be this many carbohydrates” just doesn’t cut it anymore. Is it so hard? With the latter…oh my gosh. Everything has secret carbohydrates and calories. Did you guys know that some of the Panera bagels have up to 70 carbohydrates in them? Zounds!
I don’t know that I would put the word “foodie” and the word “fast” in the same sentence. Also not quite sure what this has to do with Type 1 diabetes? There, you got your expected maligning opinion.
I either get tacos at Taco Bell or a 6 inch turkey on wheat bread no mayo with all the produce. Neither are great but better than most of the other slop out there. But a carb is a carb, even a whole grain one.
I think you meant to respond to the original poster, not to me Zoe. 
Though, I can see how this relates to type one diabetes. Many of us will be stuck in a situation where we’ll have to resort to fast food and fast food chains aren’t always forthcoming about their nutritional information! Without the nutritional information I can’t dose accurately and risk a high blood sugar.
Oh I know. The Caesar is really dangerous in the restaurant world. I usually make my own at home. Otherwise it’s the garden salad for me!
You hit on one of the biggest misunderstandings about carbs, “a carb is a carb.” This idea spread around first by the medical community is dead wrong. As many T1Ds can attest to, not all carbs are the same, even those that have been calculated with the same weight and glycimic index. The carb is what it is and then you mix it, cook it, prepare it and it becomes another, having varying impacts on BG.
My biggest problem is with the nutritional information required by the FDA. A carb on a box of cereal from Kellogg, Post, Kashi a lot of other manufactures all impact BG in different ways, and the amount of protein and fat, the fiber, and the sugar are all so called educated guesses and do not have to meet any specific standard.
One great comparison of a carb not being a carb in a single food is comparing potatoes to carrots, the do not have the same Glycemic index and grow even further apart when you compare their glycemic load, or how fast they raise you BG.
But, that is what T1D is all about, experiment, test, trust, and find what works for you.
That is what I meant when I stated that the restaurants should be required to tell the truth about their prepared food.
- For restaurants to be held accountable for the food they serve, and for their contribution to the massive obesity epidemic. Perhaps this could be done by having some kind of limits on how many calories items can have, as a maximum ceiling, or maximum fat content allowed. Something like that. And controls for portion sizes. I know that people are ultimately responsible for their own choices, but in the same token as we control a lot of other things, perhaps this should happen, too… as restaurants abuse people’s ignorance, and make food addicting, and bad for your health, ON PURPOSE. Not just tell you how may calories things are. I also would like to have stricter controls on the amount of variation for calories reported, that is allowed. I don’t want my meal to have no frigging 20-30% more calories than the menu says!
- My worst “sin” is saturated fat, but as I am in a low carb diet, I don’t really consider it much of a sin.
- If I had to meet face to face with fast food people, I don’t know… I might turn into a Michael Moore type, or the guy who did “Super Size Me” and ask them why, oh why, have they gone hell bent on RUINING people’s well being? Why do they not care how they affect people, with their junk, and the burden on the health care system? And why, oh, why, does their food give me the runs. lol (Though I think it’s all that junky reused oil they use to cook their stuff in… Believe me, it’s reused… I used to work at BK when I was 17 – an eternity ago.) Mostly, if I ate anywhere, like Dave said, I would only eat at Taco Bell somewhat safely without dying from the indigestion and horrible lard they use. I might end up spray painting them, like PETA. lol I dunno. heh I get mad. hehe
I only have one thing. What’s with the diet??? There is more than diet coke and pepsi.
Yeah, I know what you mean… I know a lot of it is personal responsibility. I just see so much of it as enabling, though. Enabling bad health, bad habits, and aiding and abetting a ‘crime’ on our society’s health. I just consider a cap, though… a cap on servings, a cap on calorie count… (like a dish shouldn’t surpass so many calories, before it is extremely unhealthy), etc. I dunno… It’s just an idea, I guess… to avoid going to a place like P.F. Chang’s, and eating something you think it’s healthy, cus it looks healthy… cus it’s chicken and broccoli, or something, only to find out that the dish has 3,000 calories! So, the ridiculous levels is more what I mean when I mean control… NO dish should have 3,000 calories per serving! It’s insane.
Totally agree with your comment JT. It is not the fault of the restaurants’ - they just put it out there. It is up to the patrons to choose what and how much to consume. This is why I usually end up eating half a meal or requesting a small portion when I do go out. Though usually I just eat at home -way cheaper and much healthier.
No, no banned sugars… I just dont want to have a 3,000 calorie meal that seems normal lol but is not. heh
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I would love to see more variety and options for diet soda! I really don’t like diet coke/pepsi and it would be nice to even see diet sprite available. There’s just something about fast food and soda…they were meant to be! Considering the fact that most fast food chains make their money back with drinks, having more options wouldn’t hurt.
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Your worst sin is having not only delicious food, but food that SMELLS so darn good! Man, it hits me hard when I smell someone who brings in McD’s for lunch at work and I smell those fries! To avoid temptation at home I simply don’t buy anything really bad for me, but it’s quite tempting when it’s something I can’t avoid, like at work.
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Hmm…Only chain I really have a beef with is Panera Bread. Their foods are really good, and they advertise as being “healthy”. However, after half of a sandwich and a rinky-dink bag of their potato chips, five hours later my BG skyrocketed to over 500! Since then I’ve sworn Panera Bread off like it’s the devil’s bread for me
As to the comments suggesting that restaurants be held accountable for the obese “epidemic”, I disagree. They do offer menus with nutritional value (if they aren’t in stock, that’s the fault of the manager of that particular branch), and I can’t think of any meals off the top of my head that are advertised to not be fattening or not the best food of choice health-wise. If there is demand for the foods they sell, of course they’ll continue to do so. No one forces people to drive to McD’s, a buffet, or any other restaurant. I really don’t see the necessity of the government regulating our own caloric intake. There are a multitude of options out there for help losing weight, or managing your diet if you can’t do it on your own. Besides, every once in a great while it is nice to eat something decadent and delicious(yum yum lava cakes!), it just should not be an everyday habit. And that is the problem really, that some people have a difficult time NOT making it a daily habit for whatever reason.
Guys, the question was a hypothetical as to what we would want, in a little fantasy of sorts (i.e., NOT reality)… There’s no need to keep focusing on my desire to have people NOT serve food that they make look like it’s healthy, but in reality has 3,000 calories. (Read "Eat this, not that! and you will understand) lol Just play along in the exercise… Everyone is going to have things in here we don’t agree with… but don’t get hung up on them, and let’s move along.