Why Is Fast Food Bad - Articles - Zimbio

Fast Food German Style

Sun, 18 Aug 2008 13:30:00 GMT

posted by thatsme
"You know I like to complain about waiters and their poor service, but this is ridiculous! I wonder if they automated the banquet manager too". Read on...

Germany likes to call itself the "Land of Ideas" - and over the centuries it has certainly had plenty of them. It was Germans who invented the aspirin, the airship, the printing press and the diesel engine.

But Germany has surely never produced anything quite as weird as the automated restaurant.

I say "restaurant" - but it actually looks more like a rollercoaster, with long metal tracks criss-crossing the dining area.

The tracks run all the way from the kitchen, high up in the roof, down to the tables, twisting and turning as they go. And down the tracks - in little pots with wheels fixed to the bottom - speeds food.

Supersonic sausages, high-pace pancakes and wine bottles whizzing down to the customers' tables with the help of good old gravity. One pot is spiralling down so fast, it looks like an Olympic bobsleigh (but it's only Bratwurst).

What's more, at the Baggers restaurant in Nuremberg, you don't need waiters to order food. Customers use touch-screen TVs to browse the menu and choose their meal.

You can even use the computers to send e-mails and text messages while you wait for the food to be cooked. But all this may not appeal to those who like traditional waiter service.

Read entire article here and watch video.

WARNING: Is your “healthy lunch” slowly killing you?

Sun, 18 Feb 2008 22:24:00 GMT

posted by MealMixer

Lunches marketed as “healthy” are not always good for you. It’s amazing how the food industry can take leafy green salads, soups, and grilled chicken breasts, and turn them into fat/sodium/sugar laden killers. Is your “healthy lunch” on our list of imposters?

1. Frozen Low-Calorie Entrees

These may indeed be low-calorie and cheap (under $3), but they are high in sodium, heavily processed and not healthy. Lean Cuisine One Dish Favorites Stuffed Cabbage has 200 calories and 6 grams of fat, but contains 690 mg of sodium – 29% of the RDA. What does this mean? If you are on a 2,000 calorie diet, from this entree you are getting 29% of your sodium from just 10% of your calories. Hope you brought some water.

Excessive consumption of high sodium entrees can cause high blood pressure and lead to heart disease, America’s #1 cause of death. Instead of frozen entrees, try bringing in your leftovers from home. They taste great, and you know what ingredients are in them. Leftovers also help you save time and money since you’re eating what you already bought and cooked.

2. Salads

Did you know that a Wendy's Garden Sensations Mandarin Chicken Salad has more calories, more fat, and more carbs than a Wendy’s Double Hamburger? Salad – 520 calories, 25 grams fat, 48 grams carb; Hamurger – 470 calories, 24 grams fat, and 40 grams carb. If you skip the almonds and noodles you save 200 calories and 12 grams of fat. And of course you never use the whole package of dressing, right? One packet of Wendy's Oriental Sesame Dressing has 190 calories and 11 grams of fat.

The best choice is to make a salad at home. Use leafy greens and fresh produce, and top it off with a low-fat salad dressing or just a squeeze of lemon. It’s a safe bet to avoid fast food salads, if only to avoid the inevitable question of, “would you like fries with that?”

3. California Rolls

All sushi is not good for you, and California Rolls are a prime example. These white rice and imitation crabmeat stuffed rolls contain mostly fast-digesting carbohydrates and fat. They are quickly turned into sugar by the body, leaving you hungry 30 minutes later.

Simple carbohydrates like white rice cause sustained spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels which puts stress on the pancreas. Type 2 Diabetes can be prevented by choosing whole grains.

Looking for a healthier Japanese food choice? Start out with a broth based soup (it will curb hunger so you won’t overeat). Opt for sashimi rolls, and take it easy on the rice.

4. Yogurt

You might think that having a yogurt for lunch is a great way to get protein and calcium. That's true, but be careful which one you choose because it's also a great way to get high fructose corn syrup and chemicals like aspartame and food coloring.

For a healthy yogurt lunch, take plain, low-fat yogurt (preferably organic) and add your own fruit --you’ll actually get a full serving. If you’re not in the mood for a sweet treat, try adding chopped vegetables. Add a side of whole grain crackers, and you won’t think about food until dinnertime.

5. Energy Bars

A quick burst of energy for a marathon runner or a quick burst of sugar and fat for sitting at your desk? Energy bars were designed for endurance athletes. A long-winded meeting that runs through lunch does not qualify!

Energy bars are loaded with sugar and fat. Take a look at the first 10 ingredients of a Chocolate Peanut Butter Balance Bar with all the sugar and the palm kernel oil, which is twice as saturated as lard. Is it any surprise that this stuff is in small print?

Ingredients: Protein Blend (Casein, Whey Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Concentrate, Soy Protein Isolate), Sugar, Corn Syrup, Glycerin, Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil, Gelatin, Peanut Butter (Roasted Ground Peanuts), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Peanut Flour, High Maltose Corn Syrup

When you eat, the act of chewing tells your body that it’s being fed. A 1.76 oz bar takes about 60 seconds to eat, not long enough for your body to register that you’ve eaten – so you end up hungry and craving more sugar. Do yourself a favor and make a peanut butter sandwich with “no-sugar added” preserves on high fiber bread. You’ll be satisfied for hours.

6. Tuna Sandwich

Order a tuna salad sandwich and you may be getting more calories and twice the fat of a cheeseburger. Why? Tuna salad is loaded with mayonnaise. A 6-inch tuna sandwich from Subway has 31 grams of fat and 1030 grams of sodium. Jared walked right by this one, and you should, too.

Homemade tuna sandwiches can be OK. Here are some tips to improve them: choose canned light tuna in water. Avoid albacore tuna, as its usually a bigger fish, and bigger fish have had more time to absorb mercury. If you must have mayo with your tuna, cut it with plain non-fat yogurt. Always be sure to use whole grain bread, and chop in some celery or bell peppers for crunch.

7. Baked potato

So, your plan is to skip the salad and burger and get a baked potato instead? You'd better make a new plan if you're going to Arby's. Their broccoli and cheese topped potato has 460 calories, 23 grams of fat, and 12 of those fat grams are saturated. Angioplasty anyone?

Potatoes are our frenemies. Simply cooked and dressed with a minimum of fat and salt, and, in moderation, they can be a friendly occasional addition to your diet. Take that same potato and deep fat fry it and you're in enemy territory. A king sized order of fries from Burger King has 600 calories, 33 grams of fat, and 990 milligrams of sodium. Eat an order of fries once a week and that's not all that will be king sized.

If you're really in the mood for a potato, bake a sweet potato at home and top it with steamed broccoli. Or if you plan ahead, you can make sweet potatoes and broccoli for a dinner, and bring the leftover for lunch!

8. Canned Soup

Soup may be good food if you make it from scratch. However, canned soup can contain high levels of fats, sodium and artificial preservatives like MSG. One cup of Campbell’s Tomato Soup has 710 milligrams of sodium, and most people eat more than one cup. Anyone on the “chicken soup diet,” should really say they are on the “fast track to hypertension diet.”

If you look hard enough, and are willing to pay more, you can find soups that are low in sodium and decent in taste. Better yet, make your own using low-sodium broth and vegetables. It’s cheaper, tastier, and healthier, plus, depending on the soup you make, you can have more than a skimpy one-cup serving.

9. Meal Replacements

A shake for lunch is not a long-term solution for losing or maintaining weight. The main ingredients in a Slim Fast shake are fat-free milk, water, sugar, and canola oil. Of course, you're going to be hungry in a few hours, and if they've done their marketing correctly, you'll reach for the companion meal replacement bar! What's wrong with a meal anyhow?

If you absolutely need a liquid lunch (one that won’t get you arrested when you drive back to the office), try skim milk and a vitamin, or a low sodium vegetable juice, or make your own smoothie with non-fat yogurt and fresh fruit. The folks who make meal replacements care more about their bottom line than yours.

10. Nissin Cup Noodles with Shrimp

Let’s just call this hara-kiri in an environmentally unfriendly Styrofoam cup. Nissin Cup Noodles with Shrimp has 536 calories, 23.8 grams of fat, and 3220 grams of sodium. That’s 130% your daily value of sodium in one little “cup of noodles.” Plus they’re loaded with palm oil, palm kernel oil’s saturated sibling.

If you’re proud of yourself for bagging a 10-cent lunch, I hope you’re putting the money you saved into your health flexible savings account because you’re going to need it. This is not food, sorry. Pick any of the healthy suggestions above and enjoy!

In other News............ L.A. wants to ban some Fast Food Restaurants?

Mon, 22 Jul 2008 22:24:00 GMT

posted by ecgta3

Not only are they trying to cut down on the fast food restaurants already there, but the measure that a city councilwoman is proposing affects new fast-food restaurants that haven't opened, or may be planned to open. Fast-food restaurants would not be able to open in the area for up to two years, while the city establishes a long term plan to deal with the already present restaurants that are linked to health problems, and Mc Donnals you know they're all lookig at you. L.A. has the most fast food restaurants than in any other part of this country.

McDonald’s New Hugo Drink Size

Mon, 24 Jul 2007 12:18:42 GMT

posted by thebigfez

Way to go McDonald’s. In the wake of the Super-Size Me documentary, you drop your super-size menu (although you didn’t cite this is the cause, I think the movie had something to do with it). Now a few year’s later, you bring back super-sized drinks… and call them Hugo instead of Super Size.

Granted it isn’t your responsibility to govern how or what people choose to put into their bodies. As a corporate entity, it is a good financial move to supply a demand. But seriously, is a 42oz drink necessary? 410 calories? That’s almost 4 cans of soda. Well not really, you are going to stack it with ice. Charging 89 cents is just a total incentive for someone to buy it.

New York Times article (if password protected, visit bugmenot.com)

Quick, Fast and in a Hurry

Sun, 24 Mar 2008 01:22:00 GMT

posted by Denay

Everyone knows that I am a big advocate for teaching folks how to cook. Look, there aren't many things you have control over, young or old, but when given the opportunity you should attempt to have control over what goes in your stomach; since you are what you eat. I spent Easter Sunday with my daughter who is seriously interested in learning to cook. She said she wants to be a “good cook.” I think she now understands that anyone can throw water in a pot and boil an egg or spread butter, cinnamon and sugar on bread to make cinnamon toast, but not everyone can cook greens and cornbread from scratch or roast a bird.

I can’t really remember when folks stopped cooking like my grandma Lula Simpson who could make a possum sing; but I think it was somewhere around the early 1960s or a bit before. It was when Mr. Kentucky Fried, Mickey D’, and charbroiled burgers came into being. People were so impressed with getting what they wanted “quick” that the idea of waiting for food became a nuisance, a pain, throwing patience and pressure cookers aside. I say this, because as my daughter was cooking and growing hungrier by the minute, I saw what most folks felt back in the day, impatience and a strong desire to have the food "quick, fast and in a hurry."

Homemade, scratch, “dump” cooking has never been prepared “quick, fast and in a hurry.” Years ago, we did not live in a quick, fast and in a hurry type world. I wanted so badly to tell my daughter, what you want to do is just not in your genetic make-up. She was born to the “quick, fast and in a hurry” generation and trying to perform like the slow and easy tortoise who as we all know wins the race. Unfortunately my daughter was not really in the mood to hear this and just gave me a disturbing look that let me know that if that damn bird had to stay in the oven one more minute; or if that dressing was not ready to leap out of the oven onto her plate in the next 30 seconds, there would be trouble, serious trouble. Luckily the timer had four minutes on it and I just got up and headed to pull everything out of the oven, ready or not. Fortunately for the bird and the dressing they were both ready for lift-off.

It was strange as I watched my daughter cook and sat explaining what and why this or that had to be done, I never really paid much attention to how I worked my culinary magic. I just worked it. How did I know to add a pinch of this or another egg to the dressing to get just the right consistency? It was all due to experience; and I reminded myself and my daughter that the only way you become a good cook is by doing. There are books, classes, television programs and online lessons; nothing replaces good old fashion practice; or should I say that four letter word, WORK! Anyone, everyone becomes a good cook by working at it, plain and simple.

For those who were wondering what we had for dinner, the menu included:

Homemade Yeast Rolls
Roasted Cornish Hens
Collard-Cabbage Green (a hybrid cross between collards and cabbage common in North Carolina)
Cornbread Dressing
Cranberry Sauce
Southern Pecan Pie

My daughter was so proud of her accomplishments (and she had a right to be) she photographed everything and put it up on her social networking page to taunt her friends and other family members; and I am certain that this will not be the last homemade meal she will prepare. If given the opportunity I will attempt to put photos of her delicious delicacies on my blog for all to see.

Everyone knows I do not end a blog without a recipe unless I am running out of time. I am sharing my favorite Southern Pecan Pie recipe. Let me first tell you though, I use only Ronald Reginald Melipone Mexican Vanilla, it is my signature vanilla and makes all the difference in anything you bake or cook that calls for vanilla. If you use another brand and don’t like the pie, shame on you.

Southern Pecan Pie
Serves 6-8

1 9-inch pie shell

¾ cup sugar
¾ cup dark corn syrup
3 eggs, (large) beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (Ronald Reginald Melipone Mexican Vanilla)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F

In a large bowl, combine sugar, corn syrup, eggs, vanilla, salt and mix with electric mixer until opaque, about 5 minutes. Stir in pecans and pour into pie shell.

Bake in preheated oven 45 minutes. Check after 30 minutes, if crust is browning too fast cover with aluminum foil. When the pie is done, it may be a bit loose* in the center, but will set as it cools; do not over-bake.

*When I say loose in the middle, the pie should not still be liquid, just a bit loose, it will firm up as it cools.

Refrigerate any leftovers and serve at room temperature or warm.