There’s a lot of reasons why people indulge in fast food, and we’re all guilty of them at some point: convenience, laziness, a combination of the two. Especially at this time of year when a lot of students are too preoccupied with exams and essays to do groceries or prepare a meal. But just because you’re making a trip to the food court or Wellington Rd. shouldn’t mean that you have to feel guilty about what you’re ordering. Or does it? We here at the Ontarion decided to take one for the team. We went to six popular fast food chains and checked out the nutrition info, picking out what we felt was the best option for the health conscious.
In light of our findings, you may want to turn the page and check out some of our suggestions for how you can make slightly more delicious and way more nutritious fast food items in your very own home.
KFC
No one goes to KFC for a nutritious meal. Even the restaurant itself seems to know this. While at one point the chain made some effort to offer healthier options– salads, grilled chicken– that’s all in the past. These days the only salads they sell are potato or macaroni and there isn’t a lot of variance from the Colonel’s original recipe.
With no clear lower fat or lower calorie menu available, I just went for whatever was smallest. A single Colonel’s Snacker. A little smaller than a fist, the Snacker is not enough food to fill up a toddler, yet still manages to come in with a terrifying 260 calories and 11 grams of fat. It’s just a single chicken finger, a handful of limp lettuce, and about a quarter cup of White Condiment. I’m reluctant to call it mayonnaise. Nothing anywhere will tell me what it is. It wasn’t good, and there was a lot of it. The chicken itself already had a layer of cold grease on it, so I don’t think it really needed any more lubrication, but I guess when you’re dealing with food in the loosest definition, anything that helps it slide down my gullet easier is probably a great help.
Half of the bun, which was soggy with White Condiment, went in the trash. Half of the lettuce went on the pavement between the restaurant and the trash. The chicken went in an ever growing list of poor food decisions I have made.
Taste: 1/5
Presentation: 1/5
Nutritional value: 0/5
McDonalds at its best
Sasha Odesse
Unbeknownst to most of us, the best thing for you on McDonalds menu is actually a hamburger. One bun, one beef patty, no condiments, no cheese. Sitting at 250 calories, these little babies won’t tip the scale. Swallowing it however, is another matter entirely. With no condiments and no cheese, the burger is rather bland and extremely dry. So dry that you might need that second cheeseburger with everything on it to chase it down. Of course, fountain pop will do the trick as well, but that small coke will equate to another 150 calories and roughly 10 teaspoons of sugar. Despite being a relatively healthy alternative to some of McDonald’s scarier meal options, the plain burger has 520 mg of sodium, accounting for almost a quarter of your daily intake of sodium, which Health Canada recommends does not exceed 2300 mg.
Surprisingly the six –piece chicken Mcnuggets beats out another goodie, the Southwest salad with grilled chicken. The nuggets will only knock you back 280 calories and 600 mg of Sodium, but adding sweet and sour dipping sauce adds an extra 50 calories and an extra 150 mg of sodium.
Taste: 1.5/5
Nutrition: 2/5
Presentation: 1/5
What’s in a sub? What Quiznos doesn’t want you to know
Beth Purdon-McLellan
Quiznos likes to present itself as a fresher and heartier version of Subway. However, that doesn’t necessarily make it healthier. With Quiznos, it’s all about the portion size. Although most of the menu items are “sandwiches”, portion sizing and dressings can make these meals both high in calories and trans fats. Dressings can have anywhere from 90-200 calories per serving, and for sauces with a mayonnaise base, almost all of these are from fats. They have a handful of subs that they market for being under 500 calories for a small sub and are all pretty similar in terms of nutrition. We went with the Turkey Ranch and Swiss.
The nice thing about Quiznos is that you can substitute unhealthy elements with light dressings. You can also add some veggie toppings for a serving of vegetables. However, because a lot of the subs contain processed lunchmeat, they are often extremely high in sodium. The Turkey Swiss alone has 1100 mg of sodium, along with 16.5 g of fat, and 395 calories. So although Quiznos is potentially a healthier option for fast food, students should be conscious that it’s not always as healthy as they would like you to believe.
Taste: 4/5
Nutrition: 3.5/5
Presentation: 4/5
Taco Bell
A few years ago, Taco Bell started offering it’s “Fresco” menu. It took a handful of menu items and replaced various ingredients of negligible health benefit– most commonly iceberg lettuce and shredded cheese– and replaced them with their “fiesta salsa,” which is a pretty close approximation of pico de gallo: a mix of tomatoes, onions, and cilantro which tastes shockingly like water. The change was promoted as a reduction in calories to their menu, which it is, although in some cases only by a mere 20 calories. The fine print still points out that what they were selling was “not a low calorie food.” And it isn’t, but as far as convenient, cheap fast food goes, Taco Bell hasn’t done half bad.
The “Fresco” beef hard taco” is the lowest in both calories and sodium on the Taco Bell menu. The “Fresco” steak soft taco is a bigger difference between the regular version and the calorie reduced version, but still a little on the high side.
With only 150 calories, 7 g of fat and 260 mg of sodium, I didn’t feel too bad about knocking two of them back. They were ugly, as all fast food is, but they tasted fine. Better than non-“Fresco” menu Taco Bell. I switched out the cheese with my nachos for more of the salsa as well, which was also an improvement.
Taste 3/5
Presentation 2/5
Nutrition 3.5/5
Tim Hortons
While oftentimes we associate Tim Hortons with an image of home-style nourishment, this notion proves to be quite the idealization when the examining the nutritional information. Where Tim’s falls short is not in their offering lower calorie alternatives to their regular menu, but in the lack of health value in these options. Turns out they really aren’t kidding when “lighter” menu promotions, looking at these items more closely reveals that the reason for their attractive calorie count is simply due to a lack of substance. For instance, the item considered one of the healthiest is currently the BBQ chicken snack wrapper. The reason for this is due mostly to its size. At closer look one would see that it has on average half the serving size as a Tim’s sandwich, yet the calorie count does not even hit half, so already the sandwich is technically lower. Personally, this could have been excusable had the taste not have been similar to what I imagine it would be like to eat a copy of the Ontarion. Another example of a “lighter” menu option suggested for the health-conscious costumer is the clear-based soups such as Hearty Vegetable (equivalent calorie count to ¼ of a Tim’s peanut butter cookie). At closer look, however, we see the sodium value of 930 mg, making it difficult to not exceed a daily 1500mg, as recommended by Health Canada.
Taste 1/5
Nutrition 2/5
Presentation 2/5
Wendy’s
The healthiest menu items Wendy’s has to offer are hardly anything you’d want to get close to a Frosty. Granted, dipping them in a cup of that glacial chocolate sludge (mmm…delicious sludge) would offer just about your only hope for some flavour to make its way onto the Junior Deluxe Burger and a side portion of the garden salad, but think about the ice cream!
Technically speaking, the Junior Deluxe Burger isn’t the healthiest menu choice available at Wendy’s. A meal-size portion of the garden salad wins that competition, and a five-piece order of chicken nuggets takes a close second. But Wendy’s chicken nuggets are cooked in soy, and when I reach for fast food, I’m going to get some kind of meat – however loosely the restaurant interprets that word.
In terms of flavour, I’m sure this burger could rank amongst prison food, and even after shoveling down the desert of a garden salad that Wendy’s offers, you will still be hungry.
When collecting your plastic utensils before grabbing your seat, be sure to grab a knife so as to properly battle the dehydrated tomato chunks. Also, biting the bullet and adding at least half a packet of Italian dressing to the salad is recommended if you wish to even remotely enjoy your eating experience.
Taste 1/5
Presentation 2.5/5
Nutrition: 3.5/5
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