THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503220025
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: SPECIAL NUTRITION SERIES
PART 4: FAST FOOD
SOURCE: BY PAT DOOLEY, FLAVOR EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 373 lines
JUST ABOUT every Saturday night, the Leahey family of Norfolk piles into the van and heads to a nearby fast-food restaurant.
The chosen fare might be burgers and fries, or it might be pizza. But the plan for Marcia and Don Leahey and their sons - Sean, 14, and Donnie, 9 - is always the same: to break the pace of a hectic week, and to give Mom a night off from cooking.
``And, sometimes we just like a burger and fries,'' says Marcia Leahey, a part-time bank teller who works three or four days a week.
Husband Don, a salesman, often works 10-hour days. Their sons are always on the go - attending school, meeting friends and playing sports, Marcia Leahey says.
``I know there's not much nutrition in fast food,'' she says. ``But sometimes you just get so busy.'' The Leaheys are not alone.
Nationwide, we eat 25 percent of our meals away from home, The American Dietetic Association reports. That's about five meals a week. Nearly half of those are fast foods, and about half of those are purchased at drive-through windows.
We eat 8 percent of our meals in cars.
``People . . . have to deal with conflicting schedules and need to find quick meals they don't have to prepare,'' the dietetic association reports.
In Hampton Roads, 89 percent of residents say they ``grab a quick meal'' about eight times a month, according to a 1992 study by Urban & Associates, of Sharon, Mass.
That's a lot of fast food.
Which can translate into mounds of fat, cholesterol, sodium and calories, if we aren't paying attention. And those aren't the nutrients health professionals recommend.
Even a plain burger, small fries and medium soft drink - among the lower-fat fast-food meals - can weigh in at about 700 calories, 19 grams fat (about 170 fat calories) and more than 700 milligrams sodium.
Dietary experts recommend the average 150-pound person eat about 2,000 calories daily, with no more than 65 grams fat and 2,400 milligrams sodium. (To estimate calories from fat, multiply the number of grams by 9; each fat gram contains 9 calories.)
Many specialty sandwiches, side orders and breakfast items can take an unsuspecting diner well beyond the limits.
In their ``Fast Food Guide'' (Workman, 1992), co-authors Sarah Fritschner and Michael Jacobson assess the nutritional values of fast foods from more than 20 limited-menu restaurants.
In one example, they calculate ``just for fun, what a meal consisting of the Double Whopper With Cheese, medium fries, a large strawberry shake, and apple pie would add up to.''
The totals: 2,187 calories, 25 teaspoons fat, 22 teaspoons sugar and more than a teaspoon salt.
But the nutrition-conscious can take (or save) heart.
``It's possible to eat fast food in a healthy way,'' says Fritschner, in an interview. A nutritionist, she also is food editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal.
In the January/February issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter, for example, the Center for Science in the Public Interest pick ``the best and worst citizens of Fast Food Land.''
The consumer-advocacy group, headed by author Jacobson, assigns the title ``Worst Burger'' to the Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger from Carl's Jr., a small Southwestern-U.S. chain. The burger weighs in at 1,030 calories, 63 grams fat and 1,810 milligrams sodium.
Other buns down go to: McDonald's Quarter Pounder With Cheese (520 calories, 29 grams fat, 1,160 milligrams sodium); Burger King's Whopper (630 calories, 39 grams fat, 850 milligrams sodium); Jack in the Box's Colossus Burger (940 calories, 60 grams fat, 1,670 milligrams sodium); and Burger King's Double Whopper With Cheese (950 calories, 63 grams fat, 1,340 milligrams sodium).
The group also picks ``Worst Bites'' among chicken and turkey sandwiches; rotisserie and fried chicken; roast beef sandwiches; fish sandwiches; nuggets and fries; baked potatoes; main-dish salads; and shakes (for data, see Page F1).
But buns up go to regular hamburgers from McDonald's, Wendy's, Hardee's, Roy Rogers, Burger King and Jack in the Box. All weigh in at 260 to 280 calories, 9 to 11 grams fat, and 460 to 600 milligrams sodium.
Rated ``Best Bite'' among burgers is the McLean Deluxe from McDonald's. ``You cold eat five of 'em and still get less fat than you'd get from one Burger King Double Whopper With Cheese,'' reports the article by CSPI senior nutritionist Jayne Hurley and editor-in-chief Stephen Schmidt.
Among other wise choices from some limited-service restaurants in Hampton Roads: McDonald's McGrilled Chicken Classic; Chick-fil-A Grilled n' Lites; McDonald's Chunky Chicken Salad (with 4 tablespoons light vinaigrette); Arby's Light Roast Beef Deluxe; and Hardee's Regular Roast Beef (see Page F1).
``People have an old perception that fast food is not particularly healthy, but that's not true,'' says Lynn Deaner, spokeswoman for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association in Richmond, an affiliate of the National Restaurant Association.
Deaner says the $70-billion-a-year industry built on burgers, fries and shakes not only has diversified, but also has responded, at least in part, to consumer demand for more healthful fare.
Nutritionists agree that every fast-food restaurant offers something healthful, from grilled chicken sandwiches, chili and fresh salads to plain baked potatoes, rotisserie chicken (without the skin), carrot sticks and even some cooked vegetables.
It wasn't always that way.
``When Ray Kroc opened the doors to that first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Ill., in 1955, he opened a whole new world for busy parents, fussy eaters and people who just plain did not like to cook,'' Jacobson and Fritschner write in ``Fast Food Guide.''
They trace America's ``love affair with the french fry'' to those early days of fast food.
In the 1930s and '40s, family dinner was something of a constant. Mom stayed home with the kids, and cooked. Fare typically consisted of a meat, starch, vegetable and dessert. When Dad returned from work, the family gathered for a hot, balanced meal.
Dining out was reserved for special occasions or family road trips. Then, the occasional highway eatery serving up burgers, hot dogs and french fries was a quick, inexpensive respite from a day's drive, says Harvey Levenstein in ``Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America'' (Oxford University Press, 1993).
Among the first quick-serve restaurants, Levenstein says, were White Tower, White Castle, Horn and Hardardt, Burger Chef (later Burger King), and the McDonald brothers' California operation (later purchased by Ray Kroc).
But America's ``reputation for eating quickly stretched back to the early days of the republic,'' Levenstein says, when self-service restaurants dubbed ``smash-and-grab places'' served speedy lunches to white-collar workers.
In the 1950s, as more women entered the work force, the restaurants popped up in suburbs, using assembly-line techniques and the promise of hot food fast.
Among the founding fathers of fast food was Col. Harland Sanders, the white-haired Southern gentleman famous for launching Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC). ``The colonel put out his first franchise to Pete Harman in Salt Lake City in 1952,'' according to KFC literature.
In 1954, says historian Levenstein, ``Kroc made his famous deal with the McDonald brothers to franchise the system they had pioneered in California.''
Kroc, Sanders and the other fast-food leaders ``made their bundles by following the baby boomers as they progressed through childhood and adolescence.''
Early eateries discouraged teens from loitering by offering only window service, historians say.
In the late '60s, Burger King added tables; McDonald's followed. Still, the hard laminated seats didn't invite customers to linger, Levenstein notes.
But as boomers grew, fast food evolved.
By the '70s, restaurants had taken on the popular fern-bar look. ``Seats were made softer and the tables enlarged,'' Levenstein says. ``New, lighter entrees such as fish were introduced, and salads and salad bars began to appear.''
Wendy's, founded by R. David Thomas in 1969, was the first to offer salad bars - a healthful innovation - 10 years later. Wendy's also introduced baked potatoes (1983) and a grilled chicken sandwich (1990), according to press material.
Author Fritschner credits ``Fast Food Guide,'' first printed in 1986, with helping shake the fat from fast-food menus.
The guide, subtitled ``What's Good, What's Bad and How to Tell the Difference,'' includes nutrition charts, ingredients lists, tips for ordering, and a ``Gloom Index'' rating system.
More and more, Fritschner says, ``we're ordering food we know is good for us, and we're demanding choices.''
Still, some experts say, when it comes to healthy fast food, there's more than a Biggie Cola between what we say we'll eat and what we order.
Lynn Deaner, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association in Richmond, says a 1994 National Restaurant Association survey shows that eight in 10 Americans think good nutrition will prevent serious illness. But fewer than half of us order healthy foods. ``A lot of us still have the idea we are treating ourselves by ordering what tastes good,'' Deaner says.
Our favorites when dining out: hamburgers, pizza, chicken, Mexican and Chinese.
Senior citizens and baby boomers are more conscious of healthful options, Deaner says, while Generation X, the 41 million Americans age 18 to 29, want value.
``A lot of times, that leads them to fast-food restaurants offering combo meals,'' where they're most likely to order cheeseburgers, fried chicken, ham and cheese sandwiches, sub sandwiches, burritos and tacos, Deaner says.
Industry experts say Taco Bell, the largest quick-style Mexican restaurant chain, lead the way for ``value pricing'' in 1988. The restaurants, founded in 1962 by Glen Bell in Downey, Calif., reduced six menu items to 59 cents and offered free drink refills.
Recently, Taco Bell launched a ``Border Lights'' line - eight regular menu items with half the fat and 20 percent fewer calories - including tacos, burritos and a taco salad. The items are scheduled to be in all outlets by May.
The ``Lights'' earns praise from consumer advocate Jacobson. ``They are setting a standard for healthier fast food that should have a ripple effect throughout the industry,'' he says in a news release.
``Food Guide'' co-author Fritschner says, ``It's about time.'' She calls Taco Bell's original taco salad ``a travesty.''
The salad, named a Worst Bite in Nutrition Healthletter's recent roundup, packs 838 calories, 55 grams fat and 1,132 milligrams sodium. The Lights version has 680 calories and 25 grams fat, but is higher in sodium, at 1,400 milligrams.
Other fast food eateries, too, have made changes for the better in recent years. Most, for example, fry foods in vegetable oil instead of beef tallow. Many serve salads.
Industry experts say McDonald's - the largest fast-food restaurant with more than 11,000 outlets in 76 countries - has been among the most responsive to customer demand for healthier fare.
Jane Hulbert, a company spokeswoman, says McDonald's introduced salads, fortified buns and reduced-salt pickles in 1986.
In 1991, the chain switched to vegetable oil to cook its french fries and hash browns; converted from 2 percent milk to 1 percent; replaced cheese with carrots on its salads; and introduced the McLean Deluxe.
The ``Best Bite'' Chicken Classic was introduced last year.
In 1973, McDonald's posted nutrition information at each restaurant, though Arby's was the first to disclose ingredients, say Jacobson and Fritschner.
Now it's possible to obtain nutritional data on most any fast food. If you don't see it, ask.
Then, ``order food that's good for you,'' Fritschner says. ``You can do that.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color illustration]
SAM HUNDLEY/Staff
``Fast Food Guide'' assesses nutritional values of many fast foods.
THE TOP 10
Here are the top 10 fast food restaurants, 1990 sales, and
outlets worldwide as of 1991. The list includes limited-service
restaurants that offer table service and those that don't, separate
categories in the industry.
1. McDonald's ($18.8 billion; 11,803 outlets)
2. Burger King ($6.1 billion; 6,298)
3. KFC ($5.8 billion; 8,187)
4. Pizza Hut ($4.8 billion; 8,000)
5. Hardee's ($3.4 billion; 4,010)
6. Wendy's ($2.9 billion; 3,721)
7. Domino's Pizza ($2.7 billion; 5,376)
8. Taco Bell ($2.5 billion; 3,277)
9. Dairy Queen ($2.3 billion; 5,207)
10. Arby's ($1.5 billion; 2,490)
Sources: ``Fast Food Guide'' by Michael Jacobson and Sarah
Fritschner, and Restaurant Business magazine (March 20, 1991).
FAST-FOOD BITES
Nearly 2 million Whoppers are sold each day at 7,600 Burger Kings
in 57 countries.
Burger King says there are 1,024 ways to order a Whopper. The
Vegetable Whopper With Cheese has 260 calories, 21 grams fat and
1,230 milligrams sodium.
McDonald's waits on 20 million people in the U.S. daily.
November 1969: In Columbus, Ohio, R. David Thomas named his first
restaurant after daughter Melinda Lou, nicknamed ``Wendy.''
Wendy's popular ``Where's the Beef'' ad campaign, starring senior
citizen Clara Peller, debuted in 1984.
Col. Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, was said
to eat fried chicken every day of his life. When he died in 1980, he
was 90.
In 1993, KFC sold 11 pieces of chicken for every person in the
U.S.
Sources: KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell, McDonald's and ``Fast Food
Guide'' by Michael Jacobson and Sarah Fritschner.
THE BEST & WORST FAST FOOD
Single hamburgers from McDonald's, Wendy's, Hardee's, Burger King
and some other fast-food eateries are among the most healthful
offerings.
The burgers - without cheese or mayo - contain about 260 to 270
calories, with 9 to 10 grams of fat and 460 to 600 milligrams of
sodium.
The figures are based on ratings from Nutrition Action
Healthletter (January/February, 1995); American Health magazine
(March 1995), and Environmental Nutrition newsletter (February
1995).
Here's a look at some of the best, and the worst, based on the
above publications and information provided by the restaurants:
BUNS UP
McDonald's McLean Deluxe:
calories: 340
(fat grams): 12
(sodium): 810
McDonald's McGrilled Chicken Classic:
(calories): 250
(fat grams): 3
(sodium): 510 mg
Chick-fil-A Grilled n' Lites:
(calories): 97
(fat grams): 2
(sodium): 280
McDonald's Chunky Chicken Salad (with 4 tablespoons light
vinaigrette):
(calories): 210
(fat grams): 7
(sodium): 560 mg.
KFC Rotisserie Gold Quarter Breast (without wing or skin):
(calories): 199
(fat grams): 6
(sodium): 667 mg.
Arby's Light Roast Beef Deluxe:
(calories): 294
(fat grams): 10
(sodium): 826 mg.
Hardee's Regular Roast Beef:
(calories): 270
(fat grams): 11
(sodium): 780 mg.
Burger King Boiled Chicken Salad (with 2 tablespoons light
Italian dressing):
(calories): 215
(fat grams): 11
(sodium): 160
Wendy's Plain Baked Potato:
(calories): 300
(fat grams): 1
(sodium):
Wendy's Large Chili:
(calories): 290
(fat grams): 9
(sodium): 28
Taco Bell Fiesta Bean Burrito with Red Sauce:
(calories): 226
(fat grams): 9
(sodium):
Wendy's Grilled Chicken Sandwich:
calories: 290
fat grams: 7
sodium: 720 mg.
KFC Barbecue Baked Beans
Calories: 132
fat grams: 2
sodium: 535 mg.
BUNS DOWN
McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese
calories: 520
fat grams: 29
sodium: 1,160
Burger King Whopper
calories: 630
fat grams: 39
sodium: 850
Burger King Double Whopper with Cheese
calories: 950
fat grams: 63
sodium: 1,340 mg.
Taco Bell Taco Salad
calories: 838
fat grams: 55
sodium: 1,132 mg.
Arby's Deluxe Baked Potato
calories: 621
fat grams: 36
sodium: 605 mg
Arby's Polar Swirl
calories: 502
fat grams: 21
sodium: 384 mg.
Burger King Chicken Sandwich
calories: 700
fat grams: 43
sodium: 1,400
Arby's Bac `n' Cheddar Deluxe
calories: 512
fat grams: 32
sodium: 1,094
by CNB