"Eat Right When Time's Tight"

“Eat Right When Time’s Tight” is a tagline myself and fellow interns Chris, Sarah, and Stephanie thought might catch attention in our Food Service Worker newsletter at the hospital last month.

When choosing a topic, we wanted something realistic.  We noticed that our co-workers in the hospital kitchen choose to save the veggies for their patients.  Most workers sip on sodas and prefer KFC and McDonalds as a snack.  Instead of trying to fight them and intervene on avoiding fast food, we decided do some research on making better choices at these restaurants. 

We took our research very seriously and even got a “double down” sandwich from KFC.  If you are unfamiliar, I’ll let the KFC advertisers explain it to you:

 This one-of-a-kind sandwich features two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey  Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel's Sauce.  This product is so meaty, there's no room for a bun!




*Sarah bravely tries the double down in this picture:  "salty!"

 

We wanted to weigh it to be sure that the listed serving size was true because  we noticed when analyzing nutrients was that many of the servings on restaurant websites are listed in grams.  For example, the double down is 248 grams.  We found this to be an unrealistic measure to list for consumers, as most of the population doesn’t work with food in gram amounts.  Nutrition information can be more confusing that it already is if the chart complicates information with grams. 

Here is part of our article.  I think it’s important to understand that no matter where you are eating, it’s your own decision to eat healthier…..or not:

Taco Bell

Volcano Beef Burrito:  780 calories  41 grams fat (about 3.5 tablespoons fat)

Fresco Style Beef Burrito:  370 calories  11 grams fat (about 1 tablespoon fat)

Subway

Chicken Bacon Ranch (Footlong): 1140 calories 58 grams fat (almost 5 tablespoons fat)

Oven Roasted Chicken (Footlong): 640 calories 10 grams fat (less than 1 tablespoon fat)

KFC

Double Down Sandwich: 610 calories 37 grams fat (over 3 tablespoons fat)

Original Recipe Chicken Breast: 360 calories 21 grams fat (just under 2 tablespoons fat)

McDonalds

Large Fry 500 calories  25 grams fat (over 2 tablespoons of fat)

Small Fry  230 calories 11 grams fat (about 1 tablespoon of fat)

These are just a few choices you can make. Many fast food menus have items that are described as “fresh,” “light,” “small,” and “grilled.” Choosing these over time can have a big impact on how you feel. Next time you’re on the run, take a look at the menu and see if you can choose right when time’s tight!