Overall, what is the best and worst of fast food? If your only choice was fast food, could you lead a healthly lifestyle eating just a diet of fast food and also have a varied diet?
Best and worst is relative, of course. The “best” fast food won’t rival a veggie salad for nutritional content.
Health and fitness magazines occasionally release guides on eating healthily on fast food. Generally, sandwiches with chicken or fish instead of beef are recommended, unless the fish or chicken is deep fried. The Filet O’ Fish sandwich at McD’s, for example, is pretty bad for you, but ironically, in my experience, most of the people who order it do so under the impression it’s better for them than a beef sandwich. Sandwiches with cream or cheese sauces, bacon, or mayo are also not recommended. You can also forget about french fries and most side dishes.
At nonburger places, food items with vegetables or fruit or meat substitute are the best choices. This includes vegetarian pizza or sandwiches and soy-based patties. Anything not fried is also good-- items that are baked or steamed make for better choices.
Water, fruit, and diet drinks are better than sodas.
It’s doubtful you could be healthy on that kind of diet. You would be consuming some fruit and vegetables, but not nearly enough. Variety is iffy. Even if you count takeout Chinese or other food court cuisines, a lot of fast food comes between two slices of bread. That can get stale pretty quickly.
I don’t care if it’s sold by Soulless Multinational Unhealthy Foods Inc., when you’re dealing with non-fried, steamed soy and vegetable products, it’s not fast food.
Subway, a rather large deli-type sandwich company, likes to advertize that it’s possible to eat healthy with them. Unless I’m missing something, it’s probably true. A lean-meat-and-cheese sandwich with enough vegetables is fairly balanced, no?
Clay Henry,Clay Henry
The fine print on the subway ad reads 6 in.sandwich,with turkey and veggies,which in their case seems to be tomatoes,iceberg lattuce and onions,no mention of any oils,mayo or dressing.
While eating a sandwich of this type is certainly healthier than any other (ignoring a possible listeria scare) I’ve seen on a fast food menu,it’s got to be pretty tasteless,and probably has no more nutrition than a big mac,tomatoes being the only item (besides the meat and bread) with any nutritional value.
Since the key is to balance your food groups you would have to have a source of food that represents the same proportions of each food group in the food pyramid.
So, lots of cereals, a few less fruits and vegies, a slice of meat and scrape of butter.
Sounds like a ham or egg and salad sandwich*. Yum. Must be the closest thing to healthy fast food.
*btw Not like a New York ham and salad sandwich, but one with lots of salad - just after arriving in NY recently my wife and I asked for a ham and salad sandwiches in a cafe. We got a big stack of ham (10 cm - I kid you not) and one peice of lettuce - we were laughing so much we couldnt eat.
Well I would think that that’s obvious. You can just as easily ruin the healthiness of a salad by drenching it in oil, mayonnaise, and dressing.
I don’t think that Subway stuff is terribly healthy, but it’s probably as good as the average stuff you get yourself. My favorite sandwich is a 12-inch ham and cheese. According to their website, that’s 660 Calories, with the percent of Calories from Fat, Carbohydrates, and Protein being 22, 54, and 24, respectively. For a McDonald’s cheeseburger, the numbers are (330, 38, 44, 18). For a Big Mac, they’re (590, 52, 32, 16). I don’t know what’s considered balanced nowadays, I guess.
I don’t think the OP is asking “Is fast food healthy in general?” but rather “Is it possible for fast food to be healthy?”