How long until healthy food becomes as widely accessible as fast-food?

Great Debates
1

Let me just start by saying I’m not a dietician or any type of health expert. I don’t even know that much about what’s in food. I am however healthy and in shape, and can pick out what’s good and what’s crap.

In my opinion, the fast-food market is saturated with just terrible food that does no good for any of us and makes us fat. Mcdonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, the list goes on and on. Sure, it’s cheap and convenient, but in no way is it good in the long run. Un-healthy living and eating only leads to a lower quality of life for all of us. The staple of fast-food, the burger, doesn’t have to be such crap either. Higher quality meat and better preparation can make for a somewhat healthy meal even with fries and a drink.

I know the reason why things are the way they are on the surface; money. It’s easier, cheaper, faster, all of the above. I’m just wondering when we are going to see a change in our fast-food industry.

One alternative stands out in my mind - Subway. Subway makes fresh sandwiches, in an efficient manner and they are actually HEALTHY In todays day and age, when a large portion of the population are overweight and know why (crap/fast food), why hasn’t there been business capitalizing on a market like this? I understand that fresh food is a bit more expensive, and that’s why Subways are priced higher a bit and close down earlier, but is it that unfeasible economically? What makes Subway different?

I believe the beginnings are occurring now. Take for instance the continued success of subway and the emergence of Panera Bread. Not all of Panera is very healthy, but I believe it’s a step in the right direction towards more fresh and less fried. And, organizations like McDonald’s are offering healthy alternatives in their salads and sandwiches. Even KFC is adding to their style in the new Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

I’m just wondering when, or if, we’ll get restaurant level food when it’s really only fast-food. What has to happen for this type of change? What will be the major roadblocks? I just ask this because I wonder if I’ll get to see something like this in my lifetime.

2

**How long until healthy food becomes as widely accessible as fast-food? **

When a way is found to make healthy food as cheap and as tasty.

3

Basically, heavy salting and frying are ways to disguise poor quality meat. Those are the two things that make fast food so unhealthy; take them away, the cheap meat would taste bad and wouldn’t sell.

4

When will healthy food become as popular as fast food? When it starts tasting good.

What makes subway different is a double quarter pounder loaded down with cheese, or a baconator with all that delicious bacon, or a big bucket of greasy fried chicken just taste so much better then a boring healthy sub.

The price doesn’t hurt either, of course - as you said subway is generally more expensive. However, I think the majority of it just comes down to taste.

5

Hmm, is fast food really cheaper over there? Over here you can probably afford a few meals of healthier food for the cost of a burger meal. The thing is that you have to buy raw ingredients and prepare it yourself.

6

Probably won’t happen until the majority of people’s tastes and habits change. In other words, probably never.

7

Over here (Netehrlands) fast food is definiately cheaper than healthier alternatives. i must say that price is a big reason, especially if I think back to my highschool days (not so long ago:)) where a couple of bucks more or less were totally taken into account.

8

Not in my lifetime.

One of the big problems though is that we don’t really agree on healthy…Subway is ‘healthier’ - but I wouldn’t let my kids eat it more than once a week. Particularly how they choose to eat it (white bread, mayo). I can get the same level of “health food” with a McDonalds grilled sandwich or salad. I love Chipoltle - one of the “healthier” fast food options (and one of the pricier) but its loaded with salt and the portion sizes are by no means healthy. Its also white rice - high glycemic index, little nutritional content.

9

So what does an average fast food meal cost over there?

10

I have been eating pretty healthy diet for a while now. A friend gave me her top secret tip for how to do it:

“You know how you can read those labels on food packets that tell you the fat and calorie content?”

“Yeah.”

“Well put the bloody thing down and start buying solids that don’t have labels - vegetables, fruit, meat and fish.”

11

Everyone here realizes that Subway sells lots of ‘less than healthy’ (I dislike that phrase) sandwiches, such as Meatball Marinara or Philly Cheesestake or Chicken & Bacon Ranch etc., right? Besides, you can get cheese and ‘full-flavored’ dressings with any sandwich anyway.
It’d be interesting to know if these sandwiches outsell the ‘Jared’s Menu’ ones, and if so by what ratio (I’m sure Subway knows that internally, but is it public knowledge)
I just wish Subway bread would taste as good as it smells…

12

Is this actually true? Sure, overeating at such places will make you fat, but what about responsible eating?

13

Depends who you ask. To some, there is no “responsible” eating at these places. The vast majority of the items on the menus at these places are extremely calorically dense, so one would not get the same level of satiety from these foods as one might from other less-processed foods. Satiety wouldn’t be the only factor lacking. There would also be a lack of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and I’m sure your macronutrient ratios would be all out of whack.

I’m not talking about the occasional burger (say, one every two weeks or so), I’m talking about habitually eating these foods (on the order of once a day for lunch or something like that).

14

“Tastes good” is a subjective term, lots of people prefer the taste of healthy food prepared from fresh ingredients.

However, if I may recommend a book in which I have no financial interest, “The End of Overeating” by David Kessler makes some excellent points, at least in the first two thirds of the book.

One point is that certain proportions of fat, salt and sugar* can be super-palatable - that is, once you have some, it is almost impossible to put down until you are completely stuffed or until it is gone. The archetype of this model is “no-one can eat just one” Lay’s potato chip. Chain restaurants (Friday’s, Chili’s and the like) are especially adept at piling layer upon layer of fat, sugar and salt on otherwise innocuous-seeming dishes until the calories and fat are off the chart.

Companies that make sell this kind of food are like tobacco companies - they do it because they can sell more and make higher profits for their stockholders. Most people don’t have the food education nor the resistance to avoid such foods completely, and once they start down that path it gets increasingly difficult to turn around and eat differently.

So, to answer your original question, probably never. The most effective tactic seems to be education, and certainly better education about food in grade schools and high schools would be a big benefit to the entire population. There is certainly no easy answer.

Get the book, it will open your eyes.
Roddy

*“sugar” in this context means not only sucrose or other -oses, but anything that turns easily into sugar in your bloodstream, such as bread and other simple starches.

15

Bad news, everybody! Subway is not terribly good for you. If you look at the ingredient list, their wheat bread is basically the same as their white bread. It does have some whole wheat flour, but that is listed after water, yeast, and high fructose corn syrup, so it can’t be that much. Every subway sub is served on a giant slab of white bread with added sugar. http://subway.com/subwayroot/MenuNutrition/Nutrition/frmUSIngredients.aspx

McDonalds, KFC, and Wendy’s on the other hand do offer grilled chicken.

16

Actually cancel that last bit. I looked at McDonald’s nutrition info, and there is nothing there I’d recommend as a meal. The grilled chicken salad and the grilled chicken snack wraps are decently nutritious, but no one’s going to have two salads or 3 snack wraps for dinner.

17

Healthy food is already widely accessible – in supermarkets. Now, if you want it to be provided fast and convenient in prepared form like burgers and tacos are now . . . that will happen when the public wants it and not before. I remember there was a healthy-fast-food chain in the 1980s, called “D’Lites.” It didn’t last long.

18

What does meat ‘quality’ have to do with nutrition? The grading of meat has to do with its taste and texture–I think the nutrition stays the same. Stays rich in minerals and protein, though not many vitamins. I don’t think Subway or Panera Bread are much more nutritious. So they have less salt and fat. That doesn’t add up to vitamins. I’d like to see more vegetable-based foods. That would actually be more “nutrition” vs simply less calories.

Btw, I think one widely overlooked healthy food is Chinese food. As long as you order white rice (vs fried) and a dish with lots of vegetables (there’s many of those, and the vegetables are often lightly cooked), you’re quite well off.

19

Why not? I have a single McDonalds salad for dinner quite often…

20

Cuts from leaner parts of the animal have less fat. Grass fed beef has lower saturated fat.