Are those free-range apples?
I vote for Chipotle as reasonably healthy fast food.
OP sounds like he was describing El Pollo Regio, which is everywhere in DFW.
It sounds like you’re describing cafeteria food, the kind of meal you could get at a good cafeteria, like the kind schools and some workplaces have; but cafeterias of that sort for the general public don’t seem to have caught on here.
No, he was describing Latin American style fast food. Which we have here. Also Vietnamese style fast food: pho & sandwiches are pretty quick.
(And we do have cafeterias.)
Here in NH, I’m limited in my “fast food” eating choices. Basically, options include extra carbs or extra, extra carbs.
BTW, ever since quitting bread at lunch, I’ve noticed my usual afternoon need for a nap to be gone. This winter in NH has been a lot of sausage/potato/onion/pepper for lunch.
DrDeth, I had read that Scientific American article about salt a few years ago, and concur with you to a certain extent. However, fast food joints (not along highways) tend to locate in poorer neighborhoods. In the US, poorer neighborhoods skew African-American, an ethnicity which tends to have sodium affected blood pressure problems.
Also, a person’s taste preferences are set early. If you grow up eating a lot of fast food, or eat a lot when in your 20s or 30s, you expect food to be salty. When you do develop health problems later in life, such as kidney disease or hypertension, a lower sodium diet becomes very difficult to adhere to. Your options are gone if you just don’t want to cook and you’re on the way home from work. There’s no preservative function for salt when fast food is distributed frozen or canned. (Exception: pickles, cured meat) Its function is flavor. It can be added easily to a burger or fries by the end user if desired.
Yes, a 20 year old male marathon runner probably is unaffected by salt. His girlfriend, however, might retain water, aggravating PMS. His diabetic grandmother might have kidney disease. His mother might have lymphedema after cancer surgery. His running buddy could be African-American, and trying to avoid a stroke. There are diseases and syndromes besides hypertension in which sodium plays a role.
I also agree with you to an extent: “For most dudes, nothing wrong with salt.” Please do follow your MD’s recs and if he sez cut back on the salt, by all means do so.
But I dont think it’s necessary unless your medical professional has recommended it.
The biggest difference between that nice-looking plate and a typical US “fast casual” lunch is the lack extraneous cheese and deep fried things and an additional 200-500 (or more) empty calories from bread, chips, fries, rice, etc. Our culture expects some kind of starch with every meal, even though the extra calories are unnecessary for most of us, most of the time.
Where in the US do you live, when you are here? Even in DFW, where people generally revel in conspicuously unhealthy food choices, that kind of lunch is easy to get at that price.
To echo previous replies, Latin American/Roasted chicken places are all over the place, at least 4 different chains plus independents.
One can also get tasty, healthy food at reasonable prices in Greek/Mediterranean/Middle Eastern counter service places, which are ubiquitous. Kebabs, shawarma, salads, roasted vegetables. Just no pita bread or baclava.
Any run of the mill BBQ place can be reasonably healthy if you skip the worst side dishes and lay off the sugar-laden sauce. And no yeast rolls.
In addition to rather nice rotisserie birds, any decent supermarket (ie. Central Market, Fresh Market) will have a deli/prepard food section with all manner of tasty, reasonably priced food. Stay out of the bakery.
Indian restaurants (the ruination of many a New Year’s resolution) are a perfectly sound choice if you stick to the tandoori what have you and the saner vegetable dishes, and stay out of the naan and rice.
Burrito places will put your food in a bowl if wish to skip the parachute-sized tortilla and hill of rice.
Finally, even here in the metroplex, where people will impugn your masculinity and patriotism for eating a salad, there are at least two counter service salad places with acceptable to great ingredients (Salata and Snappy Salads, respectively.
Unless you’re aware of a malnutrition epidemic in the US that I’m not, I suspect that concerning yourself over the health value of the food isn’t a large factor.
Average height, in the US, has been gaining every year and that’s due to better nutrition, even as people have been moving away from fresh food to frozen and fast food. I suspect that this is largely thanks to vitamin fortification, but unless you’re a “only natural is healthy” sort of person, there’s nothing wrong with that. Your body doesn’t care whether iron is present because a plant was grown in soil with a high iron content, or if iron bars were shaved into flakes over top of your wheaties. It’s all just chemistry to your metabolism.