Fast food unhealthy and calorie laden? Why I never!

Like my doctor told me once:

"If it tastes good, spit it out."

If I am reading the chart correctly, Dunkin Donuts is at number 10, but who only eats one doughnut? Most people eat at least 2 of them.

760 calories for a footlong sandwich is not really that many. Considering that a six inch should be about the right amount for a meal, I'm not entirely convinced that the sandwich is all that terribly calorie-rich.

While it's clear that a triple Whopper is just far too many calories in one sandwich, even if I consume a full footlong in one sitting (I rarely do), it still keeps me about on track for my basal caloric intake for the day.

I understand the desire to keep consumers informed about how many calories are in a meal, but "lots of calories" doesn't necessarily mean bad, and not everyone has the same caloric needs anyway.

If you read the information that Subway releases on its sandwiches, they indicate that the numbers are for a 6-inch sub with no added condiments and no cheese.

Stupid, foolish people look at those numbers and claim them as gold while they're ordering a foot-long sub, piling on double cheese, extra mayo and soaking the sandwich in vinegar.

Those numbers don't actually seem all that bad to me. The Subway item, in particular, has about 1/3 of the calories you should eat in a day. Assuming it is your lunch or dinner, that sounds about right.

The problem with these constant warnings is that everyone knows it already, everyone loves to eat these foods, and no one will ever stop until strapped into a gurney at the hospital.

What good is living to 80 anyways?

@Radi0logy: Yeah, but the problem is that if you eat these all the time, you will live till 50, and 20 of those will be with various handicaps.

Also, if you grow up till 80 and are still up for it, you could have a trophy wife who is young enough to be your grand daughter.

Yes, blah, whatever.

These kinds of namby-pamby alerts are what forced McDs and others to put "healthier choices" on their menus, which is whey all the fast food places have salads, fruits, grilled chicken instead of fried, etc.

Once America got it's panties un-wadded by the action of adding more healty choices to the menus, though, everyone went right back to ordering Big Macs and french fries.

Everyone wants "healthier options" on the menu, and somehow feel entitled to have them there, and offended if they're not there. But virtually no one wants to eat them.

@Radi0logy: They stay the same age :]

@wagenejm:

Whats wrong with vinegar on a sandwich?

Seriously, I didn't know it was a bad condiment to add.

Yeesh. That's waaaay too much. Imagine if you ate that all day and didn't exercise. Now that I'm actually losing weight, I see no reason to eat fast food any more. Yay Pilates! :)

I wonder how many hour sessions it would take to get rid of the french fries. I don't want to find out!

@edosan: If that were the case, the French would be fat and the English would all be skinny. We see, however, that the opposite is true.

@wagenejm:
mmm nothing like a sweet onion chicken teriayki sub with extra cheese and mayo! Only in America!

Someone needs to 1 up these fast food places and make a 4000 calorie hamburger or something

@UCLAri: And I think a lot of the calories in the subway sub is in the sauce. Just ask for less sauce, and you cut some of the calories. One of my favorite things is a tuna melt, but the cafe I go to puts so much cheese in it that you can barely taste the tuna anymore. So I request only a little cheese, and it balances the taste and it reduces some of the calories.

@TinaBringMeTheAx: But that's just the sub. Most people down a big soda and a pack of chips, too.

@MostlyHarmless: From what I hear from a nurse friend is accurate: if you're an 80 year old that can still get it up you're pretty much king stud of the nursing home.

It is not the number of calories that will kill/sicken you it is the inactive lifestyle.
Get off the subway one stop away and walk.
Park at the far end of any parking lot.
Do a pushup or better yet a burpee -look it up- during each commercial break.
Do end the soda/sugar fix in your drinks.
If you need better mouth feel than water, drink flavored seltzer -no club soda because of sodium-
When the Muslo-facist-Nazi-commies come for you, will you be caught because you got winded after 100 yards or will you live to fight another day like they did in Red Dawn.

@pecan 3.14159265: Isn't the tuna melt the absolute worst thing you can buy calorie-wise at Subway? I thought I read that somewhere.

@wagenejm: Vinegar has little to no calories, actually. Probably high in sodium, though.

@UCLAri: Yup, for a recommended allowance of 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day, as stated in the article, shouldn't a meal of 700-800 calories be just about right? I haven't had fractions in a while, but I'm pretty sure 760 calories is roughly a third of a reasonable daily allowance.

@Tightlines: It's possibly one of the worst things at Subway. I don't go to Subway, so I have no idea. At the cafe I go to, it's about 700 calories, which is fine for lunch since I don't have anything else except water, and I request extra lettuce and tomato.

@YouDidWhatNow?: I eat Wendy's salads quite often.

@UCLAri: To say nothing of the fact that the fat content is probably nowhere near the triple whopper.

You're already fat and dead anyway. Just live.

@RecordStoreToughGuy_IsNeckDeepInCrisis:

Welcome to the 1% club. Stand there for a day and watch what people order.

@wagenejm: I'm pretty sure the cheese only adds 50-80 calories or so for a six-inch. They use two slices, which is about the same size as a Kraft deli slice, around 70 calories. But yeah, it's putting extra meat, cheese, and mayo that kills it. But does vinegar really add much, or is it oil and vinegar you're talking about?

I'm comfortable with a little death because I choose tasty food. If I live to 70, good enough; if I could have lived to 90…it doesn't seem worth it.

My choice of tasty foods isn't on this list though. I'd rather have a big fat BBQ steak with lots of tasty sides in my home than some crap from the BK Lounge.

@pecan 3.14159265: I either get a six inch with chips and soda, or just a foot long with a soda. It also helps that my breakfast usually consists of a granola bar or something quick on my way out the door to work.

@Razor512: I'm sure I consumed thousands of calories at my last big dinner at a French restaurant in Montreal. Foie gras alone will have around 500+ calories in the serving size I enjoyed. Never mind I had two glasses of wine, about a half a quail, lamb on the bone, and the "symphony of desserts."

I'm sure that that meal had somewhere in the vicinity of 2000 calories. I couldn't care less, because it was awesome.

My next stop in Montreal? Au Pied de Cochon, a restaurant known for its hefty meaty portions. I can't wait. :-)

@edosan: The problem is what we think tastes good. Americans have somehow programmed themselves to think calories are the only indicator of how good something tastes. Spend some time with a decent diet focused on vegetables and grains and fresh ingredients and the calorie-laden fast food tastes absolutely disgusting. I am lucky. A few years of poverty forced me to switch my diet to things I could carry with me that are cheap, fill me up, and won't go bad easily (ie: frozen veggies, canned fruits, whole grain bread, and lots of BOGO chicken breasts). I can't even eat the average burger anymore. Too greasy and salty.

If I have to, I order the smallest one from the dollar menu and take off the bottom bun. I truly don't understand ordering a triple bacon burger with extra cheese and not throwing up three bites into it.

@Radi0logy: Yeah, whenever someone says about something, "That takes 10 years off your life." They don't mention that it's 10 years off the end. And for a lot of us, that's going to be 10 years of drooling, pants-shitting senility.

@Razor512:

[www.mlive.com]

4800 calories. Ask and ye shall receive.

@suburbancowboy: Hate to do this to ya, but I eat only one donut. The cashier usually looks at me in shock, because I could order 2 with my coffee for almost the same price as 1. And I order the glazed, which has the least amount of calories. My favorite however is a jelly stick, especially if the jelly goes all the way through and there isn't a deadzone of cake in the middle.

@pecan 3.14159265: I'm always fighting with my local Subway sandwich "artists" to not goop on a bunch of sauce. They rarely listen, unfortunately. I've had to resort to asking for only mustard, but I do end up with a pretty healthilicious sandwich if I do it that way.

@pecan 3.14159265: Agreed. Most of the calories in a sub is in the sauce and the white bread.

Unfortunately, most people when they order the foot-long eat the whole thing within the hour. It took me a couple years to train my husband to save the second half for several hours later or the next day.

@Ronin-Democrat: Yes, but you have to work out an awful lot to burn off even just 200 calories. Better to not eat it in the first place then spend 3 hours working out to burn off a donut. I lost 20 lbs just counting calories, after realizing those muffins I loved so much had 400 calories each, and I'd eat 2 in a day. That's 800 calories a day I cut out just giving up muffins. That's enough to lose weight right there.

@TinaBringMeTheAx: That depends on a few things like you're level of activity, weight,height, age, and sex. I think that's probably more than a third for many women too.

@wagenejm: There are 2-25 calories per tablespoon in vinegar, depending on what kind you use. It's definitely a "good" condiment, like mustard.

@Doug81: Before the grammar nazis come: That should be your not you're.

@pecan 3.14159265: Doesn't Subway offer healthy side like apples now?

@pecan 3.14159265: But think of all the people who don't.

@RecordStoreToughGuy_IsNeckDeepInCrisis: If I remember correctly, vinegar is great for potassium. Since so many people don't get enough Vitamin K, adding tasty vinegar to a salad is actually a great idea. It's the whole love affair with mayo and oil that gets most people.

@Razor512: I give you the double-whopper chicken sandwich with bacon! Two whoppers, special sauce, smoked applewood bacon, and fried onions between two crispy fried chicken breast fillets instead of a bun!

@YouDidWhatNow?: I know when i go to McD's across the street for lunch, I go there for a reason. And that reason is not a salad - it is a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder with cheese or 20 piece chicken nuggies. I don't go often and usually regret going an hour later but I do go back every once in a while.

@Ronin-Democrat: WOLVERINES!!!

@wagenejm: Vinegar contains both negligible amounts of sodium and calories. The association that Record... has with vinegar and sodium may come from the fact that most foods with high amounts of vinegar also have a fair amount of salt (i.e. pickles).

@Gnort: You'll pry the wine and cheese in my fridge from my cold, dead hands.