Tip 9: Forego Fast Food

Fast food is just that, fast.  Fast food is not usually wholesome food.  Fast food is not usually nutritious food.  We can consume a fast food meal that has far more calories and less nutrition in a fraction of the time it takes us to eat a home cooked meal.  We have heard for years about the high levels of fat and calories in fast food.  What is the most surprising fact about fast food (and even much of the food from national chain restaurants)?  Much of the food on the fast food menu has been engineered to make you crave it.  Thus, the food is processed and flavored in a way to entice you not only to revisit that restaurant, but to eat more food when you get there.  The extra calories add up and soon we are the ones who are supersized.

So what should you do when a striking dinner hour finds you empty handed?  Take a minute and think about your options before you pull into the drive-thru.  Can you make something quickly at home?  If home cooking is out, choose a restaurant that provides healthier options—how about buying a sandwich with whole-grain bread, lean meat, and plenty of vegetables? Or try a fast food restaurant like Burgerville which consistently uses local food, has nutritious options, and which amazingly prints the nutritional information of every item on your receipt!  Even if your only option is a traditional fast food place, pick more nutritious foods or order smaller portions—the salad instead of fries, the smallest burger instead of the quarter-pound of beef one, and water instead of soda.