THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503220037
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F4 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: SPECIAL NUTRITION SERIES
PART 4: FAST FOOD
SOURCE: BY PAT DOOLEY, FLAVOR EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
CONVENIENCE, not nutrition, drives many of our fast-food choices.
Still, says Lynn Deaner of the Virginia Food and Hospitality Association in Richmond, we want to know healthful choices are available, for when we want them.
Here are some insights from the experts on healthful ordering:
``It's a matter of balance,'' says Pat Harper, a North Huntingdon, Pa., nutrition consultant and spokeswoman for The American Dietetic Association.
``Fast foods can be high in fat, sodium and calories. But people like them and, once in a while, they're not going to cause a problem,'' she says.
Most people can eat fattier choices about once a week, Harper says. ``On a day when you have a high-fat choice, make lower fat choices for the rest of the day, or maybe even for a couple of days.''
If you eat fast food more than once a week, choose lower-fat, lower-calorie options, such as grilled chicken sandwiches, plain baked potatoes, roast beef sandwiches (which generally have less fat than burgers), and pizza without meat.
Creamy dressings, salads made with mayonnaise and many baked potatoes with toppings add up, she cautions.
Harper and other registered dietitians say many Americans have come to attach guilt to eating high-fat, high-calorie foods.
``It's a shame people have gotten to the point they feel guilty when they eat something,'' Harper says. ``It's not a moral issue. . . . It's just like balancing your checkbook.''
Learn about nutrition, and how to balance and make choices. Exercise more.
``I would not want to look forward to a life without chocolate-chip cookies, and chips,'' says the 5-foot-6 1/2, 125-pound Harper.
Choose restaurants with lower-fat choices. And think small.
``The larger the fries, the more fat and sodium,'' Harper says. ``It's the same with sandwiches. If you do have to have a Whopper, go with the smaller version.'' A side salad with light dressing can help you fill up.
With children, Harper says, don't use food as ``rewards, bribes or punishments,'' which can be carried into adulthood. Instead, go for walks, buy a favorite toy or watch a program together as a family.
Look for nutrition-dense foods, not just low calories and low fat, says Babs Carlson, a registered dietitian and assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Choose low-fat milk for calcium instead of nutritionally empty soft drinks, for example.
Baked potatoes, orange juice and many vegetables are rich in vitamin C. Add lettuce and tomato to sandwiches. Top pizza with green peppers.
Choose vegetable side orders, such as green beans and corn, and salads with low-fat dressing.
``Iron is one nutrient that abounds in meat oriented fast-food restaurants,'' Sarah Fritschner and Michael Jacobson write in ``Fast Food Guide'' (Workman, 1992). ``A large hamburger or roast beef sandwich . . . contains about one-fourth of the U.S. RDA for iron.''
Keep it plain and simple,'' writes registered dietitian Mary Donkersloot in ``The Fast Food Diet: Quick and Healthy Eating at Home and on the Go'' (Fireside, 1992).
``Cut out the extras. Secret sauce, tartar sauce or mayonnaise add about 50 calories per tablespoon, mostly fat.''
Avoid ordering extra cheese, bacon or sausage, which are high in fat and sodium. Stay away from breaded, fried fish or chicken, Donkersloot advises.
Beware the fast-food breakfast. A Rise `N' Shine Biscuit from Hardee's, for example, has 390 calories, 21 grams fat and 1,000 milligrams sodium.
But three pancakes - minus butter and syrup - have 280 calories, 2 grams fat and 890 milligrams sodium. Add one sausage patty, and you add 150 calories, 14 grams fat and 400 milligrams sodium.
Better yet, try a plain bagel or whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk, which many quick-service restaurants offer, and you'll keep fat, calories and sodium to a minimum.
If knowing what's in most fast foods diminishes your appetite, author and nutritionist Fritschner offers some fast food for thought:
Studies show that one in three Americans is obese.
Fritschner believes our ``fast-food lifestyle'' is partly to blame for a lack of satiety. ``I wonder if we don't eat more because we're less satisfied,'' she says.
The sameness of fast food offers little to demand our attention, she adds. ``We get it in, get it down as fast as we can. And it leaves us hungry for more.''
Fritschner, a wife and mother of two young children, recommends limiting fast foods and preparing healthful, simple fare at home. It's a method she espouses in her just-published ``Express Lane Cookbook'' (Chapters, 1995).
It's not necessary, she says, to ``buy into the June Cleaver mentality.'' Dinner doesn't have to be pork chops, potatoes, a vegetable and dessert.
Stick to basics, like fruits, vegetables and grains, and learn how to prepare them without fuss.
With something as simple as a kiwi, Fritschner says, ``you have to peel it, you have to fool with it . . . A burger, you just stick it through the window.'' by CNB