Fast food facts - Goodnews: essential natural health news - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, Feb, 2004

If you've been looking for nutrition information on fast food, three recent developments will give you reason to cheer.

First, a new bill that would require many restaurants to include nutrition info on their menus was introduced in Congress on November 5, 2003. Second, a similar bill will be introduced in the Senate. And finally, the Food and Drug Administration is weighing similar proposals that would serve up food figures.

The labels would be far less detailed than information boxes now found on packaged food. But visitors to McDonald's or Wendy's could soon see calories listed on menu boards above cashiers' heads. And customers at sit-down restaurants such as Denny's or Applebee's may see menus that reveal saturated plus trans fats, and carbohydrate and sodium content in addition to calories.

People are dining out twice as much as in 1970, and most of them have a general idea that fast food is high in fat and calories. But some menu items have more calories and fat than anyone would guess. Just one large McDonald's shake, for instance, has 1,010 calories. That's even more than the total calories in three McDonald's cheeseburgers, which hold 330 calories each.

Shocking? Get this. A single slice of carrot cake from the Cheesecake Factory has 1,560 calories and 23 grams--more than a day's allowance--of saturated fat.