That's Fit

There are many reasons that fast food isn't exactly a healthy choice. Most items are high in fat. The calorie count is certainly up there, too. But, there's a new reason to avoid fast food -- sometimes the sense of humor of the staff is a little off.

OK. So it's not fair to generalize. But this one Burger King restaurant in Ohio has some employees with a seriously strange sense of humor. An employee thought it would be funny to take a bubble bath in the restaurant's large, stainless steel sink. Another employee filmed the soapy caper and other employees -- including a manager -- looked on. The video was posted on MySpace.com, but has since been deleted.

Burger King released the following statement: "Burger King Corp. was just notified of this incident and is cooperating fully with the health department. We have sanitized the sink and have disposed of all other kitchen tools and utensils that were used during the incident. We have also taken appropriate correction action on the employees that were involved in this video. Additionally, the remaining staff at this restaurant is being retrained in health and sanitation procedures."

I should hope so. After all, I don't think this is quite what was meant by the "employees are required to wash hands" policy.

A recent report reveals that fast-food kid's meals have too many calories. This would be the point that you say "No, duh!"

Quite unsurprisingly, nearly every combination of the kid's meals at KFC, Taco Bell, Sonic, and Chick-fil-A are too fattening. Restaurants -- like McDonald's and Burger King that offer apple slices or other options instead of fries fared a little better. Subway came out on top, with 12 of its 18 possible kid's meal combinations under a reasonable amount of calories.

The study deemed a reasonable amount of calories as 430 -- based on the fact that the average 8-year-old should eat 1,200-1,300 calories a day.

Check out your knowledge about fast food and calories -- take this AOL Health quiz!

Eating healthy at home can be accomplished with relative ease. You prepare the food, so you know what to expect. Do you know exact calorie, fat, carb, and protein counts? Maybe, maybe not. You could always find out by visiting sites like DietDetective.com, but there's not always time for such measures to be taken when you also have nine thousand other things that need to get done before the new episode of Lost comes on. So, in most cases we go by educated guesses. Again, not all that difficult to do when we're the ones making the food.

However, things can become much trickier at restaurants -- especially those where the healthy menu options are limited. To help you along, here are five healthy suggestions from Self magazine that should make your restaurant dining experience both enjyoable and guilt-free.

1. Quiznos - Black & Blue Salad. Go with reduced-fat dressing and only use half of the amount they give you. Also, ask for additional tomatoes and mixed greens.

2. Burger King - Tendergrill Chicken Salad. Lightly drizzle with 1/2 packet of low-fat dressing.

Of all the burgers out there, I think the general consensus is that veggie burgers are the healthiest of the bunch. They're low in saturated fat, and fat in general, plus they're lower in calories than regular beef or chicken burgers. As a non-vegetarian, I always get the same reaction when I order a veggie burger at a restaurant: 'Huh? Are you on a diet or something?' But I suspect that what veggie burgers lack in calories and fat they make up for in add-ons like cheese and sauce. But then again, I could be wrong.

What do you think? Are veggie burgers healthy or not?

Occasionally grabbing breakfast on the run is one of those inevitabilities. After all, who hasn't overslept or woken up only to find that the last bit of cereal milk has been usurped by the last breakfaster? And grabbing breakfast on the go is better than not having any at all.

Yahoo health recently rated the top breakfast choices. Here are some picks:

• McDonald's: Fruit n' Yogurt Parfait -- 160 cal, 2 g fat
• Starbucks: Spinach, roasted tomato, feta and egg wrap -- 240 cal, 10 g of fat (but lots of protein and fiber)
• Jamba Juice: Jamba Light smoothie -- 150-160 cal, 0 g of fat
• Dunkin' Donuts: Four powdered donut holes -- 260 cal, 15 g of fat
• Burger King: Nothing. Their food still has trans fats.
  

Want to find out what other breakfast dishes made the cut? Click here for the full list.

Text messaging your friend about the guy or girl you met last night at the bar, while at the same time you're driving your car on an interstate highway? Not exactly a healthy decision. Text messaging to find out the nutritional content of a particular food at a restaurant? That's more like it.

Diet.com offers a great text messaging tool to help you when you're in a pinch. If you're at a restaurant and want to know how many calories and how much fat, protein, and carbohydrate a particular food contains, simply text message their automated service at DIET1 (or 34381) and enter the name of the restaurant and the type of food you have a question about. For example, I just texted DIET1 and typed in: Burger King Whopper. Within seconds, I received a text message that said the following:

WHOPPER

Cal: 670

Fat: 39g

Carb: 51g

Prtn: 27g

So, rather than use up all your free text messages for the month gossiping with friends, use them to help you make a healthy choice with your meal (clearly a Whopper doesn't exactly fall into that category).

The most recent issue of Men's Fitness magazine (featuring Red Sox ace Josh Beckett on the cover) includes a very interesting piece on whether it's possible for fast food to be good for you.

Pointing first to a recent survey, the article highlights the fact that 44 percent of Americans say that they like the taste of fast food far too much to ever give it up. With those numbers being what they are, it's no wonder why fast food restaurants don't have much to worry about in terms of losing their clientele. Still the point is made that it is possible to eat fairly healthy at McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's. You just have to know how.

Here's a quick breakdown of the Best and Worst picks you can make at each of these fine establishments:

BURGER KING

Best: Whopper Junior, Hamburger, BK Veggie Burger, Fried Grilled Chicken Caesar without Dressing

Worst: Triple Whopper with Cheese

McDONALD'S

Best: Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Small French Fries, Grilled Chicken Snack Wrap with Honey Mustard, Fruit 'n Yogurt Parfait, Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken

Worst: Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese

WENDY'S

Best: Plain Baked Potato, Chicken Nuggets, Ultimate Chicken Grill, Mandarin Chicken Salad without Dressing

Worst: Baconator

A couple of added tips the folks at Men's Fitness offer are to stop super-sizing and avoid the extras. Good advice all the way around.

The trans fat ban has been in effect in many major restaurant chains (and health conscious households) for quite some time now. People are becoming increasingly aware of the risks this unhealthy fat poses to cardiovascular health and expanding waistlines. As such, trans fat is slowly being phased out of the American diet, but slowly is certainly the operative word.

According to a recent article in Men's Health, there still are plenty of cities or states where trans fat bans failed to pass. Furthermore, there are quite a few fast food chains that continue to offer foods that are high in this artery-clogging fat.

What foods most commonly contain trans fat? Here's what Men's Health had to say:

• Donuts
• Biscuits
• Pies
• French Fries
• Cookies (especially ones with fillings)

And what fast-food chains are serving up the most trans fat?

• Krispy Kreme
• Burger King
• Pizza Hut
• McDonald's
• Chick-fil-A

At this point it's common knowledge that fast food is full of fat and calories, and we've all seen plenty of scary headlines declaring the "deadliest fast foods" and citing outrageous calorie counts. Plus it seems we find different numbers wherever we look -- so if you're trying to get an accurate reading on your favorite indulgence you've probably found yourself stuck in the +/- 300 calories range. Yeah, that's helpful.

So I'm presenting this list, from A Calorie Counter, with all of that in mind. It's one list that I think looks about right as far as the numbers go, and I always think lists like this are fun. One thing I know for sure: at 1680 calories I won't be having a large White Castle chocolate shake anytime soon!

The list ranks the top 272 items total, so take a look -- you might be surprised at where your favorite indulgence lands on the list!

Sexy Scarlett Johansson is one of the hottest actresses of this decade -- both in terms of her career and her looks. Ever wonder how she manages to look so good? She recently talked to Australia's Women's Health and Fitness, and here's what she had to say:

• On keeping in shape: "I eat well and I walk a lot. I'm 21, so luckily I have youth on my side. I do yoga sometimes. And also living in the city, you do a lot of exercise and eat smartly."
  
• On Food: "I like Burger King cheeseburger meals, because I like the toy and I love the charbroiled taste. So good. My dad is Danish. That makes me half danish I suppose but I was born and raised in New York so I don't consider myself to be European. I go to Denmark, I was there recently and we just had our first niece so I was in Copenhagen. I am really happy when I am there and I get really fat too, I can't stop eating all the yummy food."
• On Running in the film The Island: "I was so sore I couldn't believe it. The first day of work I came home and I thought I was going to die"
• On plastic surgery: "I definitely believe in plastic surgery. I don't want to be an old hag. There's no fun in that."

Hmm. I'm not sure I agree with her thoughts on aging or her show of support for Burger King. I also think she should start stretching to prevent post-running soreness. What do you think?

I'm not sure if this is lip service to concerned parents, an attempt at positive PR or something out of the goodness of Burger King's (enlarged) heart, but the burger chain said this week that sometime near the end of 2008, it will limit ads aimed at those 12 and younger.

But, if certain foods and drinks meet strict nutritional guidelines, the chain will continue marketing those products to kids.

Well, that's great -- but until verifiable changes are made, I'll hold back on this one. The health initiative by the Council for Better Business Bureaus includes many fast-food chains and food companies already, but with the enactment set for over a year from now (as a deadline), the proof is in the pudding, so to speak.

A rule instituted by the New York Restaurant Association that would require certain fast food establishments to list the calories each item has in bold letters next to the price of the item isn't going to be followed by many NYC eateries. Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's have said they won't be posting calorie counts -- doing so will be confusing to people visiting the restaurant, as the menus will contain too much information. Such menus would be an eyesore.

I find that fast food menu boards are already confusing, and I agree that adding the calorie count them will make them more mind-boggling than they already are. But at the same time, I think providing the calories alongside the price is a fantastic idea. What do you think?

Via Fitsugar

In what seems to be a common theme with fast-food chains nationwide, Burger King stated this morning that it will begin using trans fat-free cooking oils across its menu to cook foods.

The burger joint becomes the latest nationally-recognized chain to switch to trans-fat free oils, a roster which now include Wendy's and Taco Bell. In fact, Burger King admitted that it was already using zero trans-fat oil in hundreds of its restaurants nationwide. Burger King currently has 7,100 U.S. locations.

Will other national restaurant chains follow suit? It seems that the "me too" mentality has started, and I'll bet that many chains will make the change just to get the publicity if nothing else. Regardless, these changes are good however you look at it.

Burger King is being sued by a consumer advocacy group that dislikes the chain's use of trans fats in its foods. While I applaud the use of trans fat-free oils in chains like Wendy's, Taco Bell and KFC, Burger King has yet to switch the oils it cooks customer's food in from the artery-clogging oils.

Is that any reason to sue the company, though? Unlike smoke-free establishments, the smoke can't drift over and invade the air of non-smokers. People that choose to eat at Burger King and have that unhealthy dose of trans fat should be responsible.

While I'd never eat at Burger King based on what I consider a pretty deplorable menu, millions do each day. Although the chain has not committed to a menu free of trans fats, I'm not sure that is the basis of a lawsuit. But, it will be interesting to see how this court case proceeds (if it does).

I grew up on McDonald's, KFC and similar chains, so seeing fast food ads can be very mouthwatering -- even when I know it's awful for me. However, what you see in the photos is almost never what you get.

To help bring the advertising myth back down to reality, The West Virginia Surf Report has started photographing real fast food, and posting those photos as side-by-side comparisons with photos from ads for the same product.

According to the site: "Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all."

This is equal parts disturbing and hysterical. It's amazing how unappetizing the food looks when it comes fresh the kitchen, instead of the photography studio.

The series is continually updated, so check it out if you have a moment. The Burger King Whopper (pictured above) is my personal favorite. Gross.

[via Boing Boing]