Is It Worth It?

Is It Worth It?

It is noon and you are hungry. You ate breakfast who knows how many hours ago, and you aren't even sure if that tiny granola bar counts. As you are walking around looking at you choices for lunch, various aromas compete for your attention. Your stomach grumbles in anger and impatience. You smell the delicious sent of freshly made French fries coming from a nearby McDonald's. Then, your nose alerts you to the zesty scent of orange chicken coming from a Panda Express. You settle for a nearby Taco Bell. You order you food and inhale it as soon as you sit down. Finally, your stomach has settled, your nose no longer tracks each smell it picks up, and your brain provides you dopamine that gives you a nice, satisfied grin in your face. Now, what about that waistline you were watching? What about your sugar and salt intake? How about maintaining that 2,000 calorie daily limit? Was eating all that fast food worth it? Did you even think about all of that? Exactly

Don’t worry. You aren't supposed to think about the tasty foods you are eating. According to Michael Moss’ Salt, Sugar, Fat even Stephen Sanger, a former General Mills CEO, stated, as the voice of a consumer, Don’t talk to me about nutrition, talk to me about taste, and if this stuff tastes better, don’t run around trying to sell stuff that doesn't taste good. This blog will help you do just that. It will provide you with a visual break down of the salt, sugar, and fat content of common fast foods. Or rather, tasty fast foods. The findings are something that even the most informed and health-conscious student will find troubling...

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Wraps and Salads and Chips Ohh My!

Croutons Salads and Wraps is supposedly one of the healthier choices on our campus. You get a wrap or salad that comes with a bag of chips or piece of fruit and a water or fountain drink. As with any restaurant, the choice of being healthier is truly up to the customer. While it is very easy to quickly make supposedly "healthy" food unhealthy, we choose to do our best to see how truly healthy we could be. . .



Here we ordered a whole wheat wrap, with chicken, lots of veggies, and only oil and vinegar as a dressing. We splurged and got the healthier choice of chips, Sun Chips, and a bottled water. 


Overall, Croutons can, in fact, be a healthier option for students. With about 800 mg of Salt, it is by no means low sodium but still allows for some wiggle room later in the day. About 9 g of Sugar, still very good. Lastly, there was only about 24 g of Fat, most coming from the chips, whole wheat wrap, and chicken. In retrospect, Croutons can be one of the places a health conscious student could eat, just be wary of the dressings and fountain drinks.  
Information pulled from VCU Food Services
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 7, 2013 at 1:38 PM

    I could not find nutrition information from Croutons on the link you provided -- just a weekly menu ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 7, 2013 at 1:39 PM

    When I click "related link" on taco bell beef quality -- click on the video -- I get a message that the video is "private." I couldn't access it.

    ReplyDelete

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