Fast Food Nutrition Menus

The good thing about all this talk these days about America's obesity levels, healthy vs. non-healthy foods, and calorie counting, is that a great number of chain restaurants and fast food places now have their nutrition information easily available. On a recent trip to Chili's, my husband wanted to know the calorie count of a certain menu item that wasn't among their Guiltless Grill choices. The manager was very accomodating, took only a few minutes, and after apparently being on the computer to their home office, came back with the calories, fat grams, and carbs of the entree he was curious about along with the sides that went with it. Lovely!

But a sit-down meal isn't always possible when you have hungry kids in the car, perhaps headed to or from a soccer game or swim meet, and you need to pull in to grab something fast. It's even tougher when those kids will only eat 3 items from one particular place and refuse to consider anything else. What do you do then? Combine your efforts.

If you know your children will only eat at a one or two places, provided they're chains, you can go on line to those websites ahead of time, find the restaurants' menu and nutrition listings and print those off to have with you in the car or in your purse all the time. Or, you can just take a look at the list and make a mental note as to which items are lower in calories so when you do have to swing through the drive-thru, you'll know ahead of time what to select for yourself.

Yes, calorie counting takes some planning. It takes some effort. You might argue that you don't want to have to think that much about what you eat. But not thinking about it is what got you to this point, isn't it? Not thinking enough about it? And you are worth that extra effort, aren't you?