Fast Food: What You Need to Know

First point is, most fast food is never going to be healthy, however fast food chains can chose healthier oils and have healthier choices alongside their traditional greasies.

The three main fast food joints in New Zealand are McDonalds, Burger King and KFC. So who is doing the most to help our health and beat the battle of the bulge? Below we weigh up each companies efforts...
 

McDonalds lead the way in offering healthier options. First of all, McDonalds fry in healthier oil which is a vegetable oil blend of canola and sunflower oils. This has a trans fat level of less than 1%. Trans fats are the baddies in the world of fats. Not only do they increase bad cholesterol levels, they also decrease good cholesterol, thus a double whammy risk for heart disease.
 

McDonalds also have the lighter choices menu; with seven options containing less than 9g of fat. Options include Classic Chicken Light Deli Roll, Chicken Salad and the Seared Chicken Snack Wrap.
 

Keeping kids active is also another area McDonalds promotes. They support local clubs where possible and can arrange discounted soccer balls for junior soccer for purchase. This year in conjunction with the New Zealand Olympic Committee McDonalds launched a campaign 'My Greatest Feat'. This school-based program provided each registered child with their own pedometer to track their steps each day with the aim for all of NZ children involved to make a simulated walking journey the length on NZ.
 

Although I emailed Burger King to find out what type of fat they used for cooking, I have not yet heard a response. The most recent information I could find on the internet was a paper from the National Heart Foundation. In the 2000 National Heart Foundation released a policy paper on Techniques and Types of Fat used in Deep-Fat Frying. They stated that AV shortening was used by Burger King which was stated as a “confidential blend of vegetable oil and tallow (beef fat)”.

This blend contains saturated and possibly trans fats; and consumption of both of these is a risk for cardiovascular disease. Burger King have an 'Opt to Swap' menu which can provide you with a few healthier option. Some of their swaps include:

Note even if you did swap the mayo on a burger, it does not make it a healthy option, just less high fat. A BK Double Whopper has a huge 54g of fat and even if you half the fat content, it is still high fat.
 

Burger King has a 'Fresher Choices' menu which aims to offer healthier choices. This includes the Chicken Garden Salad with a low fat French Dressing or a Honey Mustard flavour Fresh Taste wrap.

 

KFC stated that they use vegetable oil for frying, although they didn’t specify what type. The National Heart Foundation Paper 'Techniques and Types of Fat used in Deep-Fat Frying' stated that KFC in New Zealand use Hydrogenated palm oil. This is high in trans fat and consumption of consumption of trans fats increases one's risk of coronary heart disease. The oil used may have changed since the paper was written, but I couldn’t find any information to the contrary.

 

The lowest fat option on the KFC menu is their Chicken Fillet Garden Salad. Skip the Cesar salad dressing and you’ll reduce the fat content dramatically.

 

Most fast food make some sort of effort, even if it is just a token. If you are pressed for dining choices and have to go to the fast food burger joints, McDonalds is probably the best from the three mentioned in this article for a healthy choice. Avoid the fries, and high fat burgers and stick to the healthy options they offer.