Fast Food Fact Finder
By Deepi Brar
CONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVE Fast food is cheap and convenient, but it's easy to gain weight if you eat out often. A meal of a sandwich, fries, and soda -- especially if they're super-sized -- can add up to more than a full day's allowance of calories and fat for most people! To find out your daily calorie needs, click here. If you frequently eat at fast-food restaurants, it's a good idea to look up the nutrition information for your favorite foods on the company's Web site. In general, if a serving has less than 5 percent of the daily value of a nutrient (such as fat or protein), it's considered low in that nutrient; 20 percent or more is considered high. Try our fun interactive tool to find out more about common fast food items -- you may be surprised! You can also pick out a meal and see how the calories add up. Just click on the button to get started: Flash animation by Eric Turner Copyright 2003 Consumer Health Interactive (If you don't see anything loading above, you probably need to download and install the free Flash Player. Click on one of the buttons to get the free software from Macromedia Inc.) Note: If you're at work, you may have trouble downloading or installing Flash.
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References
Nutrition information for individual menu items from Web sites for McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Subway, Coca Cola, and Jamba Juice. Additional information from nutrition labels on Coca Cola and Mocha Frappuccino bottles.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Reference Values for Nutrition Labeling and Guidance on How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Panel on Food Labels
Reviewed by Lisa Tartamella, M.S., R.D., an ambulatory nutrition specialist at the Yale-New Haven hospital in Connecticut and a contributing author to The Yale Guide to Children's Nutrition.
Our reviewers are members of Consumer Health Interactive's medical advisory board.
To learn more about our writers and editors, click here.
First published January 17, 2002
Last updated January 12, 2005
Copyright © 2002 Consumer Health Interactive
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