The Fast-Food Guide: What's Good, What's Bad, and How to Tell the Difference

Totally revised and updated, this is the guide that eliminates the guesswork of ordering at a fast-food restaurant by presenting the facts-all of them. Certainly, due to public pressure, fast-food restaurants now offer a few healthier choices than they used to. But the pitfalls still remain.

For the second edition, the authors have included a greatly expanded and separate ingredients section that handily lists every ingredient in virtually every item found on the menus of 15 major fast food chains. New cholesterol, saturated fat, and shortening charts answer the most recent nutritional concerns. Sections and lists on sodium, sugar, calories, additives, and more have been added.

With the aid of this indispensable guide, you can make healthy choices for you and your children-even when eating fast food. Selection of the Quality Paperback Book Club and Book-of-the-Month Club. 246,500 copies in print.

Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and Fritschner, a nutritionist and food writer, provide a solid, clear basic course in dietary health, and then discuss the fast-food world, which, not surprisingly, they view overall as a nutritional nightmare. But the authors' emphasis is on helping Americans make the best of a bad situation. Thus in addition to recommending salad bars and such sensible alternatives as substituting milk or fruit juice for colas or shakes, the book includes pages of charts and commentary on fast-food ingredients and other pertinent information (such as what kind of oil foods are cooked in). The authors maintain, for example, that even though McDonald's new and successful McD.L.T. comes with a slice of tomato and some lettuce, it has four times as much fat as the regular hamburger, twice as much as the Quarter-Pounder and provides only 10% of the recommended daily dose of vitamin A and 15% of vitamin C. The Gloom Factor rating devised by the authors, which highlights fat, sodium and sugar content, makes the charts easy to use. This is a useful, needed book that at worst will help people eat better at fast-food outlets and at best will convince readers to avoid junk food altogether.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and author of Salt: the brand name guide to sodium content ( LJ 2/15/84), has been campaigning for the labeling of fast food. He introduces a "Gloom Rating"a nutritional rating system he applies to the selections offered at chains such as Arby's, McDonald's, Dairy Queen, Taco Bell, and Wendy's. A brief history and profile of the many franchises prefaces each chart comparing nutritional value and ingredients: calories; fat, sodium, and sugar content; vitamins, minerals, and chemical additives. Libraries that serve patrons in communities that have any of these chains will want to have this book available. Mary Ann Wasick, West Allis P.L., Wis.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.