Book Review: "Stop and Go Fast Food Nutrition Guide"

I have written several times recently about how to eat better on the road and I just found another great resource. I was at a friend's house and saw this book sitting on their counter and picked it up. It is called the Stop and Go Fast Food Nutrition Guide. What I like about it is that is makes it really easy to know what to steer clear of and what to choose.

The book is set up like a stop light with red, yellow, and green foods at all of the major fast food and some sit down restaurants. The red foods are high in either calories, fat, saturated or trans fat, or sodium. The green foods have some redeeming nutritional value like vegetables or fruit and they also aren't going to set you back with the bad stuff. Even though I am pretty savvy when it comes to how many calories and grams of fat are in certain foods, I was even shocked at some of the items. Here are a few that were the worst offenders. Keep in mind that the average calories we should stay below is 2000 for the day with less than 65 grams of fat, 20 grams saturated fat, and 2400 mg sodium.

Romano's Macaroni Grill: Fettuccine Alfredo has 1130 calories, 82 grams of fat and 53 grams (!) of saturated fat. It also has 1200 mg of sodium. Numerous entrees at Mac Grill have over 3000 mg of sodium in just one entree!

Denny's: One cup of clam chowder has 624 calories, 42 grams of fat and 34 grams of saturated fat with 1474 mg sodium. And this is just an 8 oz cup of soup! Imagine what your entire meal would be with this as your starter!

Chili's: Classic Nachos has 1450 calories, 108 grams of fat, 57 grams of saturated fat and 2730 mg sodium. Again, this is just the appetizer.

There is good news in the book. The green foods are easy to spot and most chains have at least a few green choices. It is easy to find green choices at Chic Fil A and the sub places like Blimpie and Subway. Panda Express was a shocker with almost the entire menu green! They have lots of veggies and not a lot of fat and sodium either.

You can either download or order the book at: www.maplemountainpress.com