Organic, Healthy Fast Food
Healthy choices are finding their way onto the fast-food menu. With a little detective work, you can find nutritionally improved fare at the traditional chains (see “Stuck at a Fast-Food Joint …,” page 18). Better yet, several small companies that hope to go national are capitalizing on the growing demand for fresh, natural meals to go.
Pan-seared tuna, soy, turkey, ostrich, and juicy lean-beef burgers are on the menu at Manhattan’s three Better Burger locations. Most of the ingredients, including the homemade condiments and air-baked fries, are organic, and the meat is hormone- and additive-free. At the four Maine-based O’Naturals restaurants, the brainchild of the CEO of Stonyfield Farm, you’ll find wild salmon and free-range beef and poultry, flatbread sandwiches, Asian stir-fries, and an assortment of soups and salads.
Evos, which has three restaurants in Florida’s Tampa and St. Petersburg areas, proudly posts the nutritional information for all its food, and touts “guilt-free” burgers (10 grams of fat) and Airfries (5 g). Soups are made with fresh vegetable stock, and a multivitamin supplement can be added to fruit smoothies.
Another Florida native, Healthy Bites Grill, with locations in Boca Eaton and Ft. Lauderdale, features fast-food service, complete with a drive-through window and speedy counter ordering, but peddles such vegetarian-friendly items as roasted-corn salsa, portobello Philly “steak” sandwiches, hummus with pita chips, and a brown rice and vegetable platter.
Nutritionist Nikki Goldbeck is keeping her eye on Salad Creations of America. The restaurant offers only fresh salads, an idea its founders are confident will take them national from their current three locations in Orlando and Boca Eaton.
“This is not a flash in the pan,” says Goldbeck, co-author of Healthy Highways: The Traveler’s Guide to Healthy Eating, and co-founder of healthyhighways.com. “When I see these places in the malls and along the turnpike next to McDonald’s, I know the trend is here to stay and will only grow.”
COPYRIGHT 2005 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
Add comment March 4th, 2006