American gluttony

Today I am finally moving out of the hotel I’ve stayed in for the past four weeks. It’s good to finally be able to get "settled" into a place with a bit more permanence, but it sucks that I don’t have any furniture and I will need to pick some up quickly. I will also finally have access to a kitchen for the first time in a month.

Not since I lived in London have I gone out to eat so often as I’m doing now. It’s not that the food is close by – very little is within walking distance from anywhere – but it is cheap, convenient, and pretty unhealthy. I now have a better understanding as to why one third of Americans are obese and over 60 percent are overweight. The principle factor is sheer laziness due to a combination of inactivity and overeating, but another equally as important factor is how much fat, sugar, and sodium companies pack into their food.

Here’s a rundown of the "deals" that I’ve taken advantage of (and some that I haven’t) over the past four weeks while eating out:

• Subway’s $5 foot-long. Cue the catchy jingle, please. This isn’t anything special as the same deal exists in Canada. I try to load my subs with veggies to offset the caloric intake or try to split a foot-long over two meals, but that doesn’t negate the fact that a foot-long over-roasted chicken breast is still 640 calories and 1,490mg of sodium! To put things in perspective, the recommended daily intake of sodium is about 2,300mg. Keep that in mind…
  Verdict: 128 calories per dollar.
• Quiznos Buy One Get One for $1. Here in the States, Quiznos has a deal where if you buy any sized basic sandwich (Mesquite Chicken, Traditional, Italian, or Turkey Ranch & Swiss) you get the second for only $1. This is pretty good considering Quiznos is already overpriced for the limited choices they offer. The other day, I bought a pair of large Turkey Ranch & Swiss for $8.39, which served to remind me that I hate pre-formed cold cuts and would rather have freshly shaved meats. The nutritional damage of one large sandwich? 920 calories and 2,925mg of sodium. Shit, why did I eat two in two meals? Remember that daily amount of sodium?
  Verdict: 220 calories per dollar.
• Burger King’s 2 for $4. Burger King has their daily value menu where you can get two daily sandwiches for $4. This means you can get two Whoppers for $4. What does that amount to? 670 calories and 1,020mg of sodium per Whopper.
  Verdict: 335 calories per dollar.
• Burger King’s $1 Jr. Whopper. One of the first meals I had when I got here was two Jr. Whoppers, value fries, and a value drink. Let’s see the damage. A grand total of 1,100 calories and 1,530mg of sodium.
  Verdict: 275 calories per dollar.
• Red Lobster. I have very fond memories of Red Lobster as a child – cheesy biscuits, seafood, and the treasure chest at the end of the meal. I went back to Red Lobster last week for the first time in years and left with a less than favourable memories. The service was quite poor and the food wasn’t that great. And they don’t serve the treasure chest to adults! Haha. My $9.50 lunch of soup in a bread bowl and salad yielded 690 calories and 1,795mg of sodium, conveniently omitting the nutritional information of the bread bowl itself. Oh and this doesn’t include the biscuits that were cheesier and more buttery than I had remembered.
  Verdict: 73 calories per dollar.
• Applebee’s and Chili’s 2 for $20. This is the piece de resistance. Applebee’s and Chili’s offer a set menu where you get one appetizer, two full-sized entrees, and a dessert (only for Chili’s) for $20. Feeling the need to feed myself for the next 3 days, I decided to go to Applebee’s yesterday and have this for takeout. What I ordered for $24 USD with tax and tip included was boneless chicken wings (there are 13 in the box), a 7oz sirloin with mashed potatoes, and to be healthier, their Oriental chicken salad with grilled, not fried, chicken.
  The overall gluttony? 1,724 calories and 0mg sodium for the boneless chicken wings, 330 calories and 0mg sodium for the steak, and 709 calories and 1,703mg sodium for the salad (thankfully I used only a quarter of the provided dressing which was essentially a simple syrup). For a grand total of 2,763 calories and 1,703mg sodium with the caveat that the sodium numbers are unbelievably low, and the figures for the steak do not include two potato’s worth of mashed potatoes. Applebee’s was also the only restaurant to not provide any nutritional information on their website.
  Verdict: 138 calories per dollar.

One of the most gluttonous features by Applebee’s is their "Carside To Go" option where you call ahead for takeout and when you pull up to the restaurant, the server will come out with your order. You don’t even need to get off your fat ass out of the car to get your food! The server will also run back into the restaurant for your change / receipt. Yes, I was one of those fat asses who didn’t get out of my car yesterday, but only because it was offered!

Putting all the nutrition numbers in perspective, for the amount that I’ve consumed it’s surprising that I haven’t put on an enormous amount of weight. To help matters, I have gone from three meals per day to two meals per day and I do exercise on a daily basis (missed three times in the last two weeks). But take away those two healthy lifestyle choices and replace them with overeating and a sedentary lifestyle, I can see how Americans are so fat. After all, the average American will eat out 4.2 times per week. And that’s the average! I’m sure the obese third eat out far more than that.

So that’s my insight into the problem of American obesity. Companies need to shape up by reducing the amount of sodium and fat in their food, but people need to eat less and exercise more. My suggestion? Tax them all. Tax the companies for providing unhealthy food and tax the fat for being a burden on the healthcare system, like what Japan does. And I don’t buy that smokers and the obese are less of a burden on the system than healthy people because they die younger; with medical advances they can be hospitalized for longer and kept alive longer. Healthy people just peter out eventually.

Related reads:

• The Fat of the Land: A soda tax and government health care won’t cure obesity [Wall Street Journal]