A recent study said that a full third of all kids eat fast food every day. That's pretty scary. How much fast food do you eat, and do you find it is any different when you're doing a low carb lifestyle?

I know we used to eat a TON of fast food and now we eat much more healthy food, and it made an instant difference in our health! It also helped our pocketbooks not to be paying those fast food prices all the time <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

We do still eat out occasionally but we are much more aware of what we choose to eat. I love the Outback restaurant, they have amazing service and food there.

I love the Outback too. Fridays' (TGIF) now has "Atkins Approved" meals on their menu as well. I had one, and it was ok.

Yes in fact I've done 2 reviews now of TGIFs. Their first one (pre-Atkins-Menu) was pretty bad, we even went there a few times and were reminded each time of how bad the menu was. We've been twice post-Atkins-Menu and I have to say that I agree with you that it is "OK". I wrote it up here -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art15597.asp

but in essence the items on the low carb menu are the same as on the main menu (for most of them) and in fact in some cases you pay MORE for the low carb menu version for no reason. For example, on one dish they simply remove the mashed potatoes - but they charge you the same price. In any case it's nice as a publicity thing, to show non-low-carbers that this is "normal yummy food" that we eat. But as far as really offering low carbers something "special", all they did was reshuffle their menu <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> .

On the other hand I am VERY impressed with the Subway wraps. I think that was brilliant. I used to love going to Subway and was really sad when I had to stop on low carb. Now I can go again and get all the different meats on a healthy bread. In fact we were at a subway in a mall a few days ago and 2 out of the 3 people in line ordered the Atkins wrap. So it is HUGELY popular. Now THAT is a case where they really did do something special for low carbers that was of great value.

I have to give 2 thumbs down to BurgerKing and their new low carb menu, Today I purchased a triple cheese burger for $2, I could have gotten a low carb double cheese platter for $3.90, for an extra bit of salad and water bottle.... <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> , never mind, on the few occasions I'll get a regular and throw away the bread and have a free cup of water.
I have had the subway ranch bacon wrap and liked it although it is more expensive as well, there again I can get a 6 in and throw away the bread, I think they are marketing the aspect that people won't "waste" and will pay a little more so the bread won't be "wasted"
Blimpie also offers a wrap that is advertized as low carb and quite tasty.
All in all I prefer to prepare my own meals, and come out ahead on carbs, nutrition and $$.

You're exactly right, NoSugar, if people would just make their own food they would save SO much money. But I guess the thing is that I get numerous requests every day for "quick easy" food. People don't want to cook any more. They don't want to think about ingredients. They just want to push a button and be fed.

I know that there are a few times that you *need* a quick meal, and there are certainly recipes to do that. But I think a lot of people fall into that as an 'easy out' which not only drains your budget quickly, but also tends to feed you food that's not very healthy ...

Why do low carb vendors crank the prices up to take advantage of us? If it costs less to them, why not pass along the savings and make us more likely to appreciate their efforts? Instead they play these games to make us pay even MORE just because it says "low carb". That's just not right.

I stopped eating fast food regularly (once or twice a month) a few years ago...but after reading this I'd never do it again:

SuperSize Me

Well, I really havent had much in the line of Fast Food since i started the Low Carb diet. Today, I was really hungry, and there wasnt much around. So i ordered a couple Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers at wendys and asked them to leave the bread off. They put them in a platter for me, and it was quite filling. As far as mcDonalds... i miss their fries... but haven't been there once since I started my diet. Burger king has really disappointed me with their atkins selection. It really isnt that tasty.

As far as sit down meals.. Ruby tuesdays is my favorite. Their meals are both filling and GOOD! Fridays is alright, but i really wasnt that impressed. Chilis has started a low carb menu, that really is nice as well.

I'm not sure if there are any on the East Coast but on the West Coast there is a fast-food restaurant called In and Out. Before low-carb became so popular, they were serving "Protein Burgers." These are hamburgers with no bread and extra veggies. I have always loved them and In and Out stays busy.

there arent any that i know of in FL..

but that does sound good

I've only seen in-and-outs on the West Coast, I don't think they exist on the east coast.

We are HUGE fans of the Outback and any time we go out to eat that's our first choice. They have great salads, and their fresh fish-with-veggies meals are just so tasty and healthy for you.

I will be going to the Outback in the next few weeks. Before my diet, I ALWAYS ordered the Rockhampton Ribeye. Do you know if they have good mixed vedgies to replace the potatoe stuff? I'm not a big fan of squash.

Followup to Donica:Ebert and Roeper discussing "Supersize Me"

I always found the low carb fast food to me extremely uninspired. McDonalds and BK with their bunless burgers and arbys with their sandwich meat and lettuce in a plastic tray. Papa john's offering crystalizes this point with their low carb pizza, where they just use 1/2 the dough, and it still ends up being like 20g/slice. The only one that required any bit of ingenuity to come up with was the subway low-carb wrap. Some are just terrible... I'm not sure if you all have Caribou Coffee out there, but they came out with a new drink, the "Skinny Bou low carb latte." A medium has 10g carbs compared to the regular @ 16.7g, but amazingly, it has 122g of fat compared to the regular @ 6.3g!

I was watching the news and the corporate officer that 'came up with' the bunless burger idea for BK said something like "i just saw someone throwing away the bun one day and I just thought up the idea.' I thought to myself, if this guy had set foot in a grocery store in the last 6 months, he probly woulda noticed low carb breads hitting the market, and might have even thought up the low carb bun. The visal comes to mind of that time George Bush Sr was shocked and amazed by price scanners in the grocery store.

So why on earth has no chain come out with low-carb buns for burgers? I do have a theory. It could be because all it would take is one diebetic ordering the low carb burger and getting the regular... then there's a big 'ole McLawsuit. The low carb bun would have to look pretty unique in order to avoid such a complication.

That's a very good question on low carb buns. We're having burgers tonight on the grill and while my son gets buns the rest of us are eating them bunless. We did in fact get low carb bread at the supermarket on the shopping run. They definitely have low carb muffin mixes so it's not a matter of making a "solid bread" vs slices. The muffins are quite dense.

It's only been the past month or two that we've seen REAL progress on the bread front, suddenly there are a variety of brands out there. So I think they're testing the waters, making sure this isn't a fad. Actually nutritionists are telling EVERYONE to eat the low carb breads because they have less sugar and more fiber than normal bread - these are both things that every one of us needs. Low carb diet or not. So hopefully when sales skyrocket, they'll work on the english muffins and buns next <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />