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Show -! Yourself Slim Guide to choosing fast foods By SHIRLEY BRIGHT BOODY Registered Dietitian Copley News Service Fast foods - are they good or bad? How did we kwx a nation addicted to fast hamburgers and instant in-stant fried chicken? Before World War II, the United States was more of regional collection of areas that were closely identified with the kinds of foods they produced. Famous Fa-mous recipes were named w the places that pro- 7 iced. them. Texas chili, Ne England clam chowd-w. chowd-w. Boston baked beans, Southern fried chicken, "Wnia ham, New Orleans crile are mouth-watering "amples of regional di-S di-S versities and our varying ethnic heritage. . food habits varied V weigh the country, but 1 most people ate their ) home and Sunday inner was a tradition. other was the nutrition-B1-ifshe thought about it, d dlmr in a restaurant was a gala affair. World War II changed Jat Out of necessity became a transient, nwMe society. Our food J" also became Iran-f Iran-f t, mobile - and fast. away from home ame a necessity, rather ? an occasional treat. 2nsituaUonwith ble American inge-weresuchfarsighted inge-weresuchfarsighted "asRayKroc , McDonald's and Col. Jn Sander with his STtucky Fried Chicken. J groundwork was laid Present barrage of SLi with mi f billion, are v!,,fast,00d turner rJTrdizing yur faTtfJ? aLny way? Can that ml ated leases J m P'ague thousands of people every year? Possibly. Possi-bly. The high calorie, high fat, high salt content of many fast foods can be very damaging on a daily basis. However, the more nutritionally informed consumer con-sumer may be able to avoid some of the damaging damag-ing effects of such foods by simply making better choices. Instead of ordering a calorie laden lunch of a double hamburger, french fries and a coke, a pizza with a salad and milk is just as available and fast, with fewer calories and more nutrition. On a platter of fried chicken, cole slaw, mashed potatoes and rolls, much of the salt and fat is contained con-tained in the batter on the chicken. If you remove that and eat the chicken, vegetables vege-tables and roll you will have a nutritious meal with less salt, calories and fat. Avoiding the compulsions compul-sions to clean the plate, or salting the foods before tasting can help significantly signifi-cantly in lowering salt and calorie levels. With a little practice these bad habits (and that's all they are) can be broken. The best guide to good nutrition for healthy, normal nor-mal people are still the four food groups: 1. Meat, fish, fowl. 2. Fruits and vegetables. 3. Milk and dairy products. prod-ucts. 4. Breads and cereal grains. It is possible to get all of them in many fast foods. A taco, for example, consists of a cereal shell, ground meat or chicken, shredded cheese, lettuce and tomato. Pizza has a cereal crust, tomato sauce, cheese and various vegetables and meat toppings. A cheeseburger cheese-burger with lettuce, tomato toma-to and onion does meet the four food group criteria, i Avoiding the calorie-laden calorie-laden french fries and salty fat encrusted fried batters, doughnuts, sweet desserts, sugary soft drinks and excess ex-cess salt when eating in any fast food outlet can mean the difference between be-tween a potentially dangerous dan-gerous routine and a fairly nutritious diet. Certainly fresh foods served by loving hands at home are the best, but when fast and cheap foods are the only alternative, you can still make some pretty good choices if you use your head when eating in a fast food outlet. |