I intend on my son growing up to be a man. Height-wise, he’s nearly there and he’s only eight. With every passing stage I mourn a little for the little baby I once had. I refuse to let him grow up too fast.

He still mispronounces a few things and I won’t correct him because sometimes, the fact that he calls it a “mow-lawner” is the only connection I have to the tiny baby boy he once was. We won’t let him watch many television shows, we don’t allow the word “butt” in our house, and there’s serious controls on our Internet. Mature life will come soon enough, he needs to be a child for as long as possible. However, there is one aspect of being a kid I have never permitted with my son. When it comes to his diet, I refuse to treat my son like a child.

As I read the latest report about the nutrition content found in the so-called “healthy” kids meals I rolled my eyes. One restaurant’s hamburger was higher in fat than than three of another fast food joint’s chicken nuggets. And ‘fast-food place A’ serves a grilled cheese with way more sodium than “fast-food place B’s” corn dog. So it seems, in our tireless effort to get our kids healthy, we’re splitting hairs over whose junk food may have tweaked the recipe enough to be slightly lower in fat or cholesterol to earn the title as a “healthier option.”
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One of my biggest food vices is McDonald’s. I own that. Those French fries have me in a trance just like everyone else. I didn’t used to care. I ate it rarely enough that when I did I figured the difference was made with workouts and healthy meals.

About two years ago, I literally had to wean myself away. I’d drive by and mentally debate myself over whether to pull in or keep going. I usually convinced myself to keep going when I’d conjure up the memory of the unrelenting headache I’d get within a few bites of my combo. Up until about two months ago, I hadn’t eaten there in six months.

One day, I’d failed to eat breakfast or anything else. I found myself running errands at about 2 in the afternoon when the shakes and a blinding hunger struck. The only thing in my vicinity was a McDonald’s. I didn’t have a choice. I inhaled the food, and sure enough, the headache hit me like a brick wall. When I returned to my office, I had to leave a short time later. I was so wrecked with nausea, shakes, and sweating that it wasn’t doing any of us any good for me to stick around. I’ll never eat there again.

There’s something very wrong with that food. I have a really hard time even calling it food because it’s what Jillian Michaels would refer to as a Frankenfood. It’s so pumped full of chemicals, so processed, and so far from resembling what that same food would look like if you prepared it yourself you have to wonder how it’s even legal.

I always wonder how culinary professionals who train for such a delicious career end up as the chief chef at fast food companies. I also wonder how people, like the senior director of culinary innovation at McDonald’s, sleep at night. For the fast food giant, that would be Chef Daniel Coudreaut.

He recently made this bold statement that has my head spinning as badly as it did from the sodium-buffet-in-a-bag I fed myself earlier this spring.

“I don’t see anything on that menu that’s unhealthy,” he said, according to Lisa Abraham in her article at Ohio.com.

WHAT???

He can’t be serious, right?
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Ever suspected that your food may be affecting the way you feel? Namely, your mood? Well new research out of Spain has confirmed a link between fast food consumption and depression. Even though fatty foods can temporarily boost our mood, the longterm affects are doing more harm than good on our mental – and physical – health.

The study observed 8,964 participants over the course of six months, especially taking into account their eating habits. Researchers found that those who consumed fast food were 51 percent more likely to develop depression. And among that group, those who ate more fast food were at even greater risk for suffering from depression.

The study also revealed the type of person who is most likely to be a junk food eater. Researchers found a trend among single, inactive people with poor eating habits, such as eating minimal fruit, nuts, fish, vegetables and olive oil. This demographic, said researchers, also tended to be smokers who worked more than 45 hours a week.
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When you are in a rush and hungry, we’re all guilty of turning to fast food. It is quick and convenient. However, it’s anything but healthy.

People hear the horror stories about fast food chain employees who tamper with food. Just last week, one diner found a finger at Arby’s. Yet, we rarely get to hear about what is actually in our food. Most employees are preparing food in a harmless fashion for consumers. They get to see all the content that goes into a one-dollar hamburger. This isn’t another article about the terrible things employees do to food, instead it is about how people are blinded by marketing tactics and advertisements.

A recent thread on Reddit asked restaurant employees to share what they know about the preparation, ingredients, and processing of the foods they served.
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A commercial for three new sides at Wendy’s caught my attention this weekend. They lead with macaroni and cheese, my “desert island” food of choice; then, chili cheese fries; and rounded out the trio with a baked sweet potato. Now we’re talking!

Baked sweet potatoes are one of my very favorite foods. Particularly, I love them for lunch. In fact, they are a staple around the DietsInReview.com office; someone is always warming one up at noon. I usually bake two or three over the weekend and then take halves to work each day (perfect with my black bean turkey chili). Now, it’s good to know if I forget and really need something healthy and quick, Wendy’s can take care of me.

Leery of even the healthiest foods at a fast food restaurant, I went straight to the restaurant’s web site. There I learned I have nothing to fear, except maybe the cinnamon butter spread.

The potato itself is listed as just a sweet potato, no other additives. They bake this for an hour in each store, and then serve it to you piping hot. It has 260 calories, 0 grams of fat, 9 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein, and more than 1000% of your daily need for vitamin A. These are the nutritional stats for any sweet potato. The ten-ounce sweet potato that they serve (or .6 pounds) is a whopper of a potato; it’s a full four ounces heavier than what is considered a large sweet potato.
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