Tuesday, June 26, 2007

ChikFilA

This is in response to Kelli In the Mirror's question in response to my Fast Food post.

ChickFilA advertises that they use 100% peanut oil. That is true - thats what they FRY in and its non-hydrogenanted, so not trans fat.

Their Waffle Fries do have trans fat though. The most likely buy frozen potatoes that have already been cut and fried once in trans fat. See ingredidents here

Here they say that and that they hand-bread their chicken nuggests and chicken strips in the store. Great. Sounds good right? Well here is the nutritional info for their nuggets and they actually do have soybean oil in them (and milk). Not good for those with allergies. They dont have trans fat though so that is good. Most dipping sauces besides ketchup are made with a base of soybean oil too.

Here are the ingredients for the Grilled Chicken Club (my favorite thing there). It says "100% natural chicken breast" but this: butter flavored vegetable oil (soybean oil, palm kernel oil, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavor, TBHQ and citric acid added as preservatives, and artificial color) is listed underneath that. How is butter-flavored soybean oil, perservatives and artificial color "100% natural"?!?!?!?! There is also artificial color in the cheese (why?!), nitrates in the bacon (more on that coming soon) and TRANS FAT from shortening in the "golden wheat bun from a local bakery".

Also note that the Peanut Oil they use has TBHQ - just for reference, ingredients with numbers or capital letters usually arent good for you. Think "MSG". You'd have to eat a lot of chicken nuggest to get 1 gram of TBHQ but just a little of a bad thing doesnt make it safe.

Look at the ingredients list for the Southwest Chargrilled Chicken Salad. Its longer than the list for the one with fried/breaded chicken! The longer the ingredients list of anything, the less healthy it usually is - especially when you have no idea what they are and/or cant pronounce them! The coating on the chicken has trans fat. Not very healthy at all!

Other items from ChikFilA with TRANS FAT:
Biscuits, Brownies, Tortillas, Gravy, Hashbrowns, Cinnamon Cluster, Croutons that come with the salads, Chicken Soup, Lemon pie, Cheesecake, etc.

And check out the ingredients in the milkshakes (which I admit, I L-O-V-E but Im currently off of soy and sugar) - they are like a mile long. They are full of corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors, preservatives, and also have soy and Splenda in them.

Like I said, I love their food but I hate that I do. I dont even care if someone wants to eat there but people should KNOW that all this junk is in their food. We are so naive about what goes into all food, including the food we buy at the store and make ourselves.

Hope this helps someone :)

(my 50th post - woohoo!!!!)



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How disappointing, I love ChikFilA, and here i thought I was eating "healthier" when I chose them while at work. I guess I will go back to having a sandwich on my break, but those Milkshakes are hard to pass up, I think they call my name. :)

Rachel said...

I hear ya girl. The owner of our local one is one of Steves bank customers and she gives him coupons for free milkshakes all the time. There is one in my purse right now - talk about temptation!!!

loni said...

The butter flavored vegetable oil is the "butter" they put on the bun. Often, people don't even realize that Chick-Fil-A "butters" the bun, but they do. You can ask for no butter and then you won't have that funky stuff. I don't know why they put it on there. I can't even taste the difference.