The Fast-Food Guide: What's Good, What's Bad, and How to Tell the Difference

Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and Fritschner, a nutritionist and food writer, provide a solid, clear basic course in dietary health, and then discuss the fast-food world, which, not surprisingly, they view overall as a nutritional nightmare. But the authors' emphasis is on helping Americans make the best of a bad situation. Thus in addition to recommending salad bars and such sensible alternatives as substituting milk or fruit juice for colas or shakes, the book includes pages of charts and commentary on fast-food ingredients and other pertinent information (such as what kind of oil foods are cooked in). The authors maintain, for example, that even though McDonald's new and successful McD.L.T. comes with a slice of tomato and some lettuce, it has four times as much fat as the regular hamburger, twice as much as the Quarter-Pounder and provides only 10% of the recommended daily dose of vitamin A and 15% of vitamin C. The Gloom Factor rating devised by the authors, which highlights fat, sodium and sugar content, makes the charts easy to use. This is a useful, needed book that at worst will help people eat better at fast-food outlets and at best will convince readers to avoid junk food altogether. (November)