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Guilfordian —
Fast Food
BY BECKY CHARLES
*7 rut til homr"
(.itrrvnfHtntivnt
"Two all beef patties, special
sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles,
onions, on a sesame seed bun" -
563 calories (53% from fat) +
1,010 mg sodium
It's Sunday, dinner time in the
cafeteria. As you walk the final
fifty feet to the door of Founders,
you ask a couple of pale-greenish
friends "What's for dinner?"
They look at each other and
weakly mumble some familiar,
but not appetizing, words about
what they had eaten. They also
add some wise words about what
to avoid in your encounter with
the most dreaded meal of the
week. As you stroll into the
cafeteria encountering more
pale-green faces, smelling the
likes of shepherd's pie, and see
ing the unfamiliar mixes of
vegetables, you and your friends
opt for McDonald's or Hardee's
instead.
If you knew what you were
eating at those fast food
restaurants, you would probably
take your chances in the
cafeteria instead. However, con
sumers don't know what they are
really buying when they order a
Hardee's bacon cheeseburger nor
can they easily find out what is in
their McDonald's Big Mac. You
can. however, rest assured the in
gredients are not as innocent as
catchy commercial jingles might
lead you to believe. Children sing
the jingles merrily on their way
to school and adults en
thusiastically hum the tunes
around the house. Why not - these
are all wholesome, nutritious in
gredients, right? How en
thusiastic would you feel if you
knew that a Big Mac alone con
tains 563 calories, 53% of which
Spanky
Voted In
j At the end of last semester, the
Computer Services conducted a
campus wide contest to help
nameCthe VAX that the students
use. They wanted the students to
be able to name their own
system.
There were over 100 entires col
lected. The purpose of naming
them is for code names to send as
an ''address," it is basically for
future use when more VAX com
puters are purchased.
The following list is a summary
of the entries:
The Winner: The Little
Rascals, with "Spanky" being
the first to be named.
Most Original: "Shake, Rattle,
and Roll."
February 5, 1986
are derived from fat? When you
gulp down that Big Mac you have
eaten the fat equivalent of 8.7
pats of butter and over 1000 mg of
sodium (the amount required by
the body in an entire day). The
Big Mac is not the only example
nor the worst example of "fat"
food The June 1985 issue of Nutri
tion Action listed calorie, fat, and
sodium contents for foods from
many fast food chains. Nutrition
Action, published by the Center
for Science in the Public Interest
(a nonprofit, public interest
organization), also listed the
"worst" and "best" of fast foods.
The foods in these categories
were judged according to calorie
content, the percentage of fat
contributing to the calories,
sodium content, and cholesterol
amounts. The worst foods were:
Roy Rogers' Crescent Sandwich
w/Ham - 7.5 pats of butter of 442
calories (58% of them from fat)
and 1,192 mg sodium; Wendy's
Cheese Stuffed Potato - 9 pats of
butter or 590 calories 52% from
fat) and 450 mg sodium; Mc-
Donald Chicken McNuggets - 5
pats of butter or 314 calories (54%
from fat), 525 mg sodium;
Hardee's Bacon Cheeseburger -
11.1 pats of butter or 686 calories
(55% from fat), 1,074 mg sodium;
McDonald's Sausage biscuit -10.4
pats of butter or 582 calories (61%
from fat), 1,380 mg sodium. The
best foods were: Long John
Silver's Baked Fish - .5 pats of
butter of 151 calories (12% from
fat), 361 mg. sodium; and Jack in
the Box Shrimp Salad - .3 pats of
butter or 115 calories (8% from
fat), 460 mg. sodium. It's too bad
that there are no Jack in the Box
restaurants in this area.
However, Long John Silver's is
not too far away (the nearest
located at 2623 Battleground
Avenue). An honorable mention
Most Unoriginal: "Names ofi
the Planets."
Most Nominations: "The
Brady Bunch."
Most bizarre: "Cheeses?"
Cutest: "Bill and Bev."
Person Submitting Most En
tires: Robert Hong.
Cleverest: "Liz Taylor and her
husbands."
Most Risque: "Types of Con
traceptives."
Most New Wave: "Devo."
Most Granola: "Names of
spices."
Cute but too long: "Little Baby
Guilford."
Too Seasonal: "Santa and his
Reindeer."
Thank you to all who par
ticipated.
Computer Services
Guilford's own fast food row. Photw by Rolf ()rsagh
went to Arby's Roasted Chicken
Breast - 1.9 pats of butter or 254
calories (25% from fat), 930 mg.
sodium.
Names can disguise a food's
true nutritional worth. For in
stance, Nutrition Action in
dicated that while the term
"salad" suggests few calories
and little fat, Long John Silver's
Seafood Salad has 386 calories
(67% of them from fat); Hardee's
Shrimp n Pasta Salad has 362
calories (72% from fat). There
are however some truly good
salads available. For instance,
Wendy's Salads with reduced
calorie dressing live up to their
names.
Most fast foods, however, serve
up generous amounts of
cholesterol, saturated fats, and
sodium, all of which are known
contributors to heart disease.
Some of the foods also contain ad
ditives to which many people are
allergic. Things like monosodium
glutamate (MSG), Yellow 5 (an
artificial coloring used in many
fast foods), wheat, corn based
Join The Timely
And Always Intriguing
Guilfordian
Staff
SWAT
Are you interested in meeting new students? If so,
applications are now being accepted for the Student
Welcoming and Advisory Team (SWAT). SWAT is
responsible for helping to plan and carry out the new
student orientation programs in the fall and spring. If
you are responsible and enjoy meeting, greeting, and
guiding new people at Guilford, then SWAT is for you.
Applications can be picked up from Olive Jenkins in
the Center for Personal Growth, Founders Hall
Basement.
sweeteners, nuts, peanut oil, milk
solids, sulfiting agents, and eggs
are prevalent in these foods.
When I asked the managers of the
New Garden Road McDonald's
and Hardee's, they were unable
to tell me which additives were
used in their products nor did
they have a clear idea as to how a
customer might find out what ad
ditives were used.
Customers can write to a fast
food chain and ask if a specific in
gredient is used in any of its pro
ducts. However, the Center for
Science in the Public Interest
(CSPI) wrote to the major fast
food chains asking for product in
gredients. Only Arby's responded
with such a list. Other companies
(McDonald's, Arby's, Burger
King, Hardee's, etc.) did not res
pond to repeated inquiries or said
they would not give out lists of
products ingredients but would
tell a customer with allergies
which products contained a
specific substance. Some com
panies said they had no informa
tion available about their ingre
dients or they considered the in
formation to be confidential.
The CSPI has petitioned the
Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) to require all fast food
chains to disclose the ingredients
on all products that come in
packages. It would also be nice if
information such as fat content
and cholesterol amounts were in
cluded on the ingredient labels. If
legislation such as this succeeds,
and hopefully it will, then we will
be made aware of what we are
eating. Maybe the resulting loss
in sales would convince the con
venient food chains to begin
dishing out nutritious foods in
stead of their current "hazardous
to your health" meals. The CSPI
urges those interested to write
Sen. Howard Metzenbaum
(D-Ohio) at the U.S. Senate,
Washington, I).C. 20510. Explain
to the Senator that you wish for
the CSPI's petition to become a
reality. So, hopefully, when the
next "Whopper" craving or "Big
Mac Attack" overcomes you, you
won't fear for your life.
ACOA
Have you ever found
yourself wondering what
"normal" is? Are you
afraid to be out of control?
Do you knowingly or
unknowingly create crisis
in your life when things
are going too well? In your
intimate relations do you
still give loyalty even
though loyalty is no longer
deserved?
If these things sound
familiar to you and your
parents or grandparents
were/are alcoholics then
you may want to join the
ACOA group on Monday
nights at 8:00 p.m. in
Room 203, Founders Hall.
We are not affiliated with
Al-Anon, but are a group
designed specifically to
meet the needs of the adult
child.