Book Review by Kathryn Atwood
The Stop and Go Fast Food Nutritional Guide”
by Steven G. Aldana, Ph.D.
ISBN 13 978-0-9758828-4-9
Maple Mountain Press
935 East 900 North
Mapleton, UT 84664
135 pages
$6.95
In creating “The Stop and Go Fast Food Nutritional Guide,” Steven Aldana has sought to fill an important informational gap in the fat-laden “western” diet (so called because of its prevalence among western industrialized nations). Although packaged foods are required to exhibit nutritional information, restaurants are not.
Enter Aldana’s book. “Stop and Go” lists the nutritional content (i.e., calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium and fiber) of almost 3,500 different entrees from a total of 69 fast food restaurants. The title phrase “stop and go” refers to the clever and quickly comprehended layout of the book: healthy entrees are coded in green, borderline foods with yellow and those the highest in calories, saturated fats and trans fats are coded with (guess what?) red.
Trans fat (that is, hydrogenated vegetable oil), looms large in “Stop and Go.” Aldana relates that the consumption of trans fat is responsible for at least 30,000 to 100,000 heart disease-related deaths each year. Since there is no safe level for trans fat consumption and since most fast-food restaurants utilize trans fats in some (if not all) of their cooking, “Stop and Go” is an informational windfall for those who eat fast food but are also concerned about their health.
Although the consistent redness of almost every McDonald’s entree (including many salads) didn’t surprise this reviewer, the many “red” Taco Bell entrees did. Trans fats are so dangerous that if an entree contained even 2 grams of trans fat, it received a red code. And so, the very delicious Nachos Bell Grande side dish, which contains a whopping 10 grams of trans fat is unfortunately but definitely red while the equally delicious spicy chicken soft taco received a green light for bearing only one gram of trans fat.
Although healthy fast-food eating may sounds like an impossible oxymoron, “The Stop and Go Fast Food Nutritional Guide” can make this a reality and should be placed in the glove compartment of every fast food restaurant patron.
