This morning I walked around the Austin Farmers Market. I snapped a bunch of photos and will write a recap on Monday. As I was walking around, I started to think about what I had for breakfast a year ago. Generally Saturday was my “fast food breakfast” day.
This morning I had a green smoothie with pineapple, banana, orange juice and spinach. For comparison, a year ago I had (and it makes me so ashamed to say this out loud): 9 french toast sticks and 2 bagels with “egg”. This fast food breakfast is generally what I consumed each weekend for years (although sometimes it was half). Pretty crazy, eh?
I figured let’s see yet another reason why I am fat – here are the nutrition facts for my fast food breakfast:
- French Toast sticks: 1,050 calories, 75 GRAMS OF SUGAR!!, 33 grams of fat, 840mg sodium
- Syrup: 120 calories, 18 grams of sugar
- Bagels: 800 calories, 25 grams of fat, 1200mg sodium
So in this one meal, I basically ate the calories you should have for an entire day, the sugar you should probably have in a month and the sodium you should have in a lifetime.
And for sickness purposes, here are the ingredients in the french toast sticks:
Bread: Enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid), enriched bleached flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup, yeast, may contain 2% or less of each of the following: soybean oil, wheat gluten, salt, dough conditioners (may contain one or more of the following: sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium stearoyl-2-lactylate, calcium peroxide, calcium iodate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, enzymes), corn flour, yeast nutrients (calcium sulfate, monocalcium phosphate, ammonium sulfate), glycerol monooleate, oleoresin paprika and oleoresin turmeric (coloring agents), polysorbate 60, polysorbate 80, calcium propionate (preservative), corn starch, soy lecithin, soy flour. Batter and breading: water, bleached wheat flour (enriched with niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid), wheat flour, sugar, yellow corn flour, soy flour, contains 2% or less of the following: dextrose, modified corn starch, salt, lecithin, gum arabic, leavening (monocalcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate), yeast, glycerine, natural and artificial flavor, polysorbate 80, carrageenan. Pre- Fried in soybean oil.
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Hi:
Just started seeing your posts on G+. I, too, have made very similar lifestyle/diet changes about 2 months ago — but my goal might be a little different from yours — my primary goal is cholesterol reduction — need to get down from 280 (!!) to well under 200. Haven’t touched red meat or fried foods in two months. Side benefit? Lost about 15 lbs — I’m at 190 from 205. Wont know about cholesterol for another month or so. In any case, I’m very interested in some of your diet choices — the breakfast smoothies in particular — they sound like a great start of the day! My usual breakfast is ultra high-fiber — oatmeal with flax meal and a teaspoon of natural peanut butter and some fresh fruit (banana, strawberries or blueberries) added.
I noticed you’re still eating eggs — another taboo on my diet… I will continue to avoid until I see the effectiveness of my diet change…
Good Luck! Keep the posts coming!
Rob – thanks for commenting! Trust me, drinking a smoothie was foreign for me just a few months ago. Now I do one every morning for the last 3-4 weeks and love it. It’s nice and cold so it wakes me up and it’s easy to put it in a sippy cup (i use one from startbucks) and just sip on it for an hour. I tried making pineapple smoothies the last week but they come out much thinner – still taste great, just not as thick as a 7-11 slushy.
Congrats on your change! – we can support each other to make it to the finish line – mine is ways away but I hope each day i take one more step towards it.
Maybe try the smoothie instead of the fruit with your oatmeal? I have no real suggestions as I am a newb heh
A coworker who’s on a “low carb” diet and professes healthy eating had THIS for breakfast a about two weeks back:
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/product_nutrition.breakfast.281.Big-Breakfast-with-Hotcakes-Regular-Size-Biscuit-.html
I think she honestly couldn’t visualize that a “regular” breakfast that seemed balanced could be so bad. And I think that’s a problem too many Americans have. It looks well-rounded, so it must be, right? Sigh.
Glenn – this is a lot like “sensa” that seems to be on the shopnbc channel all the time – they say “eat your mcdonalds all you want, just sprinkle this stuff on it and you will eat less” – sorry but there is no health there – I used to eat the mcdonalds hotcakes all the time – never with the meat but still, they are garbage, we know this.
I am most worries for my new niece – the girl will grow up from day 1 with ronald mcdonald not ronald mcwholefoods.
Thanks for commenting!