While I have not read this book, so I can't speak from actual experience, I have to say that I am a little concerned by any "health-type" book that would encourage anyone to eat fast foods of any kind, but with that said, I do agree that at the very least, if you MUST for whatever reason, have a need to eat at Burger King or McDonalds it is nice to know which is a better choice. BUT at a purely caloric intake level for 500 calories just for the burger alone you could have an entire healthy meal (chicken salad for example for half the calories) by making much better choices even at the drive thu and feel great afterwards...
The younger you are, the more forgiving your body is for the effects of fast food... The older you get, the slower your metabolism becomes, the easier your body stores fat, the less active you sometimes becomes and it is horrible the effects that fast food has on your body become more evident... Let's be realistic in staying that Americans are overweight not because they have salads when they go to fast food joints... they are overweight because 98% (ok, I might be over-exagerating this figure here, but...) of ANY menu at McD's, BK, Wendy's, is NOT geared towards people who are looking to make healthy choices in their food intake... If you take the time and effort to exercise and work hard to do cardio, stretching, etc... then why do we feel the need to take short cuts with our food? Education in the effects (both negative and positive) of all kinds of foods is IMPERATIVE. Yes, this book could help someone save a few calories here or there, but if you are still ingesting 2 days worth of fats in one sitting (and the wrong kind of fats on top of it) then where is the benefit? there is none in my opinion...
I used to be a fast food junky because it was just that.. FAST... however, today I am paying the high price with my health issues (high cholesterol, higher cardiac risks, overweight) because of the choices I made years ago. While this does not effect everyone the same, IMHO, fast food is just no longer an acceptable food source for me... and sort of like then analogy of "lesser of two evils" from your albeit breif examples from the book....
Just be careful that you don't get caught up in the thinking that Big Mac's are Healthy in any respect because they are simply NOT... but when in a real bind (while I can't imagine ever having a BM or a Whopper will be the ONLY options) just knowing what will have the least negative impact is a good thing...
sorry, not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but with a quick kick in the butt from my Dr. I would hate anyone to have to go through what I have and will be going through to reverse years of food abuse from lack of information and my simply making bad choices. All those times I could have at least had a SALAD rather than that burger and fries... would have made a world of difference to me now!
