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This all sounds like a great idea. Yeah, great.

Well… except when you eat out, especially fast food, you really have no idea what is going into it. I remember Chipotle burritos from when I used to eat fast food occasionally. When I eat one of my burritos I’m full for a couple of hours. When I ate at Chipotle I was full for most of a day. Both mine and theirs have roughly the same weight. I figured something was going on, like lots of oil in the rice, but could never prove anything. I just learned to not eat there unless I had time for a really long nap afterward.

Thanks to the modern interwebs, however, I can now find out why my typical meal (13” Tortilla, Rice, Black Beans, Cheese, Sour Cream, Red Salsa, Chicken) was so filling: 1038 calories with 356 of them from fat. You also get 2.5 grams of sodium which is your entire USDA daily allotment. (Site: http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=nutrition_calculator). Yikes. This is roughly the same as two big macs (my quantum unit for things that kill you slowly by mouth). So what to you get aside from 1/2 your calories and 83% of your saturated fat for the day? No minerals or vitamins whatsoever. The only redeeming part of the meal is you get 60% of your dietary fiber, but no mention of whether that is soluble or insoluble fiber.

The ingredients to make this at home would likely cost you about $1.50, maybe $1.75 tops, and I bet you couldn’t work in as much fat and salt as Chipotle does even if you tried. At Chipotle you pay $7.00 plus drink plus tax.

Of course the other premise underlying this app is that you are likely going to get to this establishment by car which is another form of evil.

So you’ve got expensive, fattening, not nutritious food that requires burning gasoline to get to. I take it back. This a horrible idea. A really horrible idea.

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Where there’s a will, there’s a watt.

I can certainly understand the need for a burrito…
And I can definitely see the utility for such an app (but I’ll still check my drive-through order carefully before I leave the parking lot)…

But Chipotle?
 Really?

I think you need your taste buds checked, little brother. Chipoodle is about a half-step up from Taco Smell.

Someone help this poor man!

Golly, I just thought the idea in general was kind of cool. I haven’t actually been to a Chipotle in a few months. I’ll admit that sometimes I will occasionally eat there, but you’re right that it’s quite filling. Using Dave’s nifty nutrition calculator link, it looks like my usual choice is only 710 calories with 210 from fat. Bad, but it could be worse as you pointed out. And typically if I eat something like Chipotle it’s my main meal for the day.

I’d much rather go to Ixtapa, but that’s a bit more of a time and money investment. And I certainly don’t have a problem driving my evil car anywhere I want.

I guess I spouted off a bit. Sorry about that. I’ve been reading The Omnivores Dilemma so I’m even more than usually irked with fast food establishments.

The good news is the nutrition calculator is buggy. The new one won’t calculate vitamins and minerals, but the old one will. It is possible to get some decent nutrition at Chipotle depending on what options you pick. You’ll still get your nutrition with a slug of sodium and fat, however.

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I am convinced the best way to eat is to buy food with one ingredient as much as possible. This means oatmeal good, frosted flakes bad. Strawberries good, Yoplait Yogurt with strawberries bad. Chicken good, TV dinner with chicken bad. Home-made soup good, store-bought bad. In nearly every case the one ingredient method will lead to more nutritious as well as much cheaper food. Of course you can still dump a bunch of butter and salt into your oatmeal and make it as unhealthy as you choose, but at least it’s your choice and not a result of being hidden in there by some corporation.

As I learn more about cooking I am amazed at how we’ve made food way more complicated an unhealthy than it needs to be. My yogurt has one ingredient: milk; tortillas: flour, water, oil; syrup: fruit, sugar, water; bread: flour, water, yeast, salt, and I could go on. Take a look at how many ingredients are in your average grocery store version of these. Here’s one example:

Wonder Bread
Wheat flour, water, wheat gluten, high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, salt, molasses, yeast, mono and diglycerides, exthoxylated mono and diglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium iodate, calcium dioxide, datem, calcium sulfate, vinegar, ammonium sulfate, extracts of malted barley and corn, dicalcium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, calcium propionate.

All that and it tastes like crap if a near perfect vacuum surrounded by doughy bubbles could taste like anything really.

Here’s another:

Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
Non-fat Milk, Sugar, Cherries, Modified Cornstarch, Corn Syrup High Fructose, Whey Protein Concentrate, Gelatin, Tri Calcium Phosphate, Citric Acid, Beet Juice Concentrate, Pectin, Natural Flavor(s), Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D

And once again there’s the money thing. My homemade yogurt with strawberries is 20% cheaper than Yoplait, utterly fat free, and a lot more tasty.

Notice how often, nearly universally, high fructose corn syrup shows up on these lists. And in case you haven’t been reading much recently high fructose corn syrup ain’t good for you. And by the way “natural flavors” can be nearly anything including a bunch of really strange substances obtained by torturing corn with nasty chemicals. Sounds good and natural to me.

Oops. There I went again.

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Where there’s a will, there’s a watt.

One of my all-time favorite davew threads. A pair of comments headed straight for the Tao of Davew, which as you know is the official sacred text of the fundamentalist Wilehian sect of the Brunch Davidians.

I am very glad that davew exists; for if he didn’t, the modern consumer would have to invent him. He is True North on the Compass of Healthy Ascetic Living. Listen up, live long, and prosper.

@David L. Crooks “On the other hand, I just had a physical and the doc says I’m doing just fine”

The problem is that once atherosclerosis or adult-onset diabetes become a big enough problem to be noticed in a regular physical there has already been a significant amount of irreversible damage. More to the point, however, most adult men I know regularly complain about being (at least) a few pounds overweight and not having enough money. The solutions to both of these problems can start by pedaling your bicycle right past McDonalds and Starbucks.

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Where there’s a will, there’s a watt.

@Chris: “I realized in writing that based on historical communication patterns, I am unable to give compliments and have them interpreted as such.”

It is your curse for having a subtle, and insightful wit. We always carefully parse what you say for deeper meanings.

If you want to get 22 miles out of a Razr scooter I know the guys who can hook you up. You could also get 45mph out of that bad boy. I’m assuming you carry life insurance.

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Mmmm. Bacon. It’s been a long time. Technically it violates my one ingredient rule. I think Alton Brown has a recipe for it, however.

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Where there’s a will, there’s a watt.