McDonald's, KFC, Taco Bell Rated Worst by Customers

Three cheers for 2015 fast-food aficionados!  

Selling 20th century-style greasy, salty, cheap fast food is a loser in the 21st century, per a recent nationwide survey of 70,000 customers. Customer preferences in 2015?  

• Fast and casual food eateries that have eliminated artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives from their fare. 
• Meats produced without antibiotics and synthetic hormones.  
• Produce grown in a sustainable manner, so pesticides aren't necessary to grow crops.  
• Food not dripping with grease, and often including freshest produce.  

Think Chipotle, Panera Bread, and Chick-fil-A, the three top vote-getters in the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index.  

Think 21st-century corporations that equate healthier fare... for customers and for the environment... with healthier profits.  Corporations with founders or management that act like they give a damn about community and world.  

The losers in the 2015 American Customer Satisfaction Survey of fast and casual food corporations?  From the bottom:

• McDonald's - Rock-bottom last (by a wide margin)
• Taco Bell - Tied for second-to-last 
• Burger King - Tied for second-to-last 
• Jack-in-the-Box - Tied for second-to-last 
• KFC - One point from tying for second-to-last 

Observed survey authors, "Customers seem to perceive the traditional burger chains as increasingly tired brands — industry competition is fierce, and shifting consumer preferences for healthier food is taking a toll."

Customer satisfaction winners in 2015? The top four are:

#1 - Chick-fil-A, which includes in its Environmental Stewardship and Social Responsibility website sections, company policies on recycling, water usage, energy efficiency, air quality, and waste, and states that "We know that how food is grown and sourced is of importance to customers. We are working to understand and take the right actions to ensure a sustainable and competitive menu in the future."

#2 - Chipotle Mexican Grill, a company dedicated to Food with Integrity, which means:

• "...vegetables grown in healthy soil, and pork from pigs allowed to freely root and roam outdoors or in deeply bedded barns."
• "There's no place for non-therapeutic antibiotics and synthetic hormones on the farms that produce our ingredients."
• "We serve more local produce than any restaurant company in the U.S. In 2014, we served over 20 million pounds of locally grown produce, and plan to increase our numbers every year."
• "We set minimum space requirements for the animals producing the meat and dairy products that end up in our restaurants. We work with our suppliers to ensure the highest possible animal welfare standards."

#3 - Panera Bread, which sets forth under Our Beliefs - Food as it Should Be, goals of:

• Clean Ingredients - " We’re committed to sourcing and serving high-quality ingredients without artificial additives including added MSG, artificial trans fats, and ingredients we don’t believe need to be in your food."
• Transparent Menu - "We’re committed to transparency that empowers guests to choose how they want to eat."
• Positive Impact - "Panera is on a journey to ensure the highest possible animal welfare standards (including)... our reduction in use of antibiotics and confinement."

#4 - Papa John's Pizza, which promises "Better ingredients. Always had them. Always will." and specifically lists all ingredients on their website. Among company commitments:

• No trans fats
• No fillers in our meat toppings
• No cellulose
• No partially hydrogenated oils

Eating home-cooked meals made with freshest ingredients is far healthier than a steady diet of fast food, no matter what their corporate promises.  

But we all eat out, and these days, we usually opt for convenience as well as taste.  

Three cheers for 2015 fast-food aficionados, which includes... well, all of us, it seems.  We're making better choices for our health and for our communities and world.  

And finally,,, finally!...  customer choices are sinking the cynical fortunes of those industrial corporate bastions of  cheap 20th century-style greasy, salty, sugary fast food filled with chemicals, additives,preservatives, fillers and artificial flavors, colors and textures.  

Power to the people!  

Carl's Jr. Salt-Bomb Wins Vote for Most Disgusting New Fast Food

Driving home from our son's wedding in Northern California last weekend, we were hoping to find fast, healthy food offerings near the freeway. Foolishly hoping, it seems. 

Healthy options were scarce, and limited to sugary yogurts and a few sandwiches on whole grain bread (Starbucks), and several carb-and-salt-heavy 6-inch subs loaded with fresh-like veggies (Subway). 

Culinary weapons-of-human-destruction were easy to spot, though, at all the usual fast-food suspects... and were garishly hawked by Taco Bell, Jack-in-the-Box, McDonald's, and Carl's Jr, among others.

We voted Carl's, Jr's brand-new (introduced on October 22) Double Loaded Omelet Biscuit our most disgusting fast-food sighting of this road trip.  And for good reason... 

Brad Haley, chief marketing officer for Carl’s Jr., boasted "The new Double Loaded Omelet Biscuit, packed with three different breakfast meats... We make them fresh every morning by folding crumbled sausage, chopped bacon, diced ham and shredded Jack and cheddar cheeses into an egg omelet. Then we stack two of them inside one of our signature Made from Scratch Biscuits that we make by hand and bake fresh every morning. That great combination of eggs, sausage, bacon, ham and cheese – times two – will be sure to fill you up in the morning in an absolutely delicious way.”

Mr. Haley failed to mention the 1,960 mg of sodium (salt) in one of these drippy concoctions. That's equal to the salt in 15 small orders of McDonald's fries.  Equal to the salt in 9 servings of Doritos Nacho Cheese tortilla chips. 

He also failed to mention the 820 calories (equal to 4 two-packs of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups)  and 58 grams of fat (equal to 2 Big Macs) found in Carl's Jr.'s oozing Double Loaded Omelet Biscuit.  

And, of course, he failed to mention more than 100 chemicals, emulsifiers, additives, fillers, and artificial flavors and colors included as ingredients in this salty-fatty food bomb. 

Clearly, and by a wide margin, Carl's Jr.'s fevered bid to build and proudly sell an astonishingly unhealthy breakfast product wins our vote for the most disgusting fast-food last week along Highway 101.  

My question continues to be... why the heck does our government allow this and similar addictive, poisonous fake foods to be sold to hook the American public into ruining their health?   

Why does our government, which is tasked to protect Americans, allow mega-corporations to deliberately fatten and poison people in order to fatten corporate profits?

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Starbucks: Trying Harder than Taco Bell to Do the Right Thing

Give Starbucks credit for offering options to the public for better quality fast food. 

Starbucks really does try harder than most fast foodies to offer some fare that's healthier, and less laden with sugar, fat, and salt.  

I'm not talking about Starbucks' endless array of delectable cakes, muffins, pastries, doughnuts, and super-sized cookies, of course.  Coffee culture will always serve sweet bakery goods with aromatic java, thankfully regardless of the Food Police.  

Consider Starbucks' newest menu offering, the Vegetable & Fontiago Breakfast Sandwich,  a 470-calorie vegetarian meal made of:

• a fried egg
• a fusion of Asiago and Fontina cheeses
• small amounts of fresh spinach and caramelized onions
• sun-dried tomato spread
• all on a multigrain ciabatta roll

Contrast that with Taco Bell's new breakfast concoction set to debut on March 27:  a sugary waffle, tucked taco-style around a greasy sausage patty, topped with scrambled eggs, then drizzled with Taco Bell's orange liquid cheese.  Optional "syrup" packet for dipping. No nutritional info has yet been released publicly, for good reason. Although anyone ordering this fat-sugar-salt bomb is unconcerned with balancing their diet... 

I tasted Starbucks' Vegetable & Fontiago Breakfast Sandwich, and thought it satisfying and delicious with Mediterrenean flavor. The bread was fresh, the cheese was evenly melted, and the veggies and sauce tasted tangy, not dull.  

This is hardly farm-to-table fresh produce, mind you, much less organic or non-GMO foods. The pale-yellow egg was obviously pre-formed. And at 910 mg of sodium, this new menu item contains nearly 40% of recommended daily salt intake for an adult. 

Cooking this breakfast at home, using organic produce, farm-fresh eggs, and artisan cheese and bread, is certainly a better and more additive-free choice.  But on busy weekdays, who has time for toiling in the kitchen?

Give Starbucks credit for offering the public options for better quality fast food.  

U.S. public health would be greatly improved if all fast food mega-corporations... especially Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Carl's Jr/Hardee's... made more serious attempts at higher quality menu options, as does Starbucks.  

I say, when faced with a choice, take your fast food business to Starbucks. Let's reward those corporations trying harder to do the right thing nutritionally. 

Taco Bell Salad: Why No Warning Label for Lethal Salt Content?

"Beware the killer salad" sounds like the title of a bad movie or shrill invective from yet another annoying Food Puritan. 

Hear me out, though.  For children, aging seniors, and sensitive and ailing individuals, heavy doses of some fast and processed foods can be downright deadly. 

Take, for instance, Taco Bell's Fiesta Taco Salad, my 86 year old father-in-law's favorite go-to fast food.

He relishes the dish because it tastes delicious to him. Because it satisfies his hankering for salty and savory. Because a "salad" seems healthier. Because eating fast food dotted with shreds of tomato and lettuce feels more nutritionally virtuous than quaffing other Taco Bell choices. 

Recently, Dad was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and experienced pulmonary edema (i.e. fluid in his lungs).  After a five-day hospital stay, he's home and on the fragile mend. But he must make vital lifestyle changes, especially a rethinking of his food choices.  

Salt is his nemesis. He must radically curtail his salt intake or fluids will again overtake his lungs and hijack his health.    This for a man who's enjoyed blessedly robust health for 86 years. Who's never needed to learn about nutrition, or been advised to cut back on... well, anything. 

He believes that cutting back on salt means not salting food at meals, and using less salt in cooking.  Like most Americans, Dad is blissfully unaware of massive amounts of salt hidden in fast, processed, and restaurant foods.  

Sure, he understands that his beloved nacho-flavored Doritos are salty. But a salad?  Salads are good for you, right? 

Under the guise of healthy, restaurants and fast food outlets rely on public ignorance to push a panoply of salt-laden "salads" dripping with fatty condiments and sugary-filled dressings.  (See KFC, Jack-in-Box, McDonald's: Legal Deception on "Healthy" Choices .)

And, for Taco Bell's Fiesta Taco Salad, nestled in a scrumptious, deep-fried pastry shell.   The Fiesta Taco Salad - Beef boasts 1,590 mg of salt, equal to:

• 10 orders of McDonald's small fries, or
• 5 Jack-in-the-Box crunchy tacos,or
• 3.5 large servings of movie theater popcorn

If Dad now regularly partakes of his favorite Taco Bell Fiesta Taco Salad, his health will deteriorate. And yes, he has been cautioned by doctors and nurses that too much salt intake can be deadly for congestive heart failure patients.  

 For children, aging seniors, and sensitive and ailing individuals, heavy doses of some fast and processed foods can be downright deadly. 

I ask you....

Why are these salt-bomb weapons of human-health destruction not required to carry warning labels? 

Why are industrial mega-corporations allowed to knowingly hawk unhealthy food products to the public, with no accompanying public warnings?

How is this different than legally mandated warning labels for cigarettes or alcohol? 

"Beware the killer salad" may sound like the title of a bad movie or shrill invective from yet another annoying Food Puritan. But for some people, deceptively salty, sugary, fatty fast-food salads can prove lethal.  

KFC, Jack-in-Box, McDonald's: Legal Deception on "Healthy" Choices

We're livid when car dealers attempt to lure us with bait-and-switch scams. We speak our minds forcefully when we get suckered into any fraud, major or miniscule, be it from useless coupons or crummy products to services that don't deliver.

Sears was actually forced by the FTC, in 1974, to "cease and desist" using  deceptive tactics to draw customers into stores, then "switch their focus to products other than the advertised bargains." For the sake of sales and profits, of course. 

So why, then, do we allow fast food mega-corporations to deliberately fool us with the specter of fresh, healthy salads, when most of their mouth-watering "salad" concoctions are among the highest-calorie, saltiest, least healthy menu items? 

Make no mistake: their ruse is long-pondered, finely-plotted corporate-level sales strategy. 

Busy, beleaguered parents or grandparents of young kids are far more likely to order from McDonald's, Arby's Taco Bell, Jack-in-the-Box, KFC, and the like if they can order healthier for themselves. Or believe they are ordering healthier... The reality is jarring: