Clearly Composed is the pen name of an avid blogger, freelance writer, daydreamer, domestic goddess, budding athlete and eternal soul dedicated to sharing the development of a healthy and balanced life filled with wellness, personal fulfillment, beauty and joy. Passions include living in the forest, taking care of the world’s most adorable dogs, fiction writing, yoga and making soup. “Amazingly enough at around forty years old I discovered who I am and I like her.” ~ C.C.
—–
One of the things I love about Trading Up Downtown is when Tina shares her grocery trip finds with us. It’s easy to see through her pictures and summaries how it is both affordable and feasible to buy healthy foods on a budget. I think we all have the same good intentions of buying varied, exciting, nourishing foods but get caught in the trap of thinking we don’t have the time to prepare them.
I mean, isn’t it faster and easier to stop by a drive thru on the way home? Well, that’s what we have been conditioned to believe by the “fast food” industry. The question is are these supposedly convenient foods saving us time? We certainly know they aren’t doing our health any good and yet a NuVal poll shows that over 20% of us eat fast food once a week and over 15% eat it more than that.
So how much time do we save by passing up what’s in the kitchen to get a quick bite at a fast food restaurant? Let’s take a look at breakfast:
Breakfast at home:
- Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffs (NuVal score: 90)
- Banana (NuVal score: 91)
- Eden Soy Milk Original (NuVal score: 82)
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Breakfast on the go:
- Burger King: Cheesy Bacon BK WRAPPER® which includes: bacon, hash browns, egg, tortilla and smoky cheese sauce. 24 grams of fat
Total time from entering parking lot to driving away from window: 8 minutes
So not only did it take longer to get breakfast on the go but, the nutritional differences are enormous. While NuVal doesn’t rate fast food you can take a look at those individual ingredients and see there are some pretty low scorers there. Remember, that’s just breakfast. It usually takes longer at the lunch and dinner hour rushes.
We can make better choices and we deserve to do just that. Have a list of a few speedy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and keep those ingredients on hand. Rachael Ray has made an entire career based on meals made in less than thirty minutes but even a novice chef knows many tasty meals can be made in much less time than that and you have the added benefit of knowing what it is exactly you are putting into your body.
Maybe it’s time to rename those “fast food” restaurants. Perhaps they should be called “fat food that’s not as fast as the good stuff I make at home” restaurants. I think they would get much less business with that moniker and our hearts and waistlines would both benefit. We certainly have time for that, don’t we?
Developed by an independent panel of nutrition and medical experts, the 
This post is fantastic. People are lazy (might be harsh, but it’s true) and stuck in their routines, plain and simple.
Agreed! Grabbing a banana and some peanut butter on your way out the door is considerably healthier than getting a processed oversized muffin at the vending machine, and really doesn’t take any more time.
Wow, great post! Another reason to avoid fast food… It’s not fast!
Wei-Wei
Great post! Some of the best foods to eat take no prep at all, apples, bananas. What is faster than that?
“We can make better choices and we deserve to do just that” – your words are informative, insightful and inspiring. It is amazing how we can fool ourselves into thinking better food choices are hard and time consuming when it’s just a matter of changing habits.