Fast Food To Make A Nutritionist Smile

A healthy number of options exist for diners on the go.

The Boston Globe:

Chipotle is a little hard to find. From the street, when you enter the strip mall, you can see a Boston Market sign and dental offices, but to find the eatery, you have to drive around the side of the mall. There it is, a small store festooned with a ‘Grand Opening’ banner. Chipotle, an up-and-comer in the nation’s pantheon of healthy fast food, has finally come to metropolitan Boston.

There are now 585 in the nationwide chain. At the Medford branch - the 578th - the interior is all shiny pressed metal and deep magenta. Young women working the counter smile shyly as they flip tortillas into a warming press, cover them with shredded pork, black beans and rice, and salsa. A young man in the open kitchen turns and shows off a T - shirt that reads, ‘I made the guacamole today.’ The simple menu here, which boasts many organic ingredients and naturally raised meats, consists of burritos, tacos, and salads.

But in metropolitan Boston, Chipotle is a latecomer. The chain was one of the 1st fast - food places in the country to embrace healthy choices, but here it joins several small local chains already trying to make a name for themselves. America’s love affair with fast food - McDonald’s Big Macs and fries, KFC fried chicken, Taco Bell Mexican style - defines us to the world. In the last decade, that craze for fatty, salty, premade , and cheap fare has also been linked to the obesity crisis. As the nation struggles to deal with the resulting health problems, efforts to limit trans fats have been stepped up. Continued….