3rd Annual Let's Move! DeKalb Expo

FREE BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLIES - THIS SATURDAY! 3RD ANNUAL LET'S MOVE! DEKALB EXPO - JULY 27TH!    Plan to join us for the 3rd Annual Let's Move! DeKalb Expo this Saturday, July 27th  at Exchange Park Center in Decatur, Georgia from 10 am to 3 pm.   There will be fitness fun, heath tips and games for all ages.      Best of all there will be FREE Back to School supplies!    The Expo is presented by:          Here's the list of Expo Exhibitors and Partners: American Diabetes Association    Love Youth Fitness Amerigroup     Made A Way Cutz Atlanta Braves    Mercer College of Pharmacy Atlanta Hawks    Nike Better Health Atlanta Regional Commission    Peach State Health Plan Coca Cola Foundation    Prince Martial Arts Commissioner Larry Johnson    Renee's Wacky Hair Cooking Matters    Ryan Cameron Foundation Decatur Housing Authority    Sam's Club DeKalb Department of Health    Simply Pure Foods DeKalb Junior Service League    State Farm DeKalb Right from the Start Medicaid    Sons of Phoenix East Lake YMCA    S.U.D.I.A. Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson Co.    Swagger Crew Fit Kidz Georgia School Nutrition Association    Team Blue Tennis Georgia SHAPE    Young Chefs Academy Keyes In The Kitchen    Young at Heart Wellness Kids & Teens Primary Healthcare    We Can!     Click the image below to see a video from our event last year. 2012 - 2nd Annual Let's Move! DeKalb Expo with C.H.O.I.C.E.S. Please help us send children back to school with the supplies they need.  Our goal is to have book bags, backpacks, and school supplies for at least 500 children.    A donation of  $10 can fill a backpack with school supplies. A donation of $25 provides a child with a backpack and school supplies!    Click Here To Make A Donation    Unable to donate? Be an event volunteer!  We still need help at the nutrition exhibits, physical activities, Tastes of C.H.O.I.C.ES. and health education exhibits.     Click Here To Volunteer     Visit our website: www.ChoicesforKids.org to learn more Got questions? Send an email to Chaz Chapman at: CChapman@ChoicesForKids.org

The Best and Worst Products at Trader Joe's

www.BeHealthConscious.org

• Email
• Print

Russ Shelly of the review site What's Good At Trader Joe's weighs in on 25 products
What's good at Trader Joe's? What's not? These are questions that fans and detractors of the store are very passionate about. Last August, Nathan Rodgers, his wife Sonia, and their friend Russ Shelly and his wife Sandy decided to systematically review every product to find out.

The team reviewed 75 products on their site, What's Good at Trader Joe's?. They then rated them for The Daily Meal in five categories (drinks, desserts, sauces and soups, international entrées, and snacks), setting off a firestorm of comments from both "TJ's" fans and "Traitor Joe's" haters. "The frozen chocolate croissants from TJ's are amazing," noted one. "I hate TJ's produce," said another. "It tastes like science."

The last laugh is on haters. Several confused readers wrote requesting stores be built in Wilkes-Barre, Penn.; Memphis; Kansas City; Dallas-Fort Worth; and the Pacific Northwest. And some of these wishes may be fulfilled. According to Trader Joe's, stores are planned for Kansas City; Chicago (South Loop); Leawood, Kan. Louisville; Mt. Pleasant, S.C.; Pittsburgh; Spokane, Wash.; State College, Penn.; and Staten Island.

Related: 10 Chain Restaurants Worth Visiting

With 2011's midpoint nearing, it's time to check in again with the trio to get an update on the best and worst products. You have to wonder, given the time they've spent in the store and all the products they've considered, is there anything the What's Good at Trader Joe's folks are scared to try? "We don’t really have a top five list for what Nathan and I are scared to try, but I can tell you our top scary items," Russ confided.

"The Blueberry Vanilla Chèvre kinda scares me a little," Nathan admitted. "I'm down with goat cheese on salads and sandwiches, but I've never thought of it as a dessert food.”

"We’ve had fans swear by it, though," said Russ. "For me, the thought of trying any Trader Joe-brand sushi is a kneeknocker. I’ve heard horror stories from sushi aficionados, and the one time I’ve had sushi in my life, at a pretty respectable restaurant, I wasn’t much of a fan. I can’t imagine the Trader Joe’s sushi being worthwhile or remotely enjoyable."

And with that, it's time for some best-ofs. Below are Russ Shelly's picks in five new categories with his brief reviews and ratings on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), including a category likely to stir things up: "Worst. Stuff. Ever."

Top 5 Vegetarian
1. Veggie Sausage Patties (9 points)
I’m a meatatarian by nature and nurture, and sausage is by far one of my favorites. These veggie patties come extremely close to matching the real thing. If meat grew on a tree this is how it would taste.

2. Trader Jose’s Mildly Spiced Vegetable Burritos (8.5 points)
I was amazed at how good these were. I love meat, and I love spicy, but there’s something about these that make them surprisingly and undeniably good. The burritos definitely have more of a kick than expected, too.

3. Paneer Tikka Masala (8 points)
One of my wife’s favorites, and it’s up there for me too. The masala sauce is intoxicating, and it ties together a very good, somewhat off the beaten track microwave lunch.

4. Lentil Soup with Ancient Grains (8 points)
This stuff seems straight from another time from another part of the world. It’s thick and chunky and extremely filling. This ain’t no canned soup. We make a beeline for it when shopping.

5. Apocryphal Pita and Roasted Garlic Hummus (8 points)
Pitas and hummus make a classic vegetarian pairing, and this combo should not be missed.

Related: What Else is Good at Trader Joe's?

Top 5 Breakfast
1. Organic Mango Passion Granola (10 points)
Finally, a breakfast cereal worth waking up for. It actually puts a smile on my face early in the morning and keeps me full until lunch. The Mango Passion Granola truly has my respect.

2. Breakfast Scramble (8.5 points)
Quick ‘n easy potatoes, onions and eggs, and shockingly good out of a microwave. Tough to beat for a hot meal on a busy morning without a drive-thru involved.

3. Frosted Maple and Brown Sugar Shredded Bite Size Wheats (8.5 points)
A tasty twist on a cereal classic. The maple and brown sugar flavor make for an easy morning for the taste buds and the biscuits are crispy crunchy to the last spoonful.

4. Organic Lowfat Yogurt Wildberry Probiotic Smoothie (8.5 points)
Quick and portable for a quick grab. They could be a little bigger, especially if you wake with the hunger of a bear coming out of hibernation, but for what they are, they’re pretty darn good.

5. Heart Healthy Whole Grain Blueberry Instant Oatmeal (7.5 points)
Some mornings only oatmeal will do. Sorry Wilfred Brimley, this stuff is tough to beat.

Related: Trader Joe's: The Good, the Bad, and the Dearly Departed

Top 5 Appetizers
1. Heat & Eat Falafel: (9.5 points)
Ridiculously easy. Ridiculously satisfying. And ridiculously good paired with some TJ’s hummus. They’re spicy, homey, and have instant comfort. They’re restaurant quality for a fraction of the cost.

2. Thai Joe’s Coconut Curry Chicken Stix (8 points)
The stix are good enough to rival spring rolls at many Thai restaurants. For being a one-trick pony, Thai Joe did pretty well for himself here.

3. Parmesan Pastry Pups (7.5 points)
Not a lot of Parmesan, but good pastry, and thankfully, no pups involved. A good twist on the classic pig in a blanket, especially since the mini-dogs are beef.

4. Scallop Bites (7 points)
More delishy than fishy. These certainly make a decent seafood snack, and would be sure to please a crowd.

5. Mini Chicken Tacos (7 points)
A little plain, and not for those who are weirded out by miniature foods. Still, a pretty good facsimile, however smaller, of a pretty decent taco.

Related: What Else is Good at Trader Joe's?

Top 5 Biggest Winner Versus Expectation

1. Baker Josef’s Chocolate Cake and Frosting Mixes (10 points)
Nathan and Sonia’s biggest pleasant surprise was the Baker Josef's Chocolate Cake and Frosting Mixes. Neither one of them is really a "chocolate cake person," but they might be if all chocolate cakes tasted like this one.

2. Green Plant Green Food Beverage (6 points)
Okay, it’s not highly rated, but it was definitely one of the biggest pleasant surprises for me. It looked disgusting and I had to swallow hard before trying it, but the green beverage actually turned out to be fairly good overall. I definitely thought I’d score it much lower.

3. Heart of Darkness Mango Passion Fruit Blend (8 points)
After the very unsuccessful Organic Mango Nectar, we were a little hesitant to try this one, but it's really tasty. A bit oddly inspired, to be sure.

4. Chicken & Cheese Tamales (8 points)
Frozen microwavable tamales that actually taste good? That’s possible? In a word, yes.

5. Omega Orange Carrot Juice (7.5 points)
One of the most uniquely delicious tasting juices we’ve ever tried. It’s so good, it doesn’t taste healthy.

Related: Trader Joe's: The Good, the Bad, and the Dearly Departed

Bottom 5: Worst. Stuff. Ever.
1. Turkey “Meatloaf Muffins” (0 points)
Easily one of the worst things I’ve ever put in my mouth since being old enough to know better. And that says a lot. To date, still the only 0 we’ve ever granted. My wife Sandy was smart enough to never even try them. I wish I was as wise.

2. Fat Free Spicy Black Bean Dip (2.5 points)
If you like hummus-fied dark super vinegary matter, you’ll like this. Not spicy at all and we cannot verify if there are really black beans or anything other than vinegar in it.

3. Satay Peanut Sauce (3 points)
Tastes fishy. Literally. That’s not even close to what satay peanut sauce is supposed to taste like.

4. Chile Spiced Mango (3 points)
Way too much chile and not enough mango. Flavor combinations can’t be this one sided.

5. Trader Joe-San’s Green Beans (3 points)
A little too out there texture-wise, and very inconsistent from one bite to the next. Pretty bland as well.

Snacking, not portion size, largely driving U.S. overeating

www.BeHealthConscious.org

By Anne Harding, Health.com

More from Health.com

• 25 Ways to Cut 500 Calories a Day
• 25 Diet-Busting Foods You Should Never Eat
• The 50 Fattiest Foods in the States

Over the past several decades Americans have steadily gotten fatter. Although our increasingly sedentary lifestyles are partly to blame, a big reason for our national weight gain is that we're simply eating more.

In the mid-2000s, government surveys show, the average American adult ate about 2,375 calories per day, nearly one-third more than he (or she) did in the late 1970s. What accounts for all those added calories?

According to a new study, the biggest single contributor to the sharp rise in calorie intake has been the number of snacks and meals people eat per day. Over the past 30-odd years, the study found, Americans have gone from consuming 3.8 snacks and meals per day to 4.9, on average—a 29 percent increase.

The average portion size has increased, too, but only by about 12 percent. And, surprisingly, the average number of calories per 1-gram serving of food (known as "energy density") actually declined slightly over that period, which suggests that calorie-rich food has played a relatively minor role in our expanding waistlines.

"The real reason we seem to be eating more [calories] is we're eating often," says the lead author of the study, Barry Popkin, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "The frequency of eating is probably, for the average overweight adult, becoming a huge issue."

Popkin blames food advertising and other marketing for the shift from three square meals a day to near-constant eating.
 
"It's all about making people think they want to have something in their hands all the time," he says. "Why are we snacking all the time and munching all the time? [Food] is there, it's available all the time, it's tasty. It's not very healthy, but it's tasty. It's sweet, it's salty, it's fatty—it's all the things we love."

Lisa Young, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University and the author of The Portion Teller, agrees that the ubiquity of snack foods has helped drive overeating.

"You never used to see food staring you in the face when you went to…a drugstore," says Young, who was not involved in the new research. "It's in your face and it's cheap. You go get a magazine, you can get a candy bar."

To tease apart how eating habits have shaped calorie intake, Popkin and a coauthor analyzed data from four nationally representative food surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1977 and 2006. Their analysis, which appears in the June issue of the journal PLoS Medicine, was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

The findings weren't entirely unexpected. In a previous study, Popkin and his coauthor found that the amount of time between snacks and meals has shrunk substantially since 1977, while the amount of calories consumed from snacks has risen dramatically.

Christopher Gardner, PhD, the director of nutrition studies at Stanford University's Prevention Research Center, in Palo Alto, Calif., says that although the new findings ring true, the survey-based approach Popkin and his colleague used has some inherent limitations.

Despite being nationally representative, the surveys didn't follow the same individuals over time, and in some cases also used different questions and methods, Gardner points out. Moreover, they relied on the participants' memory of what they'd eaten in the previous 24 hours, which can be unreliable.

"When people try to describe the portion sizes they are consuming, they are often inaccurate," Gardner says, adding that similar inaccuracies may crop up when recalling and calculating the energy density of specific foods. In fact, he says, the number of meals and snacks may be easiest of all to remember and track, which may have somewhat exaggerated its importance to total calorie intake.

But Gardner, too, says that frequent—and often mindless—snacking has come to seem normal.

In our food-filled environment, Young says, "We need to be conscious of when we eat, how much we eat, and what we eat."

Young recommends sticking with three meals a day and choosing healthy snacks (such as fruits and vegetables) rather than processed foods. "And keep your portions in check," she says.

Follow Yahoo! Health on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook

The 10 unhealthiest fast-food meals

www.BeHealthConscious.orgby Jonathan Berr

• tweet4
• Email
• Print

provided by

From California, to the New York island; from the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters, this land is filled with fatties, lard butts and people large enough to have their own gravitational fields. Yes, America is the land of the "large and in charge," and one of the main reasons for it is our love of fast food.

Though it's tempting to put all of the blame for America's obesity crisis on the fast-food industry -- and experts say they're at least partly at fault -- it's important to view it in context. The industry came of age during the 1950s, as suburban communities saw their populations skyrocket and social mores began changing as women began to increasingly work outside the home. Some of the savviest entrepreneurs in American corporate history sprang into action.

More from 24/7 Wall St.: • 10 Signs the Double Dip Recession Has Begun • Fastest-Growing State Economies • Breakfast Cereals Americans No Longer Love

McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD - News) started the trend in 1955 when businessman Ray Kroc wondered how the McDonald Brothers sold so many burgers at their Southern California burger joint. He opened his first McDonald's Drive-In in Des Plaines, Ill. There are now more than 32,000 restaurants that are home to the Golden Arches. Col. Harlan Sanders began franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1952. Five years later, Sanders began selling chicken in the signature buckets, and today there are more than 15,000 KFC outlets. James McLamore and David Edgerton founded Burger King in 1954, when, as the company's website notes, "flame-broiled beef begins fulfilling its destiny." There are more than 12,500 Burger Kings today. Glen W. Bell Jr. opened the first Taco Bell in 1962 with an investment of $4,000 and eventually sold the chain to PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP -News) in 1978. At that time, there were 868 Taco Bells. Today, there are nearly 6,000. At the tender age of 17, Fred DeLuca co-founded Subway Restaurants in 1965. They have 32,800 locations today.

Fast-forward to the beginning of the of the 21st century, and many of the same trends that helped create the modern fast food industry are still helping fuel its growth. Many children, especially racial minorities, live in single-parent households -- a whopping 65 percent of non-Hispanic black children and 37 percent of Hispanic children as of 2007,according to Kids Count. Mothers are working outside the home at much higher rates than years past. Women comprised 46.8 percent of the total U.S. labor force in 2009 and are projected to account for 46.9 percent of the labor force in 2018, accounting for 51.2 percent of the increase in total labor force growth during the same period. Add to this mix high unemployment rates caused by the uncertainty of the worldwide economy, and the allure of fast, cheap food becomes hard to resist.

And therein lies the problem.

Obesity rates are a public health crisis. They have tripled among children since 1980. In 2009, only Colorado and the District of Columbia had a prevalence of obesity less than 20 percent, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. People who are obese are vulnerable to everything from diabetes to heart disease, resulting in some $147 billion in direct medical costs annually.

Determining how much fast food is at fault for the poor state of the health of many Americans "is impossible to quantify, but is definitely a factor," says Christina Munsell, research assistant at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University, in an interview. The increase in obesity "definitely would correlate with eating quicker meals that are easier to obtain."

In order to create the rankings, 24/7 Wall St. examined the menus of the top 10 restaurant brands in the quick service category by sales as determined by QSR, an industry publication, looking for items that were the highest in calories, carbohydrates, sodium and saturated fat. We then ranked them against the nutritional guidelines of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A couple of important caveats to consider: Not all food sold at fast food restaurants is unhealthy. The industry aggressively promotes healthier choices on their menus. Subway, for one, makes a special point of doing this, even though its footlong subs are not healthy choices. Moreover, experts point out that some items sold at sit-down restaurants are actually much more unhealthy than many fast food items. Fast food, though, has gained ground during the economic slowdown, while casual and fine dining chains have suffered. McDonald's alone earned $24.58 billion in revenue in 2010. Yum Brands! Inc. (NYSE: YUM - News), parent of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, made $11.42 billion.

Methodology: We derived the rankings by taking the average nutritional ratings of menu items compared with USDA recommendations. Carbohydrates, saturated fat, and sodium were given the most weight. Calories and protein were also considered.

1. Pizza Hut Triple Meat Italiano

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 1280 (49%)
• Saturated Fat: 23g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 123 (38%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 3,070mg (133%)

Pizza -- plain with cheese and sauce -- is not particularly unhealthy. This gastronomical overkill featuring "all-natural pepperoni, all-natural Italian sausage and baked ham" is terrible. Pizza Hut offers plenty of healthier choices.

2. Subway 12" Italian B.M.T

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 900 (35%)
• Saturated Fat: 16g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 94 (27%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 3,000 mg (130%)

It's easy to see why Subway does not list this sandwich under its "low fat footlongs" on its website. It has a whopping 3,000 mg of salt, 130% of the recommended allotment in a daily diet. "The problem with Subway is the portion size," Munsell says, adding that the problem with this sandwich is the salty luncheon meats. Subway is getting the message about salt. As an April USA Today article noted, "Beginning today, sodium content in Subway's 'Fresh Fit' sandwich line in the U.S. will be cut 28% vs. 2009, when Subway first began to cut salt. And sodium in its overall sandwich line will be cut by 15%, compared with the same period."

3. KFC Chicken Pot Pie

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 790 (30%)
• Saturated Fat: 37g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 66 (20%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,970mg (86%)

Salty and high in calories, there is little positive that can be said about the KFC Chicken Pot Pie. A Yum! Brands spokesman had this to say: "It's all about providing our consumers with choices, and each of our brands has introduced products that are lower in calories and fat, such as KFC's Kentucky Grilled Chicken, Pizza Hut's Thin 'N Crispy Pizzas and salads and Taco Bell's Drive Thru Diet Menu with seven items less than 9 grams of fat."

In other words, diners have a choice whether they eat something with almost a full day's allotment of sodium in one sitting.

4. Sonic SuperSONIC Bacon Double Cheeseburger with Mayo

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 1,370 (53%)
• Saturated Fat: 36g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 55 (17%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,610mg (70%)

The name alone should make a diner want to grab a fistful of Lipitor. Those brave enough to chow down on this 1,370-calorie monstrosity probably shouldn't eat much for the rest of the day. Once a regional operator in the South and Midwest, Sonic (Nasdaq: SONC -News) now operates in over 3,500 locations.

5. McDonald's Angus Chipotle BBQ Bacon

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 800 (31%)
• Saturated Fat: 18g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 66 (18%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 2,020mg (88%)

The Angus Chipotle is big and has bacon, two red flags for any dieter. "It's problematic," says Munsell, adding that the Golden Arches have borne the brunt of negative publicity about fast food. That's unfair. "We did find that McDonald's did have more healthy options" than other chains, she adds. Indeed, it ended its Super Size promotion a few years ago, no doubt spurred by the publicity surrounding the movie "Super Size Me."

6. Taco Bell XXL Grilled Stuft Beef Burrito

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 880 (34%)
• Saturated Fat: 3g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 94 (26%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 2,130mg (93%)

Taco Bell has mastered the art of blending meats and cheese in ever-creative caloric combinations. The XXL Grilled Stuft Beef Burrito is a monument to gluttony. Taco Bell calls it its "biggest burrito yet." It has "a blend of three cheeses -- cheddar, pepper jack and mozzarella -- flavorful seasoned rice, hearty beans, reduced-fat sour cream, chunky guacamole, avocado ranch and fiesta salsa, wrapped up in a warm flour tortilla." Taco Bell's sales have been hurt by the publicity surrounding the quality of its beef.

7. Wendy's Triple

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 1,030 (40%)
• Saturated Fat: 28g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 43 (18%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,800mg (78%)

Anyone eating this monstrosity might not realize that the USDA recommends that people eat a portion of meat roughly the size of deck of cards. This Wendy's monster burger clocks in at a whopping 423 grams. Wendy's (NYSE: WEN - News) has struggled for years against larger rivals. It unloaded its underperforming Arby's chain earlier this week to private-equity group Roark Capital Group. Wendy's did not respond to a request for comment.

8. Subway Footlong Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 750 (28%)
• Saturated Fat: 2.5g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 117 (41%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,810 mg (79%)

Subway unhealthy? In some cases, the answer is "yes." While this sandwich is low in calories and fat, it is high in salt. The portions of Subway's footlong sandwiches are too large, Munsell notes. Subway did not respond to a request for comment.

9. Burger King Triple Whopper with Cheese

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 1,180 (44%)
• Saturated Fat: 30g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 52 (16%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,330mg (58%)

The Triple Whopper makes the Quarter Pounder with Cheese seem like health food. At 1,180 calories, it packs more than twice the punch of the McDonald's burger, which has 535 calories. In a statement to 24/7 Wall St., the company referred to the Triple Whopper as an "indulgent option for our guests." Burger King says it encourages customers to eat healthy choices that provide 650 calories or less -- approximately one-third of a 2,000-calorie diet.

10. Wendy's Baconator Double

• Calories (pct. daily diet): 930 (36%)
• Saturated Fat: 25g
• Carbohydrate (pct. daily diet): 41 (13%)
• Sodium (pct. daily diet): 1,840mg (80%)

Who says you can never have too much bacon? Anyone with sense, that's who. Rudd's Munsell noted with amusement how fast food chains "combine every type of meat on one sandwich." The Baconator was relentlessly hyped for a while. A Wendy's spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

___ 

Wendy's Natural Cut Fries: Better Tasting, Yes. Natural, No

www.BeHealthConscious.Org 
When Wendy's (NYSE: WEN - News) created its Natural Cut Fries With Sea Salt, which it introduced last fall and is now promoting in new TV ads this week, the company's product development team found a way to leave the potato skins on, make the fries crispier and give them a much tastier flavor. What they didn't manage to do, however, is make the fries an actual all-natural product. That, says CMO Ken Calwell, would be too difficult given fast food customers' demands for items that are cheap and can be hoisted through a car window.

• Subway Food Not as 'Fresh' as It Sounds • Why Most Self-Help Books Stink • Office Nutcases and How to Cope

"People are saying they want high integrity ingredients, things their grandmother would have used, that don't look like they came out of a chemistry lab," Calwell explained in an interview with BNET. "But they're also saying I've got a family to feed and can only afford to spend about $4 on my lunch, and I've only got about a minute or two to eat it."

So instead of going the more expensive Five Guys route of making their fries fresh and in-house, Wendy's settled for "natural cut." What this means is that inside the processing plant, the potatoes skip the step of getting steamed at such a high temperature that the skins burst off. Wendy's spuds go straight to the high tech cutters where they're sliced.

©Image courtesy Wendy's

And Then the Not-So-Natural Part

Then come the not-so-natural parts. The fries are sprayed with sodium acid pyrophosphate, a chemical that prevents them from turning brown from two baths in frying oil -- one at the factory and the other at the store. They're also dusted with dextrose, a sugar derived from corn, for similar purposes. For comparison, Five Guy's fries don't need sodium acid pyrophosphate or dextrose because they're only fried once and aren't frozen.

And just like every other large fast food chain, Wendy's frying oil is dosed with dimethylpolysiloxane, a silicone-based chemical that helps keep the vegetable oil from getting foamy after countless rounds of frying. (Five Guys doesn't use dimethylpolysiloxane either because their peanut frying oil is more stable than the standard soybean and canola varieties.) Wendy's Natural Cut fries are also frozen like everybody else's, even though it's a big point of distinction for Wendy's that their hamburgers aren't.

Wendy's has also highlighted that it uses "100% Russet potatoes," but John Keeling of the National Potato Council says that this is not a selling point. "Virtually all processed French fries are Russets," he said in an email.

Taste and Compare

But the new fries do succeed in taste tests, even beating those at McDonald's, according to the company's research. Wendy's hired an outside firm to do a national taste test and the results showed that 56% of people taking the test chose Wendy's skin-on fries, whereas only 39% preferred McDonald's (4% had no preference). And Wendy's 6,600 stores, orders that include fries are up almost 10%.

Nutritionally, the skins on the fries add 1 extra gram of fiber per serving for a total of 6 grams in a medium. Although the sodium content went up by 43% to 500 milligrams for a medium, an increase that no doubt helps with the taste factor.

Calwell says that making Wendy's menu items more natural and more real is the company's "North Star."

"We're taking it product line by product line to make our food closer to this real ingredients story. Over time, you'll see our ingredient labels getting shorter and more of those high integrity ingredients. It just takes time," he said.

___