It's Summer and with the kids out of school we've been having fun growing strawberries and delicious fresh produce in our garden. Summer for our family also means ROADTRIPS! We bring an ice chest full of healthy snacks and plenty of water (in our glass and steel reusable water bottles🤗). but there are long drives that call for eating out. Most decent restaurants have healthy options... Or at least ones that aren't the worst! I strive for 80/20... 80% eating clean and healthy and try to choose the lesser evils 20% of the time and not worry too much about it. So on vacations we make the best choices possible, but we aren't obsessive about it. (Remember stress and cortisol is unhealthier than some junk food that a clean body can probably process without too much upheaval.)
We hardly ever do fast food. It's common knowledge that the big chains mass produce and fill their products with undesirable fillers, flavor enhancers, money savers, GMO's and preservatives. But the only exception we make is a pit stop at In-N-Out Burger!
For some reason I fell under the spell that it was above reproach. Everyone knows McDonalds is unnatural, but In-N-Out's reputation boasted Fresh all natural ingredients!!! You can watch them cut the potatoes and wash your fresh looking produce.
I always felt good taking my kids to get a burger and fries at In-N-Out, despite the times where the tomatoes seemed ill colored and transparent and when the patty was so thin and salted it tasted brined!! We avoided the soda, shakes and white bun and ordered the "protein style" lettuce wraps and I'd pass up, but let the kids enjoy the "fresh" potato fries. We'd squeeze lemon in the water and feel for "Road Food" we did pretty good.
It wasn't until I got a doctors report that my 17 year old son had become allergic to peanuts, corn, wheat, soy, walnuts and sesame. This was a shock and we are in the process of rebalancing his body and doing another blood test to see if we can heal the allergies... But in the mean time he was on board checking ALL ingredients religiously! We couldn't believe how many seemingly natural and "healthy" brands added corn (corn syrup, starch or maltodextrin) and soy lecithin... It's in everything!! Even most of the gluten free tortillas and other grocery items I had hoped would be safe. We were out school shopping and stopped at In-N-Out. Surely without the bun a hamburger would be safe... I tried to search online for ingredients and was frustrated that it was so difficult to find nutrition and allergy information!! He asked in the restaurant and they said the fries were not fried in vegetable soy oil or corn oil and they said not to have the secret sauce. So he had a protein style 3x3 without sauce and fries without catsup.
I thought he had ordered no cheese but on later inquiry he said they said it was ok... "It's just cheese". Lol that is not "just cheese" and I was sure there'd be some corn or soy in it. There's nothing online!! I found some disgruntled conversations about this and my favorite whole food warrior THE FOOD BABE wrote an informative article about this issue. She had got Chipotle to finally post their ingredients online and In-N-Out seemed to be the last hold out. They assured her "they are in the process" but it only takes minutes to post a pdf, and it's been several months since her article was published.
A useful fact I ascertained was that my precious fresh real potato fries that I offer my kids are fried in Cottonseed OIL!!! Cotton is not meant for consumption and the byproducts and pesticides from the crop leave residue in the oil. Ugh!
And just now we are on a 13 hr drive and our traditional pit stop was now marred with a nagging doubts. I pressed about the cheese and they said it did have the allergens in it so he got a cheese less, sauce less lettuce wrap. I forgot to tell them to not add salt so again I found myself guzzling my lemon water to compensate for the sodium overload. We did get some fries, but half as many as usual and I asked if they had a corporate suggestion box. They didn't, but because my heart still wants to love them and my family is mourning a tradition lost I am imploring a campaign #stepitupinnout ... With very few changes they really could fulfill their
of being natural healthy and fresh and a much needed healthy fast food alternative!!
They treat their employees well and are mindful of the environment, if they'd just Step It Up and do their part to combat the American Health Crisis and avoid GMO's and corn and soy additives.. Use organic ripe produce... Less salt... And be transparenct!! Let us see how awesome you are!
PASS IT ON!!
We hardly ever do fast food. It's common knowledge that the big chains mass produce and fill their products with undesirable fillers, flavor enhancers, money savers, GMO's and preservatives. But the only exception we make is a pit stop at In-N-Out Burger!
For some reason I fell under the spell that it was above reproach. Everyone knows McDonalds is unnatural, but In-N-Out's reputation boasted Fresh all natural ingredients!!! You can watch them cut the potatoes and wash your fresh looking produce.
I always felt good taking my kids to get a burger and fries at In-N-Out, despite the times where the tomatoes seemed ill colored and transparent and when the patty was so thin and salted it tasted brined!! We avoided the soda, shakes and white bun and ordered the "protein style" lettuce wraps and I'd pass up, but let the kids enjoy the "fresh" potato fries. We'd squeeze lemon in the water and feel for "Road Food" we did pretty good.
It wasn't until I got a doctors report that my 17 year old son had become allergic to peanuts, corn, wheat, soy, walnuts and sesame. This was a shock and we are in the process of rebalancing his body and doing another blood test to see if we can heal the allergies... But in the mean time he was on board checking ALL ingredients religiously! We couldn't believe how many seemingly natural and "healthy" brands added corn (corn syrup, starch or maltodextrin) and soy lecithin... It's in everything!! Even most of the gluten free tortillas and other grocery items I had hoped would be safe. We were out school shopping and stopped at In-N-Out. Surely without the bun a hamburger would be safe... I tried to search online for ingredients and was frustrated that it was so difficult to find nutrition and allergy information!! He asked in the restaurant and they said the fries were not fried in vegetable soy oil or corn oil and they said not to have the secret sauce. So he had a protein style 3x3 without sauce and fries without catsup.
I thought he had ordered no cheese but on later inquiry he said they said it was ok... "It's just cheese". Lol that is not "just cheese" and I was sure there'd be some corn or soy in it. There's nothing online!! I found some disgruntled conversations about this and my favorite whole food warrior THE FOOD BABE wrote an informative article about this issue. She had got Chipotle to finally post their ingredients online and In-N-Out seemed to be the last hold out. They assured her "they are in the process" but it only takes minutes to post a pdf, and it's been several months since her article was published.
A useful fact I ascertained was that my precious fresh real potato fries that I offer my kids are fried in Cottonseed OIL!!! Cotton is not meant for consumption and the byproducts and pesticides from the crop leave residue in the oil. Ugh!
And just now we are on a 13 hr drive and our traditional pit stop was now marred with a nagging doubts. I pressed about the cheese and they said it did have the allergens in it so he got a cheese less, sauce less lettuce wrap. I forgot to tell them to not add salt so again I found myself guzzling my lemon water to compensate for the sodium overload. We did get some fries, but half as many as usual and I asked if they had a corporate suggestion box. They didn't, but because my heart still wants to love them and my family is mourning a tradition lost I am imploring a campaign #stepitupinnout ... With very few changes they really could fulfill their
They treat their employees well and are mindful of the environment, if they'd just Step It Up and do their part to combat the American Health Crisis and avoid GMO's and corn and soy additives.. Use organic ripe produce... Less salt... And be transparenct!! Let us see how awesome you are!
PASS IT ON!!
