QUICK BITES
Customize meals for healthier living
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
Nutrition advisers suggest you plan ahead before eating out. Jack in the Box's new "Build Your Meal" features allows you to place meal items on a virtual tray, and then — you should excuse the expression, Burger King — figure out how to have it your way by adding and deleting ingredients.
My usual choice at Jack in the Box is a chicken sandwich. With everything, that's 390 calories (185 of them from fat), 21 grams of total fat (4 saturated, 2 trans fat), 730 milligrams of sodium and 39 grams of carbohydrate.
Without mayo and onion sauce: 330 calories (125 from fat), 14 grams of fat (3 saturated, 2 trans fat), 670 milligrams of sodium and 38 grams of carbohydrate. Bunless with nothing but lettuce: 190 calories (110 from fat), 12 grams of saturated fat (3 saturated, 2 trans-fat), 390 milligrams of sodium and 11 grams of carbohydrate.
It took about a half a minute to get these figures — wish there was a database that allowed you to do this so easily for all foods! But the bottom line for me would be: Even skipping the sauce and the bread, for 190 calories, there are a lot of things that are bulkier (and therefore more hunger-inhibiting) and have a better nutritional profile. Jack's Asian Chicken Salad isn't one of them: Even without won ton strips and slivered almonds, the salad with greens, chicken and dressing isn't much better for you than the chicken sandwich (375 calories, 17.5 grams of fat, 1,265 milligrams of sodium, 41 grams of carbohydrate — the bulk of it from sugars).
Flavored teas enrich Hawai'i Coffee Co.
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Hawaiian Islands Tea was founded by Dave Plaskett, whose background in research served him in learning how to infuse tea with fruit and other flavors; he now is director of tea for Hawai'i Coffee Co.
The flavored teas are in three broad categories: caffeine-free herbal teas, green teas and black teas.
Life Foundation benefits from meals
If you go out to breakfast, lunch or dinner tomorrow at select O'ahu restaurants, you'll be Dining Out for Life: A portion of the proceeds from your meal will go to the Life Foundation, Hawai'i's largest and oldest AIDS service organization. Participating restaurants include: all Big City Dinner locations (breakfast proceeds only), Chai's Island Bistro, Marbella Mediterranean Cuisine and Montien Thai (lunch or dinner).
In the interest of full disclosure, I am involved with the Life Foundation, but I'm a fan of such partnerships in any case — a win-win for the organization and the dining establishment.
