Arby's Wendy's

posted by Jeff | Thursday, April 24, 2008, 4:02 PM | comments: 11

Arby's parent company bought Wendy's. The family is devastated.


Comments

JRY13SP

April 24, 2008, 9:26 PM #

You know, if I had to match one fast food chain to another, these two would be together. While both are still completely unhealthy, they each had better options before McDonalds and Burger King caught on.

Anonymous Stalker

April 25, 2008, 4:09 PM #

Both completely unhealthy? Really? Arby's Marketfresh sandwiches are pretty reasonable, and while I can't really say that Wendy's are doing themselves any favors with that Baconator thing, their chili could be worse and at least you can get a baked potato there.

Jamie

April 25, 2008, 4:52 PM #

Baked potatoes are one of the worst things for you.

Jeff

April 25, 2008, 5:37 PM #

That's completely arbitrary and untrue.

Anonymous Stalker

April 25, 2008, 6:52 PM #

I think it depends on what you put on it. But a blanket statement of "baked potatoes r teh bad" is a bit much.

JRY13SP

April 26, 2008, 4:50 AM #

No actually Jeff, she's right. When you cook a baked potato, the starches begin to break down into sugar - before you even put into your body. As a result, when you eat it, it breaks down into sugar at a very fast rate - causing your blood sugar to spike very, very quickly. Once your blood sugar crashes from the baked potato high, you find yourself out of energy - and what do you do then? Eat more, of course.

Baked potatoes have a higher glycemic index than most candy.

Jeff

April 26, 2008, 2:39 PM #

Well no shit... everything you eat that isn't fiber or protein gets converted to sugars and then fat if you don't use it. It doesn't make them bad for you. Demonization of potatoes or any single food is asinine and most credible dietitians would never feed you shit like that.

Potatoes aren't bad for you.

JRY13SP

April 26, 2008, 3:15 PM #

You're right - potatoes aren't bad for you. However, just like anything else, you've got to choose how you want to prepare the potato - and the fact is, the baked potato is probably the worst way to prepare a potato. If you're going to eat a potato, it needs to be cooked in a way that is going to slow down the process of turning it into sugar - not speed it up.

In addition, baked potatoes are not so good for you because of what you put on top of them - no one eats a baked potato without any butter, sour cream, salt, cheese, bacon, etc - the list goes on and on. And there's a good reason for that: potatoes taste awful with nothing on top of them. Potatoes take on the flavor of whatever you mix with them - much like broccoli or cauliflower. Why not eat one of those instead of the potato?

There are multiple opinions of what is "good" or "bad" for you. That doesn't make any of them more correct than any other.

Jeff

April 26, 2008, 5:00 PM #

Dude... that's bullshit. Your body metabolizes all carbohydrate to sugar. That's not an opinion, that's the way your body works. Whoever gave you the advice was full of shit.

The average (meaning not the giant Outback Steakhouse variety) Idaho is a hundred calories, and assuming you eat the skin, ripe with vitamin C and potassium, and a couple grams of fiber. It's 100 calories. 100! Even a giant one is under 300, and has at most a gram of fat. That's 5 WW points. Compare that to fries from virtually anywhere at 500+ calories and 15+ grams of fat.

If you choose to drown it in cheese paste, gravy and bacon, that's your decision, but suggesting the thing is bad for you is crap.

JRY13SP

April 26, 2008, 5:27 PM #

Yes, I understand that your body turns all carbs into sugar. What I'm saying is that people who overeat do it because they are hungry - and if you have a sugar high then accompanied by a major sugar low - what do you do to resolve the problem? You eat more food!

If you choose to prepare it in a way that turns it into sugar in a slower process, you'll feel full for a longer period of time and not have a tendency to eat more than you need to.

Jeff

April 26, 2008, 5:34 PM #

People overeat for a number of reasons. That's not a reason to declare any food bad. You make it sound like people are mindless idiots. I eat baked potatoes a couple of times a week. Somehow I'm not compelled to eat anything else after.

You're making a lot of generalizations that aren't true.


Post your comment: