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Chipotle

Is it healthy?

nyyanks937
nyyanks937 g Yevgeniy Kruchenetskiy
86 Post(s)
86 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: October 10, 2017
Posted

99% of the food I eat is homemade, but once a week I go to Chipotle for lunch. I get the same thing every time...a bowl of brown rice, black beans, chicken, tomatoes, and sprinkled with cheese. Based on their website, the nutrition info for this meal is:

calories: 655

carbs: 60g

protein: 50g

fat: 22.5g

I chose this because, in my opinion, it seems like a healthy choice considering I'm eating out. The concern I have is the 22.5g of fat. Their site says the chicken has 7g of fat and the brown rice has 6g. Obviously naturally these things have almost no fat. Their ingredients breakdown says they use rice bran oil to make these...so I assume most of that fat comes from this oil (although they also use rice bran oil in the beans, yet they only have 1.5g of fat, so I guess they use less of it for beans?). So I was wondering if this oil contains healthy fats? And, do you think overall this meal is a relatively healthy choice and OK to have just once a week?

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

99% of the food I eat is homemade, but once a week I go to Chipotle for lunch. I get the same thing every time...a bowl of brown rice, black beans, chicken, tomatoes, and sprinkled with cheese. Based on their website, the nutrition info for this meal is:

calories: 655

carbs: 60g

protein: 50g

fat: 22.5g

I chose this because, in my opinion, it seems like a healthy choice considering I'm eating out. The concern I have is the 22.5g of fat. Their site says the chicken has 7g of fat and the brown rice has 6g. Obviously naturally these things have almost no fat. Their ingredients breakdown says they use rice bran oil to make these...so I assume most of that fat comes from this oil (although they also use rice bran oil in the beans, yet they only have 1.5g of fat, so I guess they use less of it for beans?). So I was wondering if this oil contains healthy fats? And, do you think overall this meal is a relatively healthy choice and OK to have just once a week?

@nyyanks937 there's nothing wrong with a bit of Chipotle once a week. Chipotle is one of the best 'fast food' choices you can make. The fats they're using may not be the absolute best, but they're not the worst either.

 

The chicken fat I wouldn't worry about much at all, and brown rice actually has probably a couple of grams of fat without any oil, so it's not that much being added there.

 

Enjoy it man 😁 

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jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: Scott_Herman

@nyyanks937 there's nothing wrong with a bit of Chipotle once a week. Chipotle is one of the best 'fast food' choices you can make. The fats they're using may not be the absolute best, but they're not the worst either.

 

The chicken fat I wouldn't worry about much at all, and brown rice actually has probably a couple of grams of fat without any oil, so it's not that much being added there.

 

Enjoy it man 😁 

I agree with Scott. If you are going to eat fast food, Chipolte is one of the better chains. I would avoid the usual suspects - Sonic, McD's, BK, Subway, Dairy Queen, Popeye's, KFC, Long John Silvers, Red Robin, Jersey Mike's, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and Wendy's. The "higher end" chains like Chipolte, Boston Market, Chili's, TGIF's, and Olive Garden tend to have more wholesome selections and better quality foods.

 

Chicken fat and rice oil are naturally occurring. It is the corn oils, soybean oils, and other man-made oils most restaurants use to cook their food that are the ones to worry about.

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
nyyanks937
nyyanks937 g Yevgeniy Kruchenetskiy
86 Post(s)
86 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: October 10, 2017
Posted
Posted By: jmboiardi

I agree with Scott. If you are going to eat fast food, Chipolte is one of the better chains. I would avoid the usual suspects - Sonic, McD's, BK, Subway, Dairy Queen, Popeye's, KFC, Long John Silvers, Red Robin, Jersey Mike's, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and Wendy's. The "higher end" chains like Chipolte, Boston Market, Chili's, TGIF's, and Olive Garden tend to have more wholesome selections and better quality foods.

 

Chicken fat and rice oil are naturally occurring. It is the corn oils, soybean oils, and other man-made oils most restaurants use to cook their food that are the ones to worry about.

 

John

Great. But wait, you said to avoid subway too?? Even if I get for example a chicken sandwich on 9 grain bread (granted it's not 100 percent whole grain)? I checked their ingredients list and they do use soybean oil in their food, and have many more ingredients in each food than chipotle does...but I was surprised you said to completely avoid subway (I go there rarely though).

jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

Great. But wait, you said to avoid subway too?? Even if I get for example a chicken sandwich on 9 grain bread (granted it's not 100 percent whole grain)? I checked their ingredients list and they do use soybean oil in their food, and have many more ingredients in each food than chipotle does...but I was surprised you said to completely avoid subway (I go there rarely though).

Subway is the biggest scam going. Their food is low quality, their bread is crap, and their vegetables are ladden with chemicals to keep them looking fresh. Cold cuts - no matter if antibiotic free, etc - are still full of dangerous sodium nitrates and are made from the lowest quality meats. Their chicken may be antibiotic free but not hormone free and the mass-produced chicken farms they buy from are suspect.

 

At the end of the day, convienence foods/fast foods are low cost and fast because they use cheaper and lower quality food and prepare it in mostly unhealty ways. It is their marketing department's jobs to try to convince you their stuff is healthy.

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

Great. But wait, you said to avoid subway too?? Even if I get for example a chicken sandwich on 9 grain bread (granted it's not 100 percent whole grain)? I checked their ingredients list and they do use soybean oil in their food, and have many more ingredients in each food than chipotle does...but I was surprised you said to completely avoid subway (I go there rarely though).

Yeah I mean Subway might not be the best either.. but again compared to others, it's one of the better choices. In my opinion, in moderation it's OK 😊 

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