Eat This, Not That: Chipotle

BY TRACY

Eat This, Not ThatDavid Zinczenko and Matt Gould­ing co-authored a series of books called “Eat This, Not That”, which out­lines what you should and should not be eat­ing when eat­ing out. Today we cover Chipo­tle, a seem­ingly easy and healthy choice when faced with a fast food lunch. How­ever, David and Matt give it a C– (worse than McDonald’s!) and say only with a care­ful selec­tion and small por­tions can you eat healthy here.

“There are only a few bad items on Chipotle’s menu: the 290-calorie flour tor­tillas, the 130-calorie serv­ings of white rice, and the 570-calorie por­tions of chips. Unfor­tu­nately, with Chipotle’s pared-down menu, these are the sta­ple comestibles that form the back­bone to most meals. With­out real­iz­ing it, the care­less cus­tomer can eas­ily con­struct a thousand-calorie bur­rito. Drop some chips along­side it, and the meal reaches dan­ger­ous lev­els of calo­ries, fat, and sodium. Still, Chipo­tle gets bonus points for using respon­si­ble, sus­tain­able pur­vey­ors like Niman Ranch to fill out their fridges.”

Sur­vival Strat­egy: Chipo­tle assures us that they’ll make any­thing a cus­tomer wants, as long as they have the ingre­di­ents. With fresh salsa, beans, let­tuce, and grilled veg­eta­bles, you can do plenty of good. Unfor­tu­nately, with 13-inch tor­tillas, cheese, and huge scoops of white rice, you can do plenty of harm, too. Stick to one of our 450-calorie favorites: Three crispy tacos with car­ni­tas, black beans, let­tuce, and fresh salsa.

What are your daily food sur­vival strate­gies? Share your ideas by click­ing “Com­ments” above.

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