Decided to get Arby’s for dinner tonight, I know it’s not health food. I know that chicken is better than beef but since their chicken is fried while the beef is not, I assumed it would be healthier. To my dismay, I was pretty shocked to see according to the nutritional info that their classic ROAST beef sandwich has .5mg - 1mg of trans fat depending on the roast beef sandwich. Meanwhile, the FRIED chicken has no trans fats regardless of what version it is. How is this possible?
Trans fats if below 0.5g per serving can be shown at 0 grams. Trans fats from beef are natural and should be ignored compared to artificial trans fats from fried food. Beef is also more nutrient dense than chicken and has only a slight bit more saturated fat which isn’t really bad for you. I personally eat 0 chicken and tons of beef and fish. The restaurants your eating at aren’t good for health long term at all either way though.
this depends on what your definition of healthy is…maybe people automatically align “healthy” with the lowest possible calorie option. it seems this is not the case for you however, and understanding that trans fats are NOT good for you in any fashion is good. if it’s a once in a while thing i wouldn’t stress it and go with the beef if you want. in some beef, there are trans fats that develop in the gut of the cow and that it the reason for it.
> How is this possible?
Trans fats are found in most animals (entirely concentrated in their fat). Because beef is marbled its unavoidable but chicken unless you are sucking it off the bone doesn’t have a very high level in cooked meat. Chicken fat contains much less trans fat then tallow does too. Milk also contains trans fats.
According to the USDA reference for chicken breast is 0.091 g/breast which is low enough to be called 0 on the nutritional label. Its unlikely ~0.1g will be actively harmful to you. Single serving of beef is 0.9g which is a little less than half the daily recommended maximum.
The amount of trans fats from frying depends on the oil they used. Vegetable oils don’t generally contain very much anyway but the USDA has been running a voluntary compliance program for a while aimed to get them down to ~zero, changes in the manufacturing process can avoid their formation. Its going to be a few more years until the USDA & NIST update the references but they are probably already at ~undetectable levels in vegetable oils.
IMHO the easiest fast food chain to make good choices at is Chick-fil-A. The cool wrap is actually super healthy.