I have been doing this at least four times a week since January and only one place - a Hardees in the middle of nowhere - has refused to serve me a burger or grilled chicken breast without a bun (and pickles ) Most provide the mayo on the side which really helps with fat-control (PP is a moderate fat plan)

You do have to be able to tolerate everybody in the kitchen coming out to get a look at you in some places.

Sunspin, I'd be in on that one! You know they aren't telling the whole truth, I'd love to prove them wrong.

Orang, yeah, people like to know who wants them to improvise, like its making them go out of their way, but that's the way the ignorant are. I can't believe hardees won't do that for you. I guess you could remove the bun yourself, I'v done that at other places instead of asking, but they should imrpvise for everyone. Think of it this way, and maybe you should mention it.........if someone is a vegetarian, and specifically says I can't have anything touch my veggie burger, or whatever they eat that has touched or came even close to meat, chicken, etc.....they will damn straight make sure that is what is done. (not sure if that sentence made sense.) So, tell them you are absolutely positively not allowed any bread, I think they have to offer you an alternative. That's why their is a low-fat menu.

They coat their chicken in flour, fry it in hydrogenated oil, add sugar to the coleslaw, and then try to market their yucky stuff to LCers? I give it the thumbs down, KFC - come back when you've got sugar-free side dishes and baked chicken.

Yeah, they are smart enough to see there is a market and go after it. I'll give them that one-- they are creating some healthy competition in the fast food category. Hopefully it will get other places to jump on board-- and I HOPE those places will have something better to offer!

The thing that gets me is the quality of their research. I think the majority of LC'ers wouldn't think 11 grams for a breast, 4 grams for a leg plus all the transfat to boot is NOT that great of a deal to begin with. What about the sides?! That's what we want! So we splurge a bit on a piece of chicken but if you give us something else to put with it and fill us up that is very LC, we'd be more likely to make it a regular thing and take them seriously.

The way it stands now, it appears as if nobody did any research to see what LC'ers are all about. It's like one day they said "hey, our chicken does not have as may carbs as our competitors, let's film a commercial!" Do ya think they conducted focus groups with LC'ers??? I kinda feel like they are treating LC'ers as sloppy seconds and not really putting enough research into this campaign to at least give the illusion that they actually care about their customers.

Okay, that was harsh! Sorry! But It's how I feel . . . .

As a marketing professional, I would loooove to be in a LC focus group!



Donald

Donald, that would be GREAT! I'm in the business too and on the rare occasion that I participate in a focus group-- I really tell them how it is! I know secretly they'd wish I just shut-up, I'm not the average consumer! But with an LC focus group . . . . WOW, I'd just go on and on!

The fact they don't sell baked chicken now isn't what really annoys me about them...What really gets me is that KFC had Baked Chicken for a while and quit selling it.

I don't know if this has been posted elsewhere yet, but thought it would be a good addition for a fast food topic. It was in our Vancouver paper on the weekend that "McDonald's reportedly plans to introduce low-carb menu choices in New York state locations starting January".... will the rest of them be far behind???

Yes, I noticed that article. I have mixed feelings about it - on one hand, it's great that we'll have more convenient options, but on the other hand, it could become what Snackwell's was to low fat - pandering garbage food to people who are desperate to cheat. The LC WOE is meant to be whole foods, and if we buy into the Snackwellization, we're no healthier than the low fatters.

Excellent point. That has been my fear as well.

Look at the speciality LC foods already available from places like Atkins and Netrition - many are FrankenFoods I wouldn't consider putting in my body.

While I would certainly applaude a shift to offering a meat with no bun with side salad and maybe even veggies type combo at fast-food places, I'm afraid what they will be offering up is stuff like LC dessert bars and LC buns that are loaded with 'Frankenstein' ingredients.

Exactly. The funny thing is, most people don't bother to question the actual ingredients in these sorts of foods (yet).

I barely eat packaged goods anymore or go out to restaurants because I have Celiac disease (gluten intolerance), and you just wouldn't believe the number of foods that contain grain flour, chemicals derived from them or high levels of cross-contamination. Many manufacturers are not even sure of what their products contain... I'd really rather do without them.

Besides, a caveman wouldn't have had bread anyways

Exactly Kristine !... Sometimes I feel like a voice in the wilderness repeating this message. I see people get all excited about new LC food, never questionning what it's made of. There even was a girl in one of the other forums that wanted to eat only Atkins shakes and bars in order to stimulate her weight loss. I see too many people buying Atkins products with blind confidence just because it bears the name Atkins.

There is one factor that I am not sure has been fully considered by LC'ers. It's my theory that one of the reasons Atkins works is because it forces people to eat a lot of fresh whole food. It forces people to wean themselves from pre-packaged and manufactured foods. Basically, it makes people go back to eat an approximation of how things were 50 years ago. I think that's where a lot of the health benefits of Atkins come from.

I suspect that many of those benefits will evaporate once the full Snackwellization (great word that!) of LC food will have taken place.

Yeah I'm not sure if all these companies jumping on the bandwagon is going to be a good thing or not. Probably the only positive aspect of it will be getting the "mainstream public" a bit more aware. I think the whole world is finally waking up to the fact that we're killing ourselves through what we eat.

Natural and unpackaged is definitely the way to go, but it'll be nice to have some choices like may be offered for travelling purposes. That's the one time I definitely find it hard to stay LC.

Around here we have two "fast food" chains that do low-carb food. El Pollo Loco has the greatest grilled chicken and In and Out burgers does a protein burger. They wrap the meat, cheese, and tomatoes in lettuces leaves (you can still pick it up to eat it like a sandwich). These are very popular are here with low calorie dieters as well as low carbers.