Chipotle Is Even Less Healthy Than McDonald's

"Real, high-quality food prepared using time-honored cooking methods". That's how the nutrition information sheet from burrito chain Chipotle begins. Surely this McDonald's Mexican fast-casual spinoff offers healthier food than its golden arched parent company, right? If your metric is calories and fat, the answer is no.

Chipotle's nutrition information sheet lists each ingredient they offer and the nutrition information for each. No individual item goes over 490 calories or 19g of fat. But, you don't order just one ingredient at Chipotle. You order them together into one of their many burrito or taco offerings.

Let's see: 1 13" flour tortilla, some rice, black beans, carnitas (pork), red tomatillo salsa, and some cheese and sour cream. Can't be all that bad, can it? Not unless you consider 1,195 calories and 42 grams of fat bad. Add some guacamole and switch the tomatillo salsa with corn salsa, and you're talking 1,437 calories and 57 grams of fat.

Compare that with the following Mickey D options, from their nutrition sheet:

• Big Mac: 560 calories, 30 grams of fat
• Grilled Chicken Club: 590 calories, 22 grams of fat
• Sausage Biscuit with Egg: 500 calories, 31 grams of fat
• Big N' Tasty with Cheese: 520 calories, 26 grams of fat
• Crispy Chicken Ranch BLT: 580 calories, 20 grams of fat

I was hard pressed to find a single item on the McDonald's menu that topped 1000 calories (yes, they do exist).

I'm not claiming that either McDonald's or Chipotle is falsely claiming they offer health food. And, I do recognize that the quality of the food does count for something (healthy fats, no preservatives, etc.).

That said, Chipotle is trying to brand itself as a fresh-Mex alternative to typical fast food, with a bent towards food quality. Contrast that with their food offerings and you quickly realize that fresh-Mex does not equal healthy (or even healthier) alternatives to fast food.

Tim Eyman Stands Up For The Discriminators

Anti-tax activist Tim Eyman is at it again. This time, he's filing an initiative and referendum aimed to repeal the gay rights bill passed by the Washington legislature last Friday.

Quote from the article:

"Politicians are deciding based on special interest group pressure and their own reelection calculations," Eyman said in a statement emailed to reporters. "The voters have watched this disgusting display of arrogance and selfishness for weeks."

I don't think this is the case. I think our elected representatives voted more or less in representation of their constituency. If you look at the Senate vote, for example, it wasn't a blow-out (25 yeas versus 23 nays).

Why is Tim Eyman striving to undo an act of our elected officials that aims to reduce discrimination?

The bill passed last week makes it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation, in such key areas as housing, education, and employment. This adds to existing law that bans discrimination based on sex, race, religion, marital status, and disability, among other categories.

You may have moral or religious opposition to the concept of homosexuality, and I respect someone's right to have those beliefs. But do you really want to live in a state (or country) where gays can't hold the same job straight folks can, or where gays can't get schooled the same way straight kids can, or where gays can't buy or rent the same homes that straight couples can?

There was this declaration that we made not too long ago. Part of it reads:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Does Tim really aim to prevent someone with the opportunities for these pursuits, simply based on the orientation of their sexuality?

Seattle Rain

They say it doesn't rain all that much in Seattle. The coming week doesn't really support that argument.



And then people wonder why we're the coffee capital of the U.S. Trust me, you need chemical enhancements to brighten your day if you're faced with this weather for a season or two.

Fastr: A Flickr Game

Fastr is a fun little game based on Flickr. 10 images appear, one after the other. The images are all tagged with the same Flickr tag. Your task is to guess what that tag is, simply by looking at the pictures and seeing what ties them together. If you guess the tag correctly, you get points. The faster you guess, the more points you get. Simple, right?

I've found the game to be a fun way to browse images on flickr that I would otherwise have never seen.

Mole & Thomas Perspective Photography

I ran across this web page today and did a double take. What I first thought to be early 20th-century World War I paintings turned out to be very interesting perspective photographs.

The recipe: take 10,000-30,000 men in uniform. Arrange them standing up in a way that will produce an interesting logo, shape, or phrase when viewed from a point several stories up in the air. Take a photograph from that point. Repeat.

The perspective effect is especially noticeable in the Living Statue of Liberty photograph. Compare the size of the people at the base of the statue versus the torch. You can clearly heads, torsos, arms, legs, and feet for those people. As your eyes move up the statue, however, the people shrink down to mere dots.

The Day That Didn't Break The Record

Yesterday, Sunday, January 15, 2006, it didn't rain. This means our 27 day rain streak is over. Worse, today begins a new wave of rain.

So, Seattle continues to get rained on, yet doesn't have the pleasure of at least breaking a record while at it.

The kicker: last night around 9pm, we were on I-5 south going towards the city. I noticed several rain drops on my windshield, and they were not from the cars ahead. "Rain!", I exclaimed. "Glad to see our streak is still going." Not so; according to co-workers, the rain gauge is in Sea-Tac, not Seattle. What's up with that? At least measure the rain that falls in Seattle when you talk about a Seattle rain streak.

To all of this I hurumph and go back to watching the rain fall...

Wal-Mart Takes Over World

On MSN today, the following headline was posted. Gosh, I figured it was coming sooner or later, but I didn't expect it to sneak up on us like this.

Happy Blogiversary To Me

Hey, it's been one year since I first posted on this blog. Wow, time flies! Here's to another year of random rants and comments.

Hey, Jackson High School, Kilts Are Clothing Too!

This article reports a student, Nathan Warmack, at Jackson High School wore a kilt, dress shirt, and tie to a school dance. Good for him, right? Being all proud of his Scottish heritage? Then, he was told by his principal to change into pants.

Whaaa??

Fortunately, the Superintendent has formally apologized for the humiliating reprimand. Let this be a lesson, Jackson High - kilts are clothing too.

Hey Nathan, Tartan Day is coming up soon (April 6). Make sure you wear that kilt to school.

Greek Earthquake, 6.9, Does Little Damage

And fortunately so. This article sums it up best. A few injuries and some old buildings took some hits (no, not the Parthenon) but otherwise nothing major happened. I spoke to my parents today, who spoke to friends in Athens. They said they definitely felt the shaking but nothing more than that. Good news, as Greece is not a stranger to quakes (note the 1999 quake, smaller in magnitude but bigger in terms of damage).

Starbucks Short Cappuccino

If you're forced by your friends and neighbors to go to Starbucks (there are many better options, you know), then you at least have the option of ordering a short cappuccino, latte, or coffee. Slate claims that the short cap tastes better because it has less milk and froth, and is cheaper to boot. I tend to agree that a smaller size cappuccino is a better option overall, though a "bolder" taste from a coffee chain that typically pushes the darker (some say burnt) roast side of the spectrum doesn't really appeal to me that much.

Rainy Seattle

Funny joke? No, it really has been raining quite a bit in Seattle this past week or so. Usually the winter time brings drizzle in the city and snow in the mountains. It's been raining pretty hard lately, and it's been warmer than usual. According to this article, it's rained over a third of an inch for the past 10 days. This has led to landslides and a rising snow level (yesterday reported at 5,000 feet on King 5).

That doesn't bode well for the slopes. Ironically, last year it was the lack of precipitation that led to a short season. Now, they're getting it, but unfortunately not in a powdery white form.

Dalton, Georgia Featured On Marketplace Radio Program

Today, the business and economy radio program Marketplace featured a story about bilingual teachers in Dalton, Georgia. I happened to catch the story while driving home from work today.

I was surprised to hear a report on my home town, as Dalton is not that big (the population hovers around 30,000). I was also pleased to hear the insights the report provided into both the challenge in providing a quality education to the Spanish-speaking population, and the opportunity that exists to leverage the local Latino population in order to provide this education.

Kudos to the Marketplace team!