As Work Forest students, we are all too familiar with the race against time. We rush to get to class, hurry to make it to club meetings and stay up late, risking precious sleep hours, in order to complete our school assignments. With all the hustle and bustle necessary to make ends meet in our time constrained lives, sometimes aspects of our life, such as nutrition, fall by the wayside. I all too often find myself snacking on easily accessible Chick-Fil-A, McDonald's or Arby's instead of healthier food options. I've really tried to keep a better diet by buying vegetables and recipe ingredients at the grocery store but, to be honest, fast food is just a lot easier (and yummy!) I have researched the most popular meals at each of the favorite fast food restaurants along with their respective nutritional information in the hopes that all of you fellow fast food junkies will at least be able to choose the least harmful of these greasy evils.

McDonald's: A popular meal at McDonald's is the quarter pounder with cheese combo, which comes complete with fries and a carbonated beverage. This meal contains 1100 calories with 400 of those coming from fat. There are 45 grams of fat which amounts to 69% of a normal consumer's daily fat.

Burger King: Everyone loves the Whopper, the quintessential sandwich of Burger King. The Whopper meal (which also includes fries and a carbonated beverage) comes in slightly more caloric than the competing Quarter Pounder as it contains 1110 calories. However, it boasts 62 grams of fat, which is over 10 more than the similar McDonald's meal. This is 95% of your daily fat!

Taco Bell: Yo quiero Taco Bell, specifically, three soft beef tacos. Three delicious tacos rack up 620 calories and 28 grams of fat, a very respectable number considering how filling these are. Another favorite, the Crunchwrap Supreme, has 540 calories and 21 grams of fat each. Therefore, if given the choice at this restaurante delicioso, soft tacos are definitely the way to go.

Arby's: One of the most popular meals at Arby's is the Beef 'N' Cheddar combination. This includes a sandwich, curly fries or potato cakes and a carbonated beverage, adding up to 1230 calories and 48 grams of fat. Interestingly enough, the choice of potato cakes or curly fries is negligible as a medium serving of each only varies by 20 calories.

Chick-Fil-A: Chick-Fil-A is perhaps the most common fast food restaurant for Wakestudent.com readers as it is conveniently located in Benson. The popular Chick-fil-a Chicken Sandwich racks in a nice 400 calories. The entire meal in itself, which includes waffle fries and a carbonated beverage, earns a solid 950 calories with 34 grams of fat.

Now, perhaps this article did more bad then good. I, in no way, am discouraging the consumption of fast food meals. I just hope to provide information so that those of us who do choose to indulge in greasy deliciousness are able to at least choose the healthiest of the unhealthy.
All of the aforementioned meals are "medium" in reference to fries and drink size. Based on the information above, it seems that Taco Bell soft tacos are by far the best option in reference to calories and fat content. The Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich meal comes in at a solid second place, with less calories and fat per meal than Arby's, McDonald's and Burger King. Burger King and McDonald's tie for last place. While McDonald's has more calories, Burger King's Whopper meal boasts a very impressive 62 grams of fat.

Overall, it is blatantly obvious that fast food is horrible for you. Nutritionally, it is just not a good choice. However, in the fast paced, high pressure society of Wake Forest sometimes there isn't time to cook a well-balanced, nutritional meal. And, besides, it is just so delicious.